[consulting] Proper Collections Procedure

[Sami Khan]

> Hi folks,
>
> My two cents, erring broadly on the side of caution.
>
> Before folks start offering money and printing membership cards, please
> consider what features are desired by the kinds of organizations being
> suggested. Specifically, do folks want:
>
> - to exchange information on problem clients?

That's what this thread is about, and I would agree with you that pooling
funds and outsourcing this job might be better. But is it really a problem
of them being able to pay or is it more over that they're difficult people
to deal with? I got the impression that it was the latter.

> - to exchange information on business practises?

We already do that through this group, so it's not as much of a problem in
my experience.

> - to exchange information on technical matters?

Between developers or on IRC. Again not much of a problem from personal
experience.

> - to exchange business contacts, to find possible partners or
> subcontractors?
> - to pool resources for marketing/pr?
> - to pool resources for operations?

These three make a good amount of sense. This is essentially what
companies that are centered around Drupal have been serving as hosts for I
think.

> The answers to these questions will help determine if what is desired is
> a trade association, a business co-operative, or a trade union (which is
> essentially what a guild is).

A business co-operative sounds like a good idea. A trade union does not. A
trade association is interesting but I don't think the problems that trade
associations address are not really problematic for consultants as there
are plenty of sources of information, etc.

>
> Keep in mind that there are certainly differing regulations concerning
> the conduct of all of these structures. Business associations,
> especially those which exchange information on pricing and clients,
> could run afoul of their country's anti-monopoly (in the US, anti-trust)
> laws. And trade unions need to deal with the fact that labour law
> differs not only from country to country, but often state to state and
> province to province.

Agreed. Same in Canada, the privacy laws prevent much of the said activity.

>
> Also consider that the concept of a 'blacklist' of problem clients,
> secret or public, poses a number of legal risks on issues of privacy or
> libel. While I'm not a lawyer, I've been in contact with enough to know
> that any time disputes get to court, lawyers are the only real winners.
> As has been mentioned, credit bureaus exist (and have their own legal
> liability issues to deal with) in order to provide businesses (of all
> kinds) with information on clients who don't pay their bills. They also
> help (at least partially) in separating clients who are financial
> deadbeats from those who have (they believe) legitimate claims of
> substandard work. Anyone here is capable of paying Dun&Bradstreet (or
> similar services) to check on the financial reliability of potential
> clients; do you really want to be in the credit research business when
> others already specialize in it?

I don't think that financial dead beats is the underlying problem.

>
> If the issue is not so much the desire to collect information, but an
> inability to afford the services of those who do, that's a very
> different (and arguably far easier to solve) issue. Perhaps the answer
> is not for this group to engage in gathering credit information, which
> is not only a non-core-competency with significant legal risks -- but
> rather, to pool resources in order to contract an established company
> that does these things.

Outsourcing this would make _a lot_ of sense, if that was the actual concern!

>
> Heck, a group such as this could possibly command volume discounts at
> hosting companies -- and while pooling resources on operations issues
> such as credit checks, it could also pool resources on publicity issues
> -- to hire a PR firm, buy booth space at tradeshows, etc.

Agreed.

>
> Many possibilities exist, but it's important to both know what you want
> from such a group, as well as being aware of both its potential and its
> limitations.

I think we need a different thread to discuss just that if that's what we
want to actually acertain. This thread was more over for the collection
issue and I feel that it's digressing.

>
> - Evan
>
> PS: Please, folks, do not assume (when talking about laws and
> regulations) that everyone here is from the US and that everyone knows
> what a 501(c) is. Any ideas for a group here should consider an
> international scope.
>
>
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