Beware! Bad habits become disastrous in a strained economy

A cautionary tale.

I worked with a group called ProDance from 2005-2008. When I took over the planning, ProDance had been an established annual conference since 2000 though they had NEVER made a profit. My first year they broke even, the second year they made a profit for the first time in the history of the event.

ProDance often paid late, and I spent a lot of time post event reminding them to pay invoices from properties and vendors who had 30 and 60 day late invoices. My payments as the planner were slow, late, and eventually never came from the 07 event until eventually; I had to fire my client in 2008.

“A client who does not pay on time has no respect or indicates poor business
practices”, said Andrea H. Gold, President Gold Stars Speakers Bureau. “Collections is serious business. Cash flow is your business. There are reasons for late pays, but make sure there are specific time lines in place, so you do get paid in a timely fashion”.

I of course made too many concessions with this client. I take full blame for letting them “slide” until they slid themselves right into the gutter. I knew better.

More Lessons learned from this experience:

1. Protect yourself as much as you can with your contracts, don’t ignore the signs of a bad client, get as much of your fees upfront, and then know when to FIRE a bad client. Sometimes it’s best just to cut your losses and move on.

2. Take care of your own brand. We as planners tend to immerse ourselves in our client events taking our eyes off our company brand.

3. Don’t penalize your next client. Not all clients are bad. Just like old relationships, don’t bring the baggage forward. “Cry you a river, build a bridge and get over it”

4. What we do as planners and coordinators is a valuable service and should not be reduced in importance.

Beware! Shady clients will be even shadier when economic conditions become challenging.