It has been about 15 years in the business of software development for me and yet I am still not able to fathom this basic question..
Why do most clients have the privilege not to pay in time while supplier/vendors are expected to deliver on time. ??
Now those in business will always say you must to a client audit and ensure that you do work only for clients who pay on time..ask for a 100% advance... C'mon give me a break, I am sure all of us have clients who still don't pay on time and we continue to service them in fear of loosing business.
Of course the excuses they give for not paying on time is even better like
"I made the payment but I don't know why the bank has not processed it"
"I will make the payment within 24 hours"
"My Accountant is out of station and the payment could not be processed"
"It will sent by the beginning of next week"
One of my best ones being 'silence' and no correspondence from the client at all, suddenly out of the blue his email has gone kaput or he is out of town. Oh, of course the much used excuse in recent times.. "I have not been paid so I cant pay you ..." ...... hey who gives a sh#@# whether you have been paid or not , we need to be paid, we also have a business to run.
As the grey hair increase on my head I look at these clients with disdain and a certain amount of disgust but have enough of a sense of humour to laugh at their pathetic excuses. They just use the vendors / suppliers money either to increase their cash flow or fund their so called business initiative. It is the vendor / supplier who should take credit for running his business. These "late payment as a strategy" clients just have no shame.. yes I know this is business but business is based on 'respect for money and who it is owed to & owned by'.
Of course to be fair we have also had clients who hired us for our programming services and have paid on time every time but they have been to few & far between. God Bless them :-). They ensure some credibility of this industry.
Compared to the state of payments for our programming services, I love it when customers buy our software product USB CopyNotify! instead, they have to pay in FULL for it before they can use the full version. What a feeling it is..being paid up front , on time for good work done. It makes all the effort worth it.
