{"id":17741,"date":"2022-07-06T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/?p=17741"},"modified":"2022-09-05T10:02:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T14:02:21","slug":"clients-who-pay-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/clients-who-pay-late\/","title":{"rendered":"Clients Who Pay Late"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"handsome<\/p>\n

We\u2019re continuing our series about common client challenges<\/a>. Lateness is an issue that might be showing up in all areas of a client\u2019s life, including coaching. We\u2019ve already addressed arriving<\/em> late, but what about paying<\/em> late?<\/p>\n

Hopefully, you\u2019ve set up payment systems ahead of time. Certainly, the coaching fee and when it gets paid is part of any upfront coaching agreement. For example, when I coach an individual who is paying out of their own pocket, they pay by the month, at the beginning of the month. Other clients pay in three- to six-month blocks at a time.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s a company paying, I\u2019m usually contracted and paid for the entire service upfront, for example, to coach one individual for twenty hours, or to implement a one-year coaching program.<\/p>\n

While your billing and payment strategy might be different between companies and individuals, late payments need to be addressed with both.<\/p>\n

Typically, my payment terms are that clients pay within thirty days of my invoicing them. That\u2019s pretty standard. If clients have not paid within the month, I\u2019d have to consider next steps.<\/p>\n

Late fees are one option. Another is to let the client know that we need to push the pause button on our coaching. \u201cLet\u2019s get this taken care of and then we can resume.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, I don\u2019t want to be out too much money, but the bigger issue is about how an outstanding payment could affect our coaching. It becomes that much more difficult to be present with the person and the situation they\u2019re bringing. It\u2019s hard to want<\/em> to help, to put your all into the work. It\u2019s also challenging to show up without a bias if you\u2019re coaching someone who\u2019s habitually late to pay.<\/p>\n

And like the other client challenges<\/a> we\u2019ve written about, you\u2019re probably not the only one your client is late to pay. Find out by asking, \u201cIs this usual for you? What impact is this having on your effectiveness, either as a leader or as an organization?\u201d<\/p>\n

You or your client may have questions or concerns about paying upfront. \u2018What if I pay upfront and then decide I don\u2019t want to continue?\u201d Your refund policy is definitely something to outline in your agreement. But keep in mind, this is an agreement. If things aren\u2019t working out, you both have a responsibility to get at what\u2019s going on here.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I always do a complimentary session. I am much more likely to pass on a client than to take somebody on because I want to make sure they\u2019re a good fit.<\/p>\n

If at all possible, get paid upfront. Then it\u2019s done. You don\u2019t want to have to think about money as you\u2019re coaching. But if your client is late to pay, don\u2019t let it go on. Have a conversation about it\u2014the sooner, the better. Even if it feels awkward. And it probably will, because conversations about money often do.<\/p>\n

This is about valuing yourself and the services you\u2019ve provided. You\u2019ve shown up, you\u2019ve coached your best, and you should be paid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve shown up, you\u2019ve coached your best, and you should be paid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[237],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-04-25 16:06:43","action":"Draft","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17741"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17803,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741\/revisions\/17803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coaching4clergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}