They Teach You A Lesson, But Small Claims Court Could Teach Them Back

Some years ago, I quit my office job to be a stay-at-home mom and started a small home-based business doing freelance graphic design work. It had been a few weeks of having my website and Facebook page up and running and putting out ads when I got my first client. She wanted a simple logo created, as well as business cards designed for her herbal wellness business. I quoted her a very low price, mostly because I was excited to have a first client and I wanted to be nice. She loved the price and said that it was very reasonable and I was hired! I completed the job, she was thrilled with what I did, she paid on time, and all was well.

Over the next year, I ended up with many more design jobs for other clients and was keeping fairly busy doing it part-time while still being a mom. About a year after that first job, the same lady contacted me again. This time, she wanted some custom stickers designed, a brochure/pamphlet, and more business cards for her new colleagues. Design and printing for it all came to a nice sum of several hundred dollars. I sent her a detailed quote, which also stated that all was to be paid upon delivery of the printed items. She agreed, and I began the job.

Several weeks later, I had everything done and made an appointment to meet the client to deliver the stickers, brochures, and cards. I also sent her the invoice for the job and nicely reminded her that I needed payment at the time I gave her the items. She agreed.

She showed up and happily took all the items, but she had this sob story about how her vehicle had suddenly broken down that morning and she couldn’t pay me until her next paycheck in a week. I was still a bit naive, so I said it was fine and that she could pay me then. I’m sure you all know where this is going.

A week later, I reached out for payment and she never responded. Another week passed, and I emailed the invoice again and requested payment. Nothing. The third time I reached out, she had another excuse about how she couldn’t pay and needed more time. Again, naive me, thinking everyone in the world is as honest as I am, decided to give her the benefit of a doubt.

More weeks passed, and no response again. Blah, blah, blah, several months passed, and I finally realized that I was never going to get paid and decided to chalk it up to a lesson learned! From here on out, if someone can’t pay, they don’t get their design files or physical products! I should have known this already, I know, but like I said, I was naive. Oh, well…

Fast forward another six months. She contacted me, raving about how much she and her colleagues loved my work and how professional it looked. She asked if I would please design and print some postcard-sized ads for them to mail out to their clients to let them know of an upcoming sale event. I was surprised, to say the least.

I made up a quote for what she asked for but also included in the quote the amount she still owed me for the previous job, stipulating that the previous amount needed to be paid, plus I would need to be paid upfront for this job before I would consider doing it. I was very nice and diplomatic about it — no snark or anything.

Cue the tantrum! She was livid! How dare I demand to be paid upfront?! How could I put that previous amount owed onto the quote?! She ranted and raved about how she didn’t have the funds to pay for that previous job and I needed to get over it. She said I owed her this new project done, no matter what, because she was my first client and my whole business was built on her projects and her sharing me by word of mouth! (Her projects totaled maybe a fiftieth of what I had made total from the business; plus, I had never gotten any new clients that heard about me from her.)

After several paragraphs of her rabid ravings about how ungrateful I was and how she couldn’t believe I would do this, I couldn’t do anything but laugh. I just responded that my quote total stood and that if she didn’t like it, she was welcome to seek out a new designer.

I wished her well and moved on. After another tantrum email response, I added her email address to my spam filter, blocked her on Facebook, blocked her phone number from my phone, and moved on in life, much wiser about who I do work for and how I get paid!