In happy, happy news, I’ve submitted my guidebook chapters! I’ll still have to go through edits but for now this mammoth task is off my plate, and I can entertain some other writing projects in the coming weeks. Which brings me to…
What I’m seeking from PR this week
If you rep or know anyone who can give me some insight into marine biology in New Zealand and the Pacific region, then please get in touch. Ideally I’d like to speak with a scientist. This is not for a confirmed assignment at this stage, but something I’d like to work on. Please email me at elen.turner@gmail.com if you know of anyone. Thanks!
What I’ve been reading
Before I get into the meat of this newsletter this week (a bit of a rant is coming, haha!) I thought I’d share this great list in Himal Southasian of some great South Asian books: What Southasia read in 2022: Book recommendations from a year of reading by Southasian writers, poets, translators and journalists
There’s a lot there I haven’t read, or even heard of, but Nepali writer Niranjan Kunwar’s recommendation reminded me that I might need to revisit Pater Mathiessen’s The Snow Leopard, a classic work of spiritual travel literature that I first read about 10 years ago now, on my first trip to Nepal. Where has that decade gone!? Oh yes, half of it in a child-raising fog.
Letting go of late payers
In other news, a couple of weeks ago I made the decision to stop working with a client who had been dragging their heels about paying their invoices. We had a contract that stated the payment terms, and they repeatedly breached those terms. I’d have to follow up multiple times to get my money. To be clear, I don’t think they were deliberately avoiding paying me. They just didn’t have efficient systems in place to ensure that the people who actually made their organisation run were being compensated on time.
The editor I work with was annoyed on my behalf when I asked her to follow up for me; it’s not her fault, and she was helpful. She assured me that she is also a contractor, and sometimes has to chase down her own pay. The insinuation was that this is (an unfortunate) part of the job.
This doesn’t have to be part of the job!
CHASING MONEY OWED TO YOU FOR WORK ALREADY DONE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PART OF THE JOB!!
I’m not saying this as like a, oh, I WISH this wasn’t part of the job. No. I mean, there are plenty of companies out there that pay on time and at the agreed time. I know there are as I work with several of them. So, when I come across a slack payer, I really have no patience for that, and neither do I NEED to have the patience for that. I’d rather turn my attention back to those prompt payers and cut loose the stragglers.
I work with multiple companies and almost all of them are very prompt payers. Some pay upon receipt of the invoice. Some a few days after. Some have a smooth system where the invoices are paid on a particular date of the month. Another, which makes up a large chunk of my income, is a bit erratic in their schedule but I know I will always be paid within the contracted time.
Over the years, I’ve routinely stopped working with late payers, sometimes just temporarily. I don’t hesitate to send a “I cannot take on any further work until the outstanding invoice has been paid” email, and that has usually hurries things along.
But I’m not completely slash and burn: I’ll usually give them a couple of chances to show that this isn’t how they prefer to do business. I know that all sorts of things can genuinely put a spanner in the works: new staff still in training, the implementation of clunky new software, holidays, an incorrectly filed invoice. Sometimes I’m the one making the mistake and not following important invoicing instructions to the letter. But if pay is repeatedly late, with little apparent effort to set things right? Get out of here.
Letting go of sloppy payers not only rids me of that particular problem, but also ensures that I have time in my schedule to dedicate to those who do have proper systems in place to pay their contractors on time. Accepting that chasing down payments is just an occupational hazard leads to a death spiral of sorts: if you don’t let go of the bad eggs, you’ll just keep having to deal with them.
Until next week. I’m off camping in the Marlborough Sounds shortly!