archaxis - 8:19 am on Nov 15, 2009 (gmt 0)

This situation has happened to my business only once. The best way to avoid this situation is to secure the money before doing any real work. I never consider a proposal as work clients should pay me for since it's my duty to get the sale and if I don't get the sale it's my fault not the clients.

My business practice is to put the money in escrow before starting any billable services (No matter how small the project is). I also suggest you should get some capital upfront so you can pay some bills or whatever. I try to get maybe 10% upfront but it depends on the scope of the project.

As far as litigation etc, I would say you'll only be wasting your time and money with that. It's ok to loose some money but really you should have never put your business in that position in the first place. Don't give folks work if you don't have compensation! Litigation is also a bad move if you work a lot locally. That one client can ruin your business if you try to sue them. Just like you're telling us about this unfortunate situation that business will be sure to drag your name through the mud locally and you don't want that at all since it could far exceed the 4k you were going to get.

Chalk it up as a loss and move on and forget about any lame revenge ideas folks have been mentioning, that will get you no where real fast. When a client seems unreasonable or I just don't like them I just don't work with them, we all have pretty good gut instincts about these things. I know it's hard to cut and run but in the long run you'll thank yourself for doing it because you'll have a delightful client base.

Good luck!