I haven't written for pleasure or my own business advertising in a while because there have been so many other pressing issues for me to attend to. I have been working day and night as much and as hard as possible to earn money to make up for projects that are not going as they should. When a client doesn't pay me it puts me in a real bind but when multiple clients don't pay me... it becomes a disaster. Anyone who works for themselves at home like me will understand that making money is a process. You have to complete the work, wait for review and wait for final payments for your services. It's proper etiquette to give the client a certain amount of time to pay before you start hounding them. Usually this will be stated in your contact and once that date has come and gone without payment, the contract has been breached.

I've had my fair share of clients not paying and learned the hard way about contracts and getting deposits upfront as well as what to do if you have been "burned" - from a legal standpoint. The one thing that I have always been hesitant to write about here publicly is how much (or little) I do earn. I felt compelled to write about it here today although I'm still not sure why. I've always been told/taught you keep these kinds of things private. You want other clients to know that you are successful and you don't want anyone to think you truly "need" their work or they might take advantage of you. However, I don't really believe that.

I have been writing (mainly online and some offline) as a freelancer for the majority of my adult life and I do believe I am successful at it. I take a great passion in everything that I do and I take every opportunity to further advance my knowledge and experience through classes, teleseminars, books, college courses and more. However, it's been a struggle and with a family of 6 to support solely on my income, it's still a struggle. I just don't have any cushion for when things go bad.

Currently, I have 4 clients with past due balances totaling over $1,500 and I cannot pay my bills. I rent from a company that has a no-tolerance policy and little sympathy for anyone who's late. They are threatening to serve eviction on me for breach of contract if I do not pay the full amount due by 5pm tomorrow. I need to look up the laws in my state involving this and what options I have. My electric and cable services are also facing disconnection which means I will be unable to work. This means my business would come to an utter standstill with me being unable to earn any more money to get me out of this hole.

On top of that, the weather is cold, I have young children and we've all been sick back to back for weeks. I have no family in the area and I don't even know the names of my neighbors. There is literally no one to turn to.

I'm not sharing this because I am feeling sorry for myself or bitter or angry. It's devastating to think I may be getting evicted for Christmas and instead of worrying about how we will put presents under the tree, we have to worry about if we will even have a place to sleep.

But the real reason why I am posting this here is because I know the people who read my blog are in the same business as me. They are writers, designers, freelancers and those people who purchase these services. Sometimes when you hire a freelance contractor to do work for you, it may be a side project or a hobby- something you're working on with extra cash that you hope might succeed. But to that person you are hiring, it's everything. It's their complete and total way of life.

When people don't pay me, it often means the difference between whether or not my children eat dinner that night. It means whether or not I will be able to pay my electric bill or the gas payment to keep our heat working. To some people, $100 or even $400 isn't that much but to my family, it is the world. When clients don't pay, that world comes crashing down.