Nothing personal, it's just business

While I regretted having to do so, today marked the day that I sent out my first Cease and Desist letter against a client.

I have been extremely blessed in my clients to-date, and I would like to think that I can attribute that to the fact I spent many years prior to becoming a freelancer working in the business world, so it's not necessarily my first rodeo when it comes to contracts, guidelines, and expectations between client and clientele. With that being said, I've been fairly confident on nearly every project I've walked into that my arse was covered by contracts and guidelines.

I issued a demand for payment on September 1st, giving them until September 4th to make payment in full. They did not. I gave them a few more days of leniency, just to give them the benefit of the doubt, but still...no dice. So, regretfully, I just sent off a Cease and Desist letter.

Nothing personal. It's just business.

That's what contracts are for. They protect both parties in the case of something going wrong. And no matter how professional you are, no matter how professional your clients are, at some point down the road you will come across situations where all that paperwork comes in handy. In my previous line of work I was proud to give people a warranty, because I knew I wouldn't have to go back and fix anything as a result of my labor, because I always do a good job. It's not arrogance, it's simply fact. I don't half-ass anything. If I enter into an agreement with someone then I will work to my utmost to insure that the quality of my work is above and beyond anything they could get from the competition. Why? Because I want repeat work, and I want word of mouth work, and that only happens by doing a good job.

However, sometimes things come up. One time I had spent a couple of weeks working on an outdoor kitchen patio and deck area for a restaurant owner in Greeley and two or three days after the installation the weather had turned nasty and it had rained heavy for two days and the temperature dropped below freezing. As a result a couple of pieces of slate along the edges of the balcony hadn't had a chance to dry properly and the water had penetrated through to the thinset and they had fallen off. It was a simple fix, and while technically it wasn't covered under my warranty (it wasn't a labor flaw or manufacturer's flaw...it was simply bad timing with the weather), I still went and spent the 15 minutes necessary to fix the problem, because I value my reputation as a business owner.

It's unfortunate to have to write such a letter, but that's just business. It's a multi-million dollar company with plenty of financial backing, so there is no excuse as to why they haven't paid me. As of this point in time they have 48 hours to make payment or pull my content off of their website before I move to stage 3, which is when things start getting fairly ugly.