How to Deal with People That Won’t Pay You for Services Rendered

I wanted to take a moment to re-visit the topic of working for free or for people that won't pay us. 

This is worse than being undercharged because it has a lot of spiritual implications.

According to the laws of the universe whatever energy goes out must come back to us. So there's a constant flow of energy to and fro.

When we work, we’re expanding (giving) energy. Money is energy so when people give us money for work done they're replenishing our energy.

But when you work for free or for people that just won’t pay you, the flow of energy is one way, you're not getting any energy back so you lose energy and you're not being replenished.

This means the cells in your body (and your spirit) are just giving and it’s one sided.

And since you’re not being replenished, you’ll soon get run down and start feeling tired and emotionally drained, which leads to burnout.

So how can you deal with clients that won’t pay for your services?

1. People that can’t afford your services or products but need them

My advice in this case is to find a way to gift those services as a donation and find a way to have high end clients pay for them by diverting a portion of revenues to these clients or customers.

2. Clients who won’t pay on time or who you doubt will pay

You can ask all customers and clients to pay upfront or at least pay a certain percentage upfront.

Another alternative is to do sliding scale charging where clients or customers get to pay what they can afford. So you give them the option of paying between x price and y price.

These are just some examples of how to circumvent this but there are lots more creative ways I'm sure.

I leave you with a quote from a friend after her first business went bust, she shared this lesson with me: "Go where you are wanted, not needed."

Basically she was saying - go where people are willing to pay you. Not where you're needed.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.