Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[House of Usher]

On the contrary - football is so universal that it's a wonderful ice-breaker. It's inherently geographical so when someone says they're from Brighton you can go, "oh, we just sold Craig Noone to you lot" for example.

I'm from Brighton. I've never heard of Craig no-one. My contribution to the conversation would be limited to "no, sorry, I don't follow sport." It's not as universal as all that, really.

[exilewood]

Growing up - I had no interest whatsoever in football, or any sport. But I had a 'Road to Damascus' moment 20-odd years ago, and now understand the beauty,comedy,tradgedy, poetry & art that is found in sport. And in no other sport is that beauty, poetry & art better exspressed than in football. In particular, the football playing of Arsenal FC.

[JOE SOAP]

I prefer darts, a man's sport.

[TordelBack]

I've never heard of Craig no-one.

Hey, wouldn't it be good if he was Captain, though?  Imagine the Nautilus pulling up at the Pier!

[Banners]

As for the debt thingy - I've never run a business, but the way people can get away with not paying for stuff never ceases to amaze me. Someone is trying to get a private members bill through to make 30 days payment terms legally enforceable, but apparently its got very little chance in the face of the business lobby,.

This is an issue close to my heart, but legislation is unworkable because when a client is late in paying, one is far too worried about making a fuss and losing them. You are entitled, by law, to charge late payment interest but I never have.

Annoyingly, one of the first things you're taught when setting up a business is to pay your bills late. Effectively, you're getting interest-free credit, so the general principle is to use it for as long as you can get away with.

Annoyingly, it seems it's always the jobs that you have to rush through to meet a deadline that are the longest to get paid. They expect you to design and print a 20 page brochure in an afternoon, but the simple process of sending a cheque takes them three months.

We're currently waiting on payment from a restaurant for whom we designed and printed their menus. I am very tempted to go there, have a slap-up meal and loads of booze, and then when I'm presented with the bill, walk out and tell them I'll pay when I get around to it. Of course, I really don't have the balls...

If I walked out of Tesco without paying for a 10p tin of beans, I'd get arrested. If a client doesn't pay a bill for several thousand pounds on time - leading to cashflow problems, bank charges perhaps, and, sometimes, personal hardship - then nothing happens. It's a shame, but just the nature of things...

M@

[Banners]

I've never heard of Craig no-one.

Hey, wouldn't it be good if he was Captain, though?  Imagine the Nautilus pulling up at the Pier!

He was captain at Plymouth Argyle for a while, though sadly Plymouth doesn't have a pier(!)

M@

[TordelBack]

The awful part of clients not paying is that I am frequently left unable to pay my own suppliers on time, particularly since the bank will no longer extend us any kind of credit.  I therefore spend half of my days apologising on the phone to angry people, then the other half being that angry person listen to vacuous apologies.  Somewhere in between I'm supposed to be earning a living.  The only persons profiting in this exchange are Mr. Jameson and Mr. Power, who are now required to get me to sleep.

[Peter Wolf]

I always find the best way to protect yourself is by covering yourself with your paperwork and the wording in it has to be absolutely correct and by making sure that the client has nothing to complain about in terms of what they are paying for.

I have no time for people who take the piss or who think that they can get away with what amounts to theft of my time and who think that they can abuse my trust i have in them and my goodwill and if they are having problems financially i would much rather they were upfront about it so everyone concerned knows what is going on and wether anything can be worked out as i am prepared to be reasonable as all i ask is for them to be straight about it.

If not then they will face the consequences of their dishonesty and i am prepared to intimidate them and do all sorts of things to make sure they pay up and i find one way in particular is to relentlessly hassle them and to call them up repeatedly and even go and see them at home and that type of thing.

People will only take the piss if you allow them to do so.

[TordelBack]

If not then they will face the consequences of their dishonesty and i am prepared to intimidate them and do all sorts of things to make sure they pay up and i find one way in particular is to relentlessly hassle them and to call them up repeatedly and even go and see them at home and that type of thing.

We're way past that stage, I can assure you.   

[Peter Wolf]

If not then they will face the consequences of their dishonesty and i am prepared to intimidate them and do all sorts of things to make sure they pay up and i find one way in particular is to relentlessly hassle them and to call them up repeatedly and even go and see them at home and that type of thing.

We're way past that stage, I can assure you.   

I dont know the details so i cant comment.

There was an instance where i was owed cash by someone who was trying to avoid paying.It wasnt very much as it was in the hundreds or 500 to be exact so after some gentle persuasion i went with them to the cashpoint as there are only so many unanswered calls and excuses i will tolerate.

[Jim_Campbell]

If not then they will face the consequences of their dishonesty and i am prepared to intimidate them and do all sorts of things to make sure they pay up and i find one way in particular is to relentlessly hassle them and to call them up repeatedly and even go and see them at home and that type of thing.

Am I to assume that repeat business is not a major concern for you?

Cheers

Jim

[Peter Wolf]

If not then they will face the consequences of their dishonesty and i am prepared to intimidate them and do all sorts of things to make sure they pay up and i find one way in particular is to relentlessly hassle them and to call them up repeatedly and even go and see them at home and that type of thing.

Am I to assume that repeat business is not a major concern for you?

Cheers

Jim

I dont want any repeat business from anyone who isnt prepared to pay up within a reasonable time and who isnt prepared to be honest and straightforward.

You make it sound like i am in the wrong here where all i want is to do the work to the best of my abilities so that everything is 100 percent and be paid for it promptly and without any nonsense.

Its not alright for the client to take liberties any more than its alright for myself to offer substandard work expecting to be paid for it.

[Kerrin]

...Minor impedimentally, I'm 40 today. I'm taking the extremely grown up view of seeing it as a very very good excuse for a massive piss up.

I think I may go a watch Horsham play this afternoon and start the alchohol abuse early. Anything to shake the creeping dread of my own mortality. 

[Jim_Campbell]

You make it sound like i am in the wrong here where all i want is to do the work to the best of my abilities so that everything is 100 percent and be paid for it promptly and without any nonsense.

As is your right.

My work is drawn from a very small pool of potential employers, so repeat business is essential to me. It's as important to me that I know I have more work coming as it is to get paid for the jobs currently undertaken, so I have to be very diplomatic when undertaking credit control. Doubly so when you consider that editors from different publishers talk to each other, and often move between companies. A reputation -- deserved or not -- for being "difficult" will follow you around and prove very hard to shake.

Your business can clearly survive a rather more robust attitude to payment than mine, which would be eviscerated if I did much more than issue intermittent polite reminders that occasionally border on the reproachful!

Cheers

Jim

[TordelBack]

I think I may go a watch Horsham play this afternoon

Haven't we made it cleat that your kind aren't welcome here?

Happy birthday Kerrin, a mature approach!  

(My own 40th looms this year and I'm starting to wish I'd just gone to Carousel when the time came).