Willow ,'The Killer In Me'
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I suppose for me it means that I don't have it counted as a recurring annual expense. There have been a handful of times over the years that I've needed to talk to a lawyer for the business. So it tends to fall in my budget under general expenses, not a line item for legal.
I think the bristle is because that's a pretty unilateral statement to make. If one doesn't have a line item for legal fees then your business is a hobby. The term hobby denigrates the business.
I'm sorry if the bristle seemed out of proportion or at all directed at you -- but it is genuine, and there for a reason. "Hobby" is a very common way of undermining just the kind of businesses that I (in particular) and a lot of others who hang in this thread do: freelancers get it constantly, but so do many other one- or two-person businesses, even more so if you work online or out of a home office rather than a fixed place like a shop. It goes right along with "when are you going to get a real job" and "so this is a little thing you do on the side?" and "but your spouse must be making good money, right?" and a hundred others like it.
So, yeah, making sensible legal precautions is a part of any business. But "hobby" is kind of a third rail.
Yeah, what ND said. And I'm not bristling at you, ita !, but at the writer.
It's just...mine's not a hobby, and I would love to have money laying around for legal fees, really, and it's a sensible thing to build into a budget -- but it's just SO not feasible right now. And isn't for SO many small business owners. Most, I'd reckon, especially young, new businesses.
...and x-post with amych!
Freelancer Twin powers ACTIVATE!
Form Of... AN OUTSTANDING INVOICE!!
Heh.
I don't have any outstanding, yet. I've just got some stuff lined up that won't come in for a while.
I HAVE had a client who didn't pay me for 3 weeks. It was a $40 payment. I was like, UM -- PAY ME. Due date means due date; I gotta eat, you!
There are always the occasional people that are deadbeats on payments. Honestly for most of them unless it is a very large amount I'd spend more in legal fees to get the money that to just write off the loss.
So is it good advice or not? I get that there's hot button language, but it seems to me to be a couple steps behind accountant on the taking precautions list.
I HAVE had a client who didn't pay me for 3 weeks.
Whenever I freelance, I assume someone has 30 days to pay. That used to be standard, and I always wanted to build in time *without* the money than expecting it right away.
ita !, considering the guy giving the advice is a lawyer, he isn't exactly a disinterested adviser. I always consider the biases of any source when it comes to recommendations, business or otherwise.