Gillian Bates makes an impassioned plea to arts organisations that fail to pay their bills on time.
Last month, due to circumstances within my control, I was three days late paying my office rent cheque. My cheques crossed with a letter from the landlord on paper of a ghastly pink hue. It warned me, in the strongest of terms, that I was in breach of my licence agreement. Bailiffs would be sent round to seize goods unless payment was received immediately. I was so horrified that I rang the rent office at 8.30am and grovelled apologies until their tea break. In fact, they?d banked my cheque the day before.
Last month, three of my biggest clients were late paying my invoices. Payments for work which I had completed long before were now two weeks past their final due dates. Any freelancer, small business or small arts organisation probably knows what comes next? I suddenly found my company on the brink of insolvency. A predicted comfortable and healthy cash flow did not materialise. I was at the whim of a kindly bank manager and high interest overdraft facilities. Sound familiar?
I then spent a grim morning ringing round finance officers to find out what had happened to my dosh. Two said they were ?late due to the holidays?, but I was ?in the system?. The third finance officer said my invoice was lost. Lost? Possibly the dog had eaten it, who knows? So I was to re-send and it would be dealt with immediately (which really meant it would re-join the queue). I know I should have raged and threatened the bailiffs. Instead I whined and pleaded, afraid to make too much fuss in case matters got worse.
When large organisations have such a cavalier and impersonal attitude to payment, it has a disastrous effect on the small businesses that characterise our sector. One large arts organisation I know routinely withholds payment from smaller companies until it has received two reminders. Listen, this is NOT the phone bill. It?s someone?s wages. I didn?t get one apology from anyone I spoke to about my late payments. It seems that if you work in finance, customer care is not a consideration. Officers abide by one golden rule: ?Late means never having to say you?re sorry.?