Client response times

[Gavster]

Client A literally couldn't give a fuck as long as the work is being done. They respond to questions either immediately or never with one-word answers. They do not want to review or approve anything, they do not want to be involved in decision making, they leave us to do whatever the hell, as long as our outputs are improving each month, and it's great.

Client B will take two to four weeks to review a single video or answer a simple question. I began working with them in APRIL to produce 3 x 60 second videos and we've still not finished the final one yet. One video takes me about four hours of total labour, so I've been hoping to send the final invoices since May

Lord send me more client A's please

[GG.]

Bill your WIP quarterly!

You might get quicker responses!

[Gavster]

That would make some sense with this client. My standard procedure is 50% up-front and 50% on completion for brand deals (Client B) because those kinds of deals usually take 1 to 2 months max. I've never had such massive amounts of delibration.

Client A on the other hand is on a monthly retainer and they pay my invoice upon receipt, I've got them well trained

[Jobbo]

Bill your WIP quarterly!

You might get quicker responses!

Knights’ policy is to bill it monthly

[Gavster]

From my understanding the HMRC suggestion is to bill for work undertaken in the month it was carried out, so monthly makes a lot of sense.

Businesses generally seem to be good at paying, on the other hand, the biggest assholes for paying have been NHS, City University and WWF. All these organisations which pretend to help people take the longest to pay or have the most unreasonable terms.

[Jobbo]

Monthly is probably sensible for you Gav. For solicitors it’s not something most clients are used to - generally (for transactions) you bill on completion.

[GG.]

Yes that's right. Our asset management colleagues bill a lot of their clients monthly which makes sense as they're instructed on an ongoing basis for all sorts of day to day matters in addition to the fundraising.

We are not anywhere near as good in finance and often end up with chunky seven figure amounts of accrued time on the clock for 12 months work and then have to have the awkward conversations

[Holley]

Although client 'b's' can be annoying, they're also invaluable. If you only had client 'a's', where's the motivation to improve?

Very easy to become complacent if every transaction was easy.

I've also found from my own experience that my most challenging clients have been the ones that recommend me the most.

I don't want every client to be a 'b' but I do quite like a few of them as it's a chance for me to geek out

[Rich B]

fuck that - i’ll have easy clients all day long.

[Gavster]

My aim is to have zero clients so the easier the better

[jamcg]

From my understanding the HMRC suggestion is to bill for work undertaken in the month it was carried out, so monthly makes a lot of sense.

Businesses generally seem to be good at paying, on the other hand, the biggest assholes for paying have been NHS, City University and WWF. All these organisations which pretend to help people take the longest to pay or have the most unreasonable terms.

Don’t work for Tesco, they used to have a habit of not paying invoices until businesses go insolvent and paying the bare minimum to the administrators. Not sure if they still do it

[JonMad]

Only since April?
I long for a client B.

[Explosive Newt]

the biggest assholes for paying have been NHS, City University and WWF. All these organisations which pretend to help people take the longest to pay or have the most unreasonable terms.

Usually NHS finance is either a 21 year old graduate who doesn't give a shit and is about to leave or someone called Maureen who is in her mid fifties and only works 2 days a week. Oh and both work from home so you can never phone them. Pay peanuts, get monkeys I realise but it drives me up the wall as the admin sides of the NHS have been so pared back that they become the weakest links in the chain. DItto the university sector.

In both cases, the people who pay the bills are totally removed from the actual work of the place so are just there to process admin, and their salary and job satisfaction is entirely removed from the end result, so have no motivation at all.