calculated risk is what we're doing when we take these projects on. Not going in,
shouldering 100% of the risk and supplying all the materials and then keeping our fingers crossed
that they pay, that's not a good strategy guys. At what point do you give up on a
customer where you've sent the booking deposit, they've seemed really keen and happy for you to
do the job. So you've sent, you've booked it in, sent over the booking deposit but now they've
ghosted you and they're ignoring you when you've sent the booking deposit and I said well that's
why the booking deposit protection is there because it's all well and good being nice face on face value,
being all nicey nice and yeah we'd love you to do the job Stuart, we can't wait for you to do the job
and see you know see you next month okay here's the booking deposit payment please. Now if they
suddenly change their approach and change how they're behaving with you that tells you there's a
problem here. Now the first problem is they forgot which is completely human and we all forget to do
things every day so that's forgivable isn't it they forgot okay send them a reminder. How do we know
that they're receiving the invoices and the booking deposit invoice? Easy your trade base tells you that
they've received it and opened it so in Damien's case they were saying I'm sorry Damien we haven't
received it we haven't received the email yet which we know is bs because it tells us that reddit opened it
and read it so now we know from our side there's a problem there's some lies are happening now okay
so what's happening have they got cash flow problems are they trying to secure another contractor so they
give us the green light to do the job but now in the background they're continuing to price shop
and trying to get someone cheaper or someone to do the job faster
could it be innocent where they've opened the email skim read it i forgot about it again if we're
going to guess we should guess you know guess positive i suppose and give them the benefit of
the doubt things like that however if this goes on guys where you're sending them the invoice and
they're not coming back and paying you're in a danger zone oh we didn't get the invoice we'll pay it next
week and all this they're not respecting your payment terms and your boundaries that you've put in place
if they don't show respect on the booking deposit or they haven't got the money and this goes on and
on for a number of days what i said to Damien is give him one give them one more final chance
if them a deadline because your invoices as well guys should be marked due on receipt
so as soon as they get the invoice they have to pay that day so the next morning at 8am you could
in your rights send another email saying hi mrs smith um unfortunately um the invoice was due to be paid
yesterday and we noticed that it hasn't been paid and in order to secure your project into our works
calendar we will need payment of the booking deposit by close of business today please
okay that's polite professional you're not pressurizing the customer but what you're doing
is you're reminding them and referring back to your agreement and terms that you've presented
um at this point if they say oh really sorry about that and they pay straight away sorry about that we've
we forgot that's fine but if it goes on for a week of oh yeah we didn't get the we didn't get the email
you know um we'll pay next week then then you can say listen um next week's not going to work for me
because the payment terms are clear and no we need the booking deposit now basically you say that in a
professional diplomatic way on email we're trying to protect ourselves um against these people we know
that most customers are salt all the earth we know that most customers have no we have no problems
but if there's problems on the booking deposit and it's ongoing it's not just a simple mistake or they
forgot if there's problems on the booking deposit where they're ignoring you over and over again
you've got to be careful what's going on here um keep your guard up and stand your ground stand
behind your payment terms don't let them pull the wall over your eyes and say oh yeah it'll be monday
it'll be tuesday i'll pay you wednesday because this is a trick that builders and contractors use
um on the self-employed man the small man to um scam him basically they get him to do the job and they
either pay months and months late or they don't pay at all might sound a bit dramatic but you only have
to speak to half a dozen self-employed clusters and they'll tell you that they've been ripped off um
and this is how you stop it from happening so keep that in mind guys when you um putting in your booking
deposits and make sure that your terms fully include um how you expect to be paid when how much