Clients not paying?

[hairbybridie]

Hi Guys,

How do you deal with clients who dont pay??

So I've had two clients in the past month not pay. I'm based in a salon and have been back to back pretty much every day and my clients always manage to be early meaning I have a client early and waiting whilst I finish my current one.

Because of this, I asked one client who had become a sort of friend & was getting her maintenance at half price to send me the money through bank transfer, as I had my next client waiting I trusted her to pay the money as I didn't have time to wait around for her to sort it out. bare in mind she had a massive discount and has had lots of freebies off me. its been 3 weeks and she's ignoring all my messages and hasn't paid but keeps watching my insta stories etc?!

I then did a girls extensions last week who has been a regular at the salon for a while but this was the first time me meeting her. Because I'm an absolute mug and she was so desperate for extensions, I let her pay the cost of the hair during fitting and we agreed that she would pay my fitting charge today. This was purely because she was a regular in the salon and so we arranged that she would come to the salon/me go to her to collect the money.. obviously she hasn't been in the salon or answered my calls or texts so I'm taking it she isn't paying..

WHAT DO I DO?? I know its partly my fault for being too soft and letting people off but is there actually anything I can do?

thanks x x

 

[jamiereid92]

Whattttt? These people are not you're friends they are clients, and bad ones at that.

I'd send them a formal invoice, with the outstanding payment due.

Don't let it happen again because they will take the piss X

 

[cmsuper]

You need to toughen up otherwise clients will walk all over you so no discounts and they must pay before they leave the salon in full.If they forgot the money or card I tell them to leave handbag and phone and they always come back with cash very quickly.Never forget that clients are not your friends and you are working hard and need to be paid for it in full x

 

[AcidPerm]

As @jamiereid92 says, send her an invoice giving her 7 days to pay in full and don’t book her in again.
If you have to pay people to be your friend, they’re not really your friend.
Don’t offer any discounts/freebies other than to immediate family.
Even my sister insists on paying me when I do her hair.