[tptacek]

1000x this; this is what I think about every time I see one of those HN front-page posts where a designer has replaced someone's website with a complaint about non-payment.†

Anyone on HN who hasn't consulted/freelanced for a year probably does not understand that 6-9 month payment delays aren't even unusual.

This is, by the way, all the more reason not to count on returns from consulting sold to startups with less than a year's runway in the bank.

† We occasionally buy design services. We pay _promptly_ (professional services courtesy). But I would never work with someone who had outed a customer for non-payment that way.

[rebelidealist]

Wow, I cannot believe how you guys are so accepting of MONTHS of delays in payment.

It happens often, but it is a serious unprofessional offense that not be taken lightly.

Your and your coworkers life are disrupted by cash flow issues. It is an insult to you and your coworker's hard work.

Moreover, this is detrimental to our entire high tech consulting industry. We cannot make this acceptable behavior for clients. They need to see there are real consequences for delayed or nonpayment.

[tptacek]

One good reason to accept MONTHS of delays and "serious unprofessional offenses" like this is that the delays are often part of the cost of working with the best, most lucrative clients.

If you want to constrain your consulting business to clients who will look you in the eyes, shake your hands, give you their word that you'll be paid 14 days after invoicing, and then keep that word, that's fine, but it's not a revenue-maximizing strategy, nor is it necessarily the strategy that will leave you with the most hair and the lowest blood pressure.

Not losing your shit over hiccups that are a natural part of the lifecycle of a serious customer is part of the distinction between a 1-2 person freelance-company-in-website-only and a 20-50 person consulting company. There's romance in working at the 1-2 person freelance shop, but I'd like to retire someday, so I choose not to freak out over accounts receivable.