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In as much as the work you're hired to do is important to an owner/customer, payment arrangements are no less important for someone in your sitution or for any small business owner, Cash is King ! Inspect your expect, and what I mean by that is to create certain terms up front, that work for you, so that it's clear in the end and fully meets your expectations. If that means creating a work order with your company's letterhead on it to be signed prior to starting any job, and also creating necessary legal, uniform business documents to insure there is a formal understanding between both parties, so be it, especially with people you don't really know well, and yes sometimes friends can bite too. This is one of those things to be done up front for good reason. I hate chasing money as well and don't appreciate a customer playing dumb about the terms of the agreement or trying to strongarm you about something to do with the work, using it as an excuse to not pay, if you do good work, within a agreed period of time, to the customers satisfaction, there is no legitimate reason to not get paid. Similarly, I currently pay the bills via my small, but long established company, usually just me on the payroll, and for any contracting work it is made abundantly clear that when the work is complete and accepted, full payment is expected, period. Large material orders I give the customer the option to pay direct up front and I will still pick up and deliver, sometimes I'll cover the costs of handling in labor or another line item within the job, it helps sell jobs because of the savings. If I purchase the materials and deliver same, there will be mark up and shipping charges to cover the costs as well as some profit included, but not excessive or undeserved. I make it clear that once the materials are delivered to the site, payment is expected upon delivery. Unknown customers are required to sign a standard subcontract agreement with a defined scope of work inlcuding any special or particular payment arrangements, for most of my regular customers this is not necessary, they pay on time and are trusted, just like they trust me to do good work. If one was to be critical of what your are doing currently, it would probably be about your business policy with customers. I would think about it and see what you can do to improve future situations with customers, especially if you are bringing in tractors to the shop for work to be done, you may just want to create a work order and specify a policy that customers won't balk at, yet will serve your interest by stating the payment terms, and any other details to be made clear when you are hired and agree to perform repair work. It's that simple, you ring the bell loud and clear up front. Some people are difficult no matter what, and whether they've signed a work order or not, being that it is an informal business you have going there, some people will just outright take advantage of this because of it's appearance, that is why you need to appear to be less informal and instill a real seriousness of your business terms in the minds of customers UP FRONT, regardless of what your place looks like, where it's located or how you conduct it. They certainly are not thinking about what pays your bills when they hire you if they don't take you serious enough and understand what your expectations are at the beginning and agree to it knowing what you expect when you are done.
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