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If there is ever going to be trouble on a job getting paid from clients chances are it will be over the extra’s.
Some of the clients will say they did not realise it was going to cost so much and some of the clients will say they just ran short of money and now they don’t have the cash to pay you.
Either way and no matter what excuse they give, you now are in hot water when it comes to getting paid for the work you done and the materials you provided.
In this instance we can take some EXTREME OWNERSHIP of the situation and figure out what we can do to make sure it doesn’t happen again or we can cry and whinge and blame everyone but ourselves.
If you’re the finger pointing type of operator, well then chances are we can’t be friends. If you are the type of business owner that says ok, what can I do about this to make sure it doesn’t happen again the good news is I have a solution for you and here it goes …..
The problem of not getting paid for your extra’s started way back at the start of the job, your client hired you do to a job for say €10k and you started the job. Between when the job started and when you finished there were a number of additions, variations and maybe a few other bits and bobs that weren’t discussed on day one.
So first issue to be tackled here – Did you give the client a written quotation and did you have them sign it ?
If you did issue a quotation did it address the issue of EXTRA’S at that point.
If not, well then you need to know that if you handled this correctly you would have avoided this situation rearing its head as it has now.
When you give a quotation to a client you need to have them sign the quotation and all your terms and conditions need to be included in this quotation.
Within your terms and conditions, you must have it included that your quotation is a ‘fixed priced agreement’. The client will take some comfort in you committing to the fixed price at this stage of the project.
The second line that must be included in your quotation to your client is one that states that all extra works must be paid for in full at time of order commencement.
The clients will have no issue in paying you €1,000 for a small extra job in advance if they know that they already owe you €10,000 for the ongoing job.
By tackling the extra works in this order it keeps everything very clear cut at all times and it just means that you won’t need to have to fight to get paid for your extra’s at the end of the job.
My recommendation to yourself would be to amend your terms and conditions immediately so that you can protect yourself against this type of scenario in the first place, however if paperwork is not really your thing and you find yourself a bit weak on that side of things you can have a copy of the quotation document that I used for many years in my building business.
I have packaged this document up with 2 other documents that you will find very useful. One is called the SITE SURVEY SHEET and the other is the SIGN-OFF DOCKET and of course final document of the 3 is what we just spoke about here being the SAMPLE QUOTATION SHEET.
If you want to grab a copy of these you can get them by clicking the link below they are completely FREE. Take them as a gift from me, your new pal Joe and hopefully we can do some business in the future.
If this is one of the first times you have ever came across my website or any of my content, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Joe Doyle I am from Clondalkin and I am Ireland’s number one business mentor for tradesmen and the construction
industry.
Nowadays I’m not involved in the building game anymore and I am a full time property investor. I have over €12 million worth of rental property all over Dublin and I am on a mission to grow this business to €100 million.
Aside from my property business I also run a world class business mentorship program for tradesmen like your good self. If you would be interested in having a chat to see if there is something we could do to help you out feel to reach out and either myself or one of my team will be in touch to have a chat.
If you need any further convincing about anything I have just said about my own background just have a google for ‘Joe Doyle Entrepreneur’ I am the proud owner of over 320+ google reviews and I own the entire first page on google. I go by the name Joe Doyle Entrepreneur on Facebook, Youtube and Instagram. I have also written a book called THE TRADESMAN'S SURVIVAL GUIDE
Either way if you have found some value in any of my content please do tell a friend or reach out just to say hello.
See you at the top !!
Joe
Here’s your link to access the documents: