When I was a teenager, I used to visit my grandparents in Florida for Spring Break. We would go out to dinner frequently and my grandmother would bring an extra large bag. She would put rolls, crackers, breadsticks in the bag every time. Each restaurant would see it and then just refill the basket without a comment. Then one year, there were no more bread baskets. Too many grandmas with too many extra large bags. You could have your bread, but you had to ask and then you only got one at a time. My grandmother got the hint and still brought a bag, just not as big.
The idea of going the extra mile, overdelivering, the customer is always right, is deeply engrained in our culture. When the extra anything is as undefined as it often is in creative business, it inevitably leads to going further than is sustainable. So hate the game, do not hate the player.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a client asking for more than they contracted for and even being persuasive about it. In fact, that is their job — to get the most they can from you, your art and your creative business. What is wrong is a creative business owner’s willingness to either accede to the request and/or be resentful for doing it if it means going further than is sustainable. As with all things, the line is for you to set, communicate clearly and often and then live to religiously. And if you find yourself going further than you are comfortable, stop. Just because you went too far does not mean you have to live there.
To use a very graphic (and hopefully indelible) example, if your dog pees on your rug and you do not say anything, it does not mean you have to live with the dog continuously doing it. What it does mean is that you have to decide to say no and then do the work of correcting the behavior. No, clients are not dogs, but they sure can act like them.
Absolutely nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to payment. If your creative business is due money and you either are late to bill it and/or slack to collect it, you must realize that you are destroying your credibility. Regardless of whether the payment is connected to delivery of true value or not (and it definitely should be), failure to collect payments when due is a reflection of immaturity and disrespect of your creative business. Leave the money lending business to lenders, you are due what you are due when you are due it, end of story. If not paid, stop working. Yes, stop working. Whether the wedding is in two weeks, install a week, or final delivery scheduled for tomorrow, not your problem. Make any excuse you want to argue with me and it will not play. Here is why: the air you breathe in your creative business is not free. If you perform for a client, they have to pay for the air. Nobody put a gun to their head to hire you and since it was their choice, it is also their choice to honor their obligations as much as you must perform for them. That is mutual respect.
I can hear the chorus of “that is so harsh”, “just not the way it works in the real world”, “what is the big deal?” See above – a client not paying is peeing on your rug and you are saying it is ok each and every day that goes by. Moreover, every day that goes by value and process get destroyed without payment. This means that every day that goes by without payment is a day that you give more and more of your power to your client, right up until the time when they force you to choose between your ego as an artist and your future as a business. Finish the work because you need to see it through or stop because you have not been paid to go on. Me? I am on the beach without another thought.
It all comes back to the idea of integrity, communication and respect. Overdelivering still requires a boundary. Great service is giving what is nourishing for all involved — you and your creative business and your client. That is creative business’ axiom — win-win is the only structure that matters. However, what winning looks like is entirely up to you. Do the work and be forthright in how far you are willing to go and why.
