Hey all,

I’m the owner of a software development agency and we have a client that struggles to pay their bills. They give me a lot of business, but they’re slow to pay, primarily due to poor operations & cashflow on their end (considering they just laid off their one and only project manager, now the owner absorbed that role).

They’re 7 days late on an invoice that was net-30. This is a recurring issue. I started to slowly cut them off late this week – things took a little longer than they usually do. I’ve sent their invoice to their operations manager 7 times with QuickBooks showing they’ve looked at it 19 times. I also personally emailed the ops manager Monday. No response. The ops manager is the wife of the owner.

The owner came to me yesterday & today with a few “urgent” things, but I responded in a few hours instead of ASAP.

So today, in my responses explaining code, I included to the owner an invoice to the outstanding invoice. The owner sent me a note saying that made him feel uncomfortable, saying my communication had been lacking, they need things done urgently, and it doesn’t work for him that I don’t let him know urgently when things will be done. Emphasis on urgently. Oh, all while saying it’s typical for him to take a say to respond to things.

I responded to him saying it doesn’t work for me that he pays the invoice whenever they want, and I can commit to responding faster if they pay their invoices on time.

Honestly, I’m 26, only 3 years into this business full time, and it’s the first time I’ve stuck up for myself. I feel proud of myself but for some reason a little caught up in my head about it all. Is this normal practice to do, or at least I shouldn’t feel bad about it?

I sort of chalked it up to the saying “fuck you, pay me” but curious for your thoughts. Thanks!