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<title>RE: Professional practices, was "pay you later"</title>
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<p align="left">I ONLY invoice my commerical accounts. Email invoice usually. I rarely give out a receipt to my private clients, but if they ask I can pull one out. They don't need it and I don't need it. The check is their receipt. For me, the idea of doing the work and handing them an invoice and walking out the door without payment is silly. So now they have to remember to write a check? When they forget, I have to call them? Of course, I don't have people doing my office work, which is probably penny wise and pound foolish for all the time I waste in the office. </p>
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<p align="left">David Ilvedson, RPT<br/>Pacifica, CA 94044<br/><br/></p>
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<hr/>Original message<br/>From: "David Andersen"
<david@davidandersenpianos.com> </david@davidandersenpianos.com><br/>To: "Pianotech Pianotech"
<pianotech@ptg.org> </pianotech@ptg.org><br/>Received: 4/11/2008 10:24:40 AM<br/>Subject: Professional practices, was "pay you later"<br/><br/>
<p align="left">My friends---- </p>
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<div>Would you like to be treated like a doctor, or a lawyer, or a skilled artisan?</div>
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<div>Or would you like to be treated like a day worker, or a cable installer, or a shade-tree mechanic? </div>
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<div>In the first group, the work, and the atmosphere surrounding the work, is the focus; actual money exchange happens later.</div>
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<div>In the second group, the focus is on getting the check.</div>
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<div>If you want to make more money and have more respect, act like a business with cash flow. If somebody wants to give you a check, OK.</div>
<div>I hardly ever handle money now, and most of my clients (still) are private entities. I send an email invoice within 24 hours of the work; I haven't been stiffed once since I started this protocol 6 years ago. Well, once, by a white-collar criminal in Malibu...300 bucks.</div>
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<div>A hard and fast rule: those who<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline"> seem</span></b> like they couldn't care less about getting paid make a lot more money and are trusted quicker and deeper. People just like it better way back in the deep, old part of their brains. Don't fight the wiring.</div>
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<div>David Andersen</div>
<div>(flame suit on)</div>
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