Don't Hire if You Can't Pay

Freelance writing is dangerous in some respects. There are tons of unscrupulous clients out there who will hire you to write something without any intention of ever paying you. Or perhaps they know they won't be able to pay you, but convince themselves that they'll figure something out when the time comes.

I've only been actually stiffed once, and so far I've never seen any of that money. Basically he claimed he didn't have the money to pay us, yet he was still printing more issues using other writers. If anyone ever needed to make use of debt consulting services, it was him!

Basically, if you find yourself getting into a situation where your business owes too much money and you fear that soon you will no longer be able afford to pay your employees, it's time to take a step back and talk to someone about what you can do. Don't wait until you owe your employees for weeks or even months' worth of work before admitting that your business is in trouble! Even if it means suffering through a layoff, your employees would much rather have that happen than to lose several weeks or months of pay when they could have been looking for another job.

The bottom line is, do the right thing by your employees. Do something about it early on if you recognize that your business is in trouble, and don't hire or keep working employees if you cannot afford to pay them.