• Business Size: Freelancer
• Location: Bristol
• Experience: 10 years self-employed
• Impact: Emma often struggles with clients delaying payments, which leaves her unable to pay for essential software subscriptions. This has resulted in missed deadlines and reputational damage.
“I’ve been running my graphic design business for 10 years now. When I started, I knew there’d be ups and downs, but I wasn’t prepared for how often clients would delay payments. One particular job stands out: I created a complete rebranding package for a small tech startup. The project took weeks of late nights, revisions, and back-and-forth calls. They loved the final product but took three months to pay the invoice. That’s 90 days of me chasing them while juggling other projects.
I rely on regular payments to keep my software subscriptions running and cover everyday expenses. When a big invoice doesn’t come through, it throws everything off. In this case, I couldn’t renew my Adobe subscription, which meant I had to temporarily use free software that wasn’t up to the task. This led to delays with other clients, and one even left a poor review about missed deadlines.
It’s not just about the money—it’s the stress and lost time chasing payments. It’s awkward, too, because you don’t want to sour relationships. I now ask for 50% upfront, but even then, some clients stretch the final payment for as long as they can. Late payments make an already unpredictable job feel impossible to manage at times. I love what I do, but I wish clients understood the impact of their delays.”