October 27, 2025 • 25 mins
We break down a practical playbook for handling clients who refuse to pay, from front-end contracts that set expectations to exit strategies that protect cash and reputation. Clear steps, calm scripts, and legal anchors help you finish fast or walk away whole.
• defining the client engagement agreement and expected scope
• explaining a 15% cancellation fee for remaining work
• using weekly invoicing to reduce leverage and surface issues
• documenting progress with photos and job logs
• offering two paths: one-week finish or controlled demobilization
• calculating final invoices line by line
• negotiating with cancellation fees and service credits
• securing payment with a lien waiver and non-disparagement
• using arbitration for timely, binding resolution
• mindset: own mistakes, avoid blame, exit cleanly
Go to contractorcuts.com or ProStruct360.com and contact us. Retreat: January 11–13. Visit contractorcuts.com to register
Join us January 11–13 in Nashville for the Chart the Course 2026 Planning Retreat. Sign up now and get three free coaching sessions before the event to finish 2025 strong and hit 2026 with a clear game plan. At the retreat, you’ll tackle systems, hiring, marketing, and leadership alongside ambitious contractors, leaving with a blueprint for growth. Spots are limited—visit prostruct360.com to learn more!
Have a question or an idea to improve the podcast?
Email us at team@prostruct360.com
Want to learn more about our software or coaching?
Visit our website at ProStruct360.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover
the good, the bad, and the uglyof growing a successful
contracting company.
Welcome back to Contractor Cuts.
My name is Clark Turner.
Thank you for joining us againthis week.
So this week is another coachingcuts.
Coaching cuts is where I coverin short form, a little shorter
(00:23):
of a podcast, different topicsthat come up while I'm doing
coaching.
Today's topic is how do youhandle clients that don't want
to pay you, right?
How do you exit a job assmoothly as possible when things
have gone off the rails?
Customers in you don't see eyeto eye.
You want to get out of there,you want to get your money,
they're holding your moneyransom, they're demanding a
(00:44):
bunch of stuff, they're goingquiet on you, maybe.
How do I exit as cleanly aspossible to where I don't lose
my reputation and I can'tcollect the money?
So it's a it's a good greattopic.
It's something that we all dealwith at some point in
construction.
So today we're diving deep intothat.
So to get started, number one,if you've heard anything we've
ever said on this podcast, is weevery job starts cleanly and
(01:08):
well with a well, well laid outclient engagement agreement.
This is our paperwork, if you'rein the coaching program that we
give you, uh, that really helpsyou lay the expectations out
with the customer before gettingstarted on the job.
This is laying out exactly whatthey should expect out of you,
what they shouldn't expect outof you.
You know, they've all seen HGTVand think that's how it's gonna
(01:31):
go.
And so this paperwork helps usset the it really sets their bar
to the exact spot of what ourexpectations should be.
Uh, and we say, listen, youmight be expecting this, but
this is what's gonna happen.
Or you might not expect this,but I am gonna give you this.
So it really kind of eitherraises, confirms, or lowers
their expectation as to what isthey should expect out of you as
(01:52):
the contractor on the job site.
Included in that clientengagement agreement, we have a
cancelly.
They are signing the agreementto the cancellation policy.
There's two differentcancellation uh phases.
We have our pre-constructioncancellation, which I'm not
going to talk about today.
The second phase, which is whywe're under construction, how
what happens when they cancel?
(02:13):
In writing, it says in ourcontract, if you cancel the
contract at any time, there is a15% fee for the remainder of the
contract.
And the way I explain this tocustomers when I'm going through
the client engagement agreementis listen, if you if you book us
today, we talk through, we get a$100,000 job for you on our
books.
(02:33):
I've got the next three monthsbooked out of my crews uh for
your job.
Day one starts, and you say,Hey, listen, I got an offer on
the house, I got to sell it.
Let's not, we're not gonna dothis work anymore because I have
someone who's gonna buy thehouse as is.
That scenario, I've got my crewsbooked out.
I've done work, I've got thingsplanned out, I've got I've said
no to other work.
So there is a 15% fee.
(02:55):
You owe me as my client$15,000,even though we haven't swung a
hammer, because you signed theagreement and I did some
pre-construction work as well asI said no to other jobs.
It's the opportunity cost thatthey have to pay me because I
can't just say, okay, I'm gonnacall another job and start
tomorrow with my crew.
It's it's a lot of work gettingthe next jobs scheduled, set up,
(03:17):
planned.
So the amount of time that Ilost on starting the next job on
the next week, week and a half,two weeks that I'm preparing,
moving jobs around, gettingthings to fill in is money lost.
And that is on the client.
And so I explained that to himduring the client engagement
agreement.
And it makes sense.
If you cancel the contractduring any part of the
construction phase, 15% of theremainder of the contract is
(03:38):
owed to us as an opportunitycost, as the time put in that we
have now lost.
Um, and it makes sense on thefront.
Clients are fine with it.
I've never had someone push backon that.
They've asked about it, but butif you sell it the correct way,
if you talk through it the rightway, not a problem at all.
If you have that in yourcontract, that makes this end
part, which you never want toget to, but one out of 20, one
(04:01):
out of 40, one out of 50 jobsend up this way where we don't
see eye to eye and the client'sready to go to court or just
fire us off the job site.
That's number one.
Number one way to avoid it isthe front end client engagement
agreement because you're reallybuilding the ammo for at the
end, you've got you've got thefirepower to be able to defend
yourself, get paid, and exit outquickly.
(04:23):
The second thing that we'redoing on the very front end of
the job is setting up how weinvoice.
So again, I coach hard, hard,hard on weekly invoicing.
And everyone's like, that's alot of paperwork.
I got to do too much to doweekly invoices.
But these weekly invoices, Itell my clients, these are our
check-ins.
This is me saying, Hey, I'minvoicing what we're doing next
(04:44):
week.
If we're done with what Iinvoiced last week for this week
and you see how that's going, Ineed payment by Friday for what
we're starting next week.
I get paid one week in advancefor the labor materials,
anything I'm gonna spend nextweek, I'm invoicing today.
So I might be putting a depositon the cabinets next week.
I'm gonna invoice for thecabinet deposit so that way I
can pay my cabinet company tostart making.
(05:05):
Uh, we might start demo nextweek.
So I'm gonna go in invoice demothis week.
I'm gonna say, hey, this iswhat's happening next week, this
is what we need, and I needpayment this Friday on that.
That way, I'm getting paid everyFriday for the work that's
happening next week.
And then when I invoice nextweek, it's I might check with my
client.
Hey, I told you we'd be donewith demo.
See, we're almost done.
It's gonna be done by tomorrow.
The following week, we're gonnastart putting subflooring in,
(05:27):
whatever it is.
That way, by laying out thetimeline, laying out what we're
doing next week, laying out whatI'm invoicing for, we're having
the conversations about what Ialready invoiced, what I think
is done, that the client mightthink, uh, I don't think that
paint's done.
So we're not ready to pay thenext invoice because we need to
talk about the other stuff we'vealready paid you for.
So it helps you check in.
And secondly, weekly invoicingmeans there's not a point that
(05:51):
the client owes me 40 grand.
There's not a point that if aclient holds my cash, it's going
to hurt me.
Right.
The weekly invoices, I'minvoicing$5,000 for next week,
maybe$15,000 on the front andwhen I'm buying materials, but
most of my weekly invoices arenot going to be over$10,000.
That means there's a$4,000invoice for next week, and then
(06:13):
we kind of don't see eye to eyeon something, and trust is
broken, and the client wants usto exit.
They don't owe me$50,000.
They owe me$4,000 to where fine,hold that.
We can talk about this per ouragreement.
This is how we handle disputes,which in our CEA, it talks about
all disputes are handled throughthe uh American Arbitration
Association, I think it'scalled.
(06:34):
But we we agree that we're gonnago to arbitration, and an
arbiter is going to be a bindingcontract of what they decide is
what we're gonna go by.
So that's in there, but I canuse that and say, listen, if
you're gonna hold$4,000, that'snot harming me to start the next
job.
Hold that.
I'm gonna prove my case and I'mgonna win this.
If they owe me$50,000 and theydelay that payment by two months
(06:54):
for us to get to an arbiter,that might kill my business.
If you're a smaller company,that's going to really slow down
cash flow and the ability tostart the next thing.
So the less leverage that theyhave, the less money they're
holding that you think they oweyou, the better chances you are
at a collecting and b being ableto negotiate and deal with the
repercussions of maybe going toan arbiter or having some sort
(07:17):
of dispute resolution happening.
Um they owe me 50 grand.
I need that tomorrow.
So just fine, give me 40 andwe'll we'll call it.
Uh, where you're losing a lot ofmoney on the back end because
they've got all the leverage onthe negotiation.
So, number one, we want to makesure that we have our client
engagement agreement talkingabout cancellation policy, that
they understand it, that they'vesigned it.
(07:37):
Number two, we're we're doingweekly invoicing where they
don't get over their skis and wedon't get too far out from what
they think they owe us versuswhat I think they owe us.
Um, those two things alone, ifyou're running your jobs through
the processes the right way,those two things by themselves
are going to eliminate 90% ofthe issues on the back end when
someone doesn't want to pay you.
Those two things alone are goingto really help you get paid,
(08:01):
make sure you keep their moneyin your pocket and also exit
cleanly.
So from that point, if we've setthat stuff up and you have both
those things in place with thiscustomer, everything's fine.
And again, I hear all the time Ican't do weekly invoicing.
I do new construction and I gotlenders.
That's great.
There's good every singleclient's gonna be different.
If they're paying cash, ifthey've got a HELOC, if there's
(08:23):
a way that we can do weeklyinvoicing, great.
If you're using a lender and wehave to go through some middles
and uh and different sort ofpaperwork for that, that is what
it is, and that's gonna happen.
So there's clients that we havethat that are that same way, and
that's okay.
It's knowing how we're gonnainvoice and trying to get the
majority of the homeowners to beon the same page.
Honestly, most of those that aredoing lenders that are the
(08:43):
larger jobs don't end up thisway.
It for some reason it feels likeit's that small$30,000 bathroom
or kitchen that a client getsunhappy with and doesn't want to
pay, is usually where you'regonna see these issues for some
reason.
Either way, we're trying to geteveryone to invoice the same way
if they can and get on thatpage.
So let's say we've done that.
We've set both of those thingsup.
(09:03):
They understand the cancellationpolicy on the front end, we're
doing weekly invoicing, we gothrough the job, we get towards
the end of the job, and onething after another has happened
that have broken trust.
First, and and we get to a spotwhere the client calls you up
and says, listen, or sends youan email, sends you a text and
says, Listen, we're good.
Y'all just be done.
(09:24):
I'm gonna hire someone else togo to finish this out.
Hey, just be done.
I don't want y'all to come backhere.
That usually happens becauseI've lost their trust, and and a
majority of the reasoning thatthey feel that way is probably
true.
So the number one thing you needto be doing at this point is
reflecting on what is true thatyou have broken their trust.
(09:45):
Hey, I know I told you that crewwas great, they showed up, their
paint job looked terrible, wehad to repaint it, but I did
bring another crew in and paythem out of my pocket to repaint
it, right?
So, and so I'm starting to gothrough all of the things that
broke their trust, and I'mcalling it out and talking about
it with them, saying, listen, Iget that you're ready for us to
go.
I get that that you don't trustthat we're gonna be able to
(10:06):
execute this, but I want you toknow we can.
So, understanding and claimingand owning the things that you
did wrong and not going afterthem for the things they did
wrong is the way that weneutralize this and get out
quickly.
I don't care.
Uh I I have in my back pocketthe things they did wrong, but
I'm not going after them tit fortat.
Hey, you did this, but you didthis.
So I uh because I did that, it'syour fault at this.
(10:28):
That that's not helping.
The goal is not justice, thegoal is how do I exit as cleanly
as possible?
And I'm saving two things.
I want to save money and I wantto save my reputation.
Usually your reputation is goneby the time that that this is
happening, uh, which we'll talkabout in a second.
But at least I want to save mymoney.
Ideally, both.
(10:48):
So at this point, there's twopaths, and I give every single
client at this point whenthey're when they're frustrated,
ready, ready to part ways, Igive them two different paths.
Path number one is I lay out andsay, listen, we have the
contract.
This is a cancellation policy.
It's gonna cost you way more tomobilize somebody else to come
in and they understand wherewe're at, take it over.
(11:10):
Not only is it gonna cost youmore, it's gonna take a lot more
time.
Looking at what we've got left,I've got one week left out here.
I'm gonna bring this crew out.
I know you didn't like thisdude, so he's not coming back
out, but I'm gonna bring theseguys out.
I'm gonna handle this partmyself, I'm gonna do this.
If we can exit cleanly, we'll beout of here in a week.
Everyone will be good.
We're not gonna sue the pantsoff each other.
(11:32):
We can we can end and part ways.
Listen, I want to get out ofyour house as much as you want
me out of your house.
I need to get on to my nextproject.
And because this is dragged, uhit's it's harming both of us.
So can we make a game plan if Ilay out exactly what the exit
strategy is to where we canfinish?
Option one is let's have a uh akind of a erase the whiteboard,
(11:54):
let's start over and let's havea one-week project to get this
finished out.
And let me lay out to you day byday what's gonna happen.
I'm gonna be here every singleday starting the cruise, making
sure everything gets done.
And you're gonna micromanage andbaby this job.
But we're talking about it withthe client saying, listen,
option one, even though Iunderstand where you're at
frustration-wise, there's somestuff that's out of my control.
(12:14):
There's some stuff that wedisagree on as to who's at
fault.
Let's erase all that.
From here towards next Friday,all I need to do is X, Y, and Z.
And I'm gonna have this crewdoing it.
I'm gonna do this part myself,and I'm gonna have these guys
come in and do this, and thenwe're gonna be out of here.
I'll have my cleaners come innext Thursday or Friday.
We'll be 100% out of your hair.
You're gonna get the job youwant.
(12:36):
We could both go and be done.
That's option one.
Option two is I leave the jobsite, you fire me off the job,
you owe me the cancellation feefor how much is left.
You're gonna owe me for the workwe've done.
And there's honestly a couplethousand dollars worth of free
work that I haven't even askedyou to pay.
And I'm willing to not ask youto pay if we just finish out
this smoothly, right?
And so I'm uh option one isgonna be let's finish this out.
(13:57):
Option two is this is whathappens if you want to fire me
off the job site.
This is how much it's gonnacost, this is how much you owe
me.
And I've calculated that number.
When I know that we're gonnahave this conversation, I'm
going through saying, okay,let's see, paint line.
We're about 75% done with thepaint, so they owe me X.
All right, so flooring, we're100% done with that, so they owe
me all of that.
(14:18):
And so I'm going through everyline item to say, okay, this is
what the final invoice is gonnabe.
Because if I don't have thatnumber, there's no use talking
about it because they have anumber in their head that they
want to pay you, and it's alwaysgonna be lower than what you're
owed.
So at this point, I'm I'mbuilding my invoice, my final
invoice.
I'm saying, okay, they owe me, Ithink they owe me$10,000 of work
done.
And then after that, there'sabout 20 grand of work not done,
(14:40):
and they owe me 15%.
So that's$3,000 for thecancellation fee.
So they owe me$13,000 to exitright now.
And I come up with that numberof what they owe me and how much
it's gonna cost for the fee.
And so I say, listen, option oneis we just get this done.
You pay me what you owe me, Iget out of here, I give you a
good product.
Option two, if you believe thatI can't do that, if I can't get
(15:03):
you to that good product and youjust want me out of here, you
owe me$10,000.
Here's the invoice of what youowe me and why.
And then you owe me$3,000cancellation fee.
And also, there's about$4,000 ofservices rendered of work that
you've asked me to do that Ihave done that I'm gonna tack on
at that point.
I don't want to do that.
Um, and honestly, that part ofit I'm saving kind of as my
(15:24):
negotiation side.
And so I say that to him.
I say, listen, it's$10,000.
I did all this other work, it'sabout four grand.
There's third$3,000 cancellationfee.
We're about$17,000.
But you know what?
That gray area of that otherfour grand of work that I've
done, I'm willing to just cancelthat out if you just want to pay
me the$13,000.
Pay me what I'm owed, pay me the$13, and that four grand of
extra work, I'm gonna throw,throw, throw away.
(15:46):
I'm not gonna charge you for,we're good, let's let's exit.
That way, I'm getting paid fullyof what I'm owed, but it looks
like I'm I'm compromising.
I always want to keep throughouta job, even if I'm doing
something for free, if they callme and say, hey, I know we
picked this tile out and it'salready been delivered.
I'm looking at it.
Can we take it back and do thisother type of tile?
Yeah, I might hop in my truck,go over there, return the tile,
(16:09):
spend a day getting the newtile, bringing it back.
I might not charge them forthat, but at the end, I can say,
listen, you had an exchangeorder.
You asked me to do this, youspent a day of my time, you owe
me an extra$600 for thisexchange because you changed
your mind on the materialselection.
Right.
So we're trying to build ammo sowe can say, hey, you owe me
this, but I'm not gonna chargeyou.
(16:29):
I'm trying to give some sort ofa compromise without
compromising the money that I'mactually owed.
Uh, and so I I give them thosetwo paths.
I say, path one, we finish thejob out.
Path two, you owe me 10 grand ofwork that's been completed.
You owe me three grandcancellation, you owe me four
grand for the change orders andthe extra stuff you've asked of
me.
The service is rendered,keywords, service is rendered.
(16:52):
Uh and uh I'll tell you whatthough, I don't care about that
four grand of service isrendered.
I will compromise.
Let's just get out of here, payme the 10 plus the three, and
we'll call it.
Um, those are your two options.
I really don't want to go thatroute.
I'd love to stay here andfinish.
I'd love to get on the samepage, make sure that you that we
can build that trust and makesure that you're comfortable how
we move forward.
At this point, the client startslaughing and say, I'm not paying
(17:14):
any of that stuff, I'm not doingthat, I'm not doing this.
And so we say, okay, listen,we'll pull off.
Previously to pulling off,though, if you know this is
coming or you feel that tensionhappening, what you need to do
is document the job site.
I want photos of everything.
I want, I want it clean aspossible at the end of the day,
and then take photos at the endof each day.
(17:34):
I want to show what we've done,what we haven't done.
Because once you pull off, theymight not tell you, they might
have another crew that startsworking.
They might pull, they they'veoftentimes I've found that a
client is finding anothercontractor in the background,
and then I get a phone call andsays, hey, don't come tomorrow.
We're done with you guys.
I got someone else to finish it.
And we go out to get our tools,and there's another crew already
(17:56):
there working, right?
They've broken, they've they'veuh broken their warranty, voided
the warranty.
They are uh contractually,they're not allowed to have
other guys out there because theCEA talks about we're the only
guy, only crew that's allowed tobe on site.
There's a lot of stuff of breachof contract that happens at that
point.
So, all that being said, I'm notusing breach of contract
(18:17):
language until I'm getting realthreatening.
At first, it's like, listen, twopass, this is how much money you
you got to pay me to walk away,or we can just get it done, your
choice.
Um, and then they're gonna startnegotiating.
Well, I don't think I owe youthis, I don't think I owe you
this, and I'm not paying yourcancellation fee.
I'll give you$5,000 and we'regonna call it.
At that point, I say, uh, that'sthat's unacceptable.
(18:37):
This is our contract.
You owe me$10,000 for the workand you owe me$3,000 for the
cancellation fee.
Now, that cancellation fee oftenI end up using as negotiation.
That$10,000 they owe me, I'm notbudgeting on.
That$3,000 that they that is acancellation fee is also
additional leverage in terms ofnegotiation because I've got
them dead to rights to owe methat money.
(18:57):
They've signed a contract thatsays that they owe me that
money.
So I can use some of that andend up negotiating down to 10
instead of 13, and I'm stillgetting paid and made whole on
the job.
But again, that's where wethat's where we can do a little
bit of budging.
If we're doing weekly invoicingthough, they're not going to be
owing you 10, 20, 30,000.
They might owe you 5,000, 6,000,and the cancellation fee is
(19:19):
almost as much as they owe you.
So it really helps saying,listen, I don't want to hit you
this.
I don't want to hit you with thecancellation fee, but I got to.
Let's just finish this job out.
The goal of this is to exitcleanly and to get paid for what
you've done.
All right.
So lastly, lastly, let's saythat the client um says, Hey,
(19:39):
you know what?
Fine.
We get a negotiation price,we're gonna pay you 9,000, we're
gonna exit that way, and I'mfine with getting nine to leave
here.
I'm getting made whole, I'm goodwith it.
I didn't get the 13 I wanted,but I'm getting that nine.
If I get to that spot, uh I haveone more thing you need to do.
Don't just go collect that checkand leave.
We have what we call our lienwaiver release form.
(20:01):
This lien waiver release formusually is what a client should
ask of us to sign the lien, lienrelease to say, hey, we're not
gonna put a lien on your house.
And we use it saying that.
We use it saying, listen, thisis a lien release to tell you
that once you pay me that$9,000that we've agreed upon, I will
not put a lien on your propertyand that I'm guaranteeing that
all my subs are paid.
(20:21):
And this is this is protectingyou as our client.
But also in the lien release uhwaiver that we've got, it says
either party are not going topublicly defame or derogatorily
talk about, I forget the exactwords, but it talks about in
there that neither party cantalk about this publicly.
Um, that we're agreeing to walkaway.
(20:43):
And and the terminology insideof that lien release really
protects you from getting thatone star Google review.
Because what they're agreeing tois if you pay me that$9,000, I'm
not gonna put a lien on yourhouse and you're not gonna talk
badly in public about me, whichis a Google review.
Now, can you implement that?
Yes, no, I don't know.
Um, you're I'm have never suedsomeone over that and signing
(21:05):
that and then giving me anegative review, though that's
never happened.
Um, but if that does happen, youcan you can quickly, and if they
give you a one-star review,that's killing your reputation.
So you can say, hey, listen,just so you know, the lien
waiver that you signed torelease this check says X, Y,
and Z in it, which means you arenot allowed to post that.
I need you to delete thatcomment or we're gonna we're
gonna go after you fordefamation.
(21:26):
Um, because you've got themsigning saying that they won't
do that.
So again, there's layers on howto do this.
That that lien waiver is soimportant to get signed.
Am I forcing it before I getpaid?
Sometimes it depends on theclient.
Um, but a lot of times it'ssaying, listen, this is what
we've agreed on.
We're gonna sign this contractthat we're that we're both
exiting and walking away fromthis.
(21:46):
Uh, and it really protects bothsides when in in reality I'm
stopping them from writing anegative review.
All right, so that's a lot.
That was a lot of information.
Let me review quickly.
We're gonna do the front-endclient engagement agreement.
We're gonna have ourcancellation policy in there,
we're gonna do weekly invoicingas much as possible.
Then, if we get to a spot wheretrust is being broken, I'm I
(22:08):
wanna have a heart-to-heart withthe client and talk about what
all we've done wrong to breaktheir trust.
And I viewed that way.
I said, I clam up to everything.
I say, listen, I understandthat's frustrating that we did
that.
I'm sorry that my guys did that.
I don't know why that they wouldleave that in your leave our
souls in your kitchen where yourkids are.
I'm so sorry about that.
This happened and that happened,and I totally understand that.
(22:29):
But I'm gonna make sure thatdoesn't happen.
I'm gonna be here every singleday and I want to exit cleanly.
So option one is let me finish.
Here's a game plan to finish.
Let's get out of here and we'redone.
Option two is gonna be this iswhat you owe me, this is a
repercussion, this is everythingyou owe me, this is the services
render that I'm willing to notgo after you for because this is
(22:50):
all you owe me.
Um, and we negotiate to thatprice.
Those are my two options.
After that we negotiate and wecome to a final price, at that
point I'm having them sign alien waiver that releases both
parties from the project.
If they we can't come and seeeye to eye, that's when we pay
four or five hundred dollars.
(23:10):
We go to the AmericanArbitration Association, we hire
an arbiter, they sometimes willdo it over Zoom, and you present
your case to them.
If you've got your photos,you've got your contracts,
you've got the sign clientengagement agreement, you've got
everything well documented usingthe Pro Truck software where
it's all listed in there in yourjob log.
All of that, you sit down withthe arbiter and they're gonna be
like, yeah, pay the guy.
(23:32):
You owe him that money that muchmoney.
And so you're gonna end upwinning that case because of
what you did and what you'veprepped for.
And if they only owe you four orfive, six thousand dollars, you
can you can wait to collect thattill after arbitration.
If they owe you 40,000, it'shurting your ability to grow and
continue the job.
And oftentimes you're just gonnahave to settle with them quickly
to get paid.
(23:53):
So, long and short of it, if Ican finish the job, if I can get
done with what and finish it outmyself, it's gonna be the
cleanest, easiest.
I'm gonna get made whole.
Don't try to threaten, don't tryto go to court.
We are trying to, even in thismoment, trying to be an advocate
for the client.
We're trying, even if they'renot seeing eye to eye, they're
(24:14):
being mean, they're they'rebeing short with me.
I'm saying, listen, I don't wantto charge you this.
I don't want to charge you this,but I have to because it's
hurting our company.
And so it allows me to have theCEA, the bad guy, and I'm trying
to be the good guy.
Let's not pay this.
So that is the mindset you have.
We're not trying to get justiceand make them pay all I in terms
of arguing and you did this andit was your fault and you didn't
(24:37):
have this ready and blah, blah,that doesn't help at all.
I'm looking past that saying,listen, we don't see eye to eye
on this.
We're gonna start fresh fromhere moving forward.
These are two options.
All right.
If you want to talk about this,if you have a situation that you
have dealt with like this andyou want to talk, go to
contractorcuts.com or you can goto ProShark360.com and go to the
contact us.
I love to talk to you about it.
(24:58):
If you have any questions, I canI can help you through it with
any customers.
If you want to come on ourretreat, I would love to see you
at the retreat.
Uh, it's coming up January 11ththrough 13th.
Uh, it's a fantastic way toreally understand what 2026
should look like for yourcompany.
So please, please, please go tocontractrequest.com, check out
the website, and we'd love tosee you at the retreat.
(25:20):
All right, thanks so much forlistening.
We'll talk to you next week.
Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover
the good, the bad, and the uglyof growing a successful
contracting company.
Welcome back to Contractor Cuts.
My name is Clark Turner.
Thank you for joining us againthis week.
So this week is another coachingcuts.
Coaching cuts is where I coverin short form, a little shorter
(00:23):
of a podcast, different topicsthat come up while I'm doing
coaching.
Today's topic is how do youhandle clients that don't want
to pay you, right?
How do you exit a job assmoothly as possible when things
have gone off the rails?
Customers in you don't see eyeto eye.
You want to get out of there,you want to get your money,
they're holding your moneyransom, they're demanding a
(00:44):
bunch of stuff, they're goingquiet on you, maybe.
How do I exit as cleanly aspossible to where I don't lose
my reputation and I can'tcollect the money?
So it's a it's a good greattopic.
It's something that we all dealwith at some point in
construction.
So today we're diving deep intothat.
So to get started, number one,if you've heard anything we've
ever said on this podcast, is weevery job starts cleanly and
(01:08):
well with a well, well laid outclient engagement agreement.
This is our paperwork, if you'rein the coaching program that we
give you, uh, that really helpsyou lay the expectations out
with the customer before gettingstarted on the job.
This is laying out exactly whatthey should expect out of you,
what they shouldn't expect outof you.
You know, they've all seen HGTVand think that's how it's gonna
(01:31):
go.
And so this paperwork helps usset the it really sets their bar
to the exact spot of what ourexpectations should be.
Uh, and we say, listen, youmight be expecting this, but
this is what's gonna happen.
Or you might not expect this,but I am gonna give you this.
So it really kind of eitherraises, confirms, or lowers
their expectation as to what isthey should expect out of you as
(01:52):
the contractor on the job site.
Included in that clientengagement agreement, we have a
cancelly.
They are signing the agreementto the cancellation policy.
There's two differentcancellation uh phases.
We have our pre-constructioncancellation, which I'm not
going to talk about today.
The second phase, which is whywe're under construction, how
what happens when they cancel?
(02:13):
In writing, it says in ourcontract, if you cancel the
contract at any time, there is a15% fee for the remainder of the
contract.
And the way I explain this tocustomers when I'm going through
the client engagement agreementis listen, if you if you book us
today, we talk through, we get a$100,000 job for you on our
books.
(02:33):
I've got the next three monthsbooked out of my crews uh for
your job.
Day one starts, and you say,Hey, listen, I got an offer on
the house, I got to sell it.
Let's not, we're not gonna dothis work anymore because I have
someone who's gonna buy thehouse as is.
That scenario, I've got my crewsbooked out.
I've done work, I've got thingsplanned out, I've got I've said
no to other work.
So there is a 15% fee.
(02:55):
You owe me as my client$15,000,even though we haven't swung a
hammer, because you signed theagreement and I did some
pre-construction work as well asI said no to other jobs.
It's the opportunity cost thatthey have to pay me because I
can't just say, okay, I'm gonnacall another job and start
tomorrow with my crew.
It's it's a lot of work gettingthe next jobs scheduled, set up,
(03:17):
planned.
So the amount of time that Ilost on starting the next job on
the next week, week and a half,two weeks that I'm preparing,
moving jobs around, gettingthings to fill in is money lost.
And that is on the client.
And so I explained that to himduring the client engagement
agreement.
And it makes sense.
If you cancel the contractduring any part of the
construction phase, 15% of theremainder of the contract is
(03:38):
owed to us as an opportunitycost, as the time put in that we
have now lost.
Um, and it makes sense on thefront.
Clients are fine with it.
I've never had someone push backon that.
They've asked about it, but butif you sell it the correct way,
if you talk through it the rightway, not a problem at all.
If you have that in yourcontract, that makes this end
part, which you never want toget to, but one out of 20, one
(04:01):
out of 40, one out of 50 jobsend up this way where we don't
see eye to eye and the client'sready to go to court or just
fire us off the job site.
That's number one.
Number one way to avoid it isthe front end client engagement
agreement because you're reallybuilding the ammo for at the
end, you've got you've got thefirepower to be able to defend
yourself, get paid, and exit outquickly.
(04:23):
The second thing that we'redoing on the very front end of
the job is setting up how weinvoice.
So again, I coach hard, hard,hard on weekly invoicing.
And everyone's like, that's alot of paperwork.
I got to do too much to doweekly invoices.
But these weekly invoices, Itell my clients, these are our
check-ins.
This is me saying, Hey, I'minvoicing what we're doing next
(04:44):
week.
If we're done with what Iinvoiced last week for this week
and you see how that's going, Ineed payment by Friday for what
we're starting next week.
I get paid one week in advancefor the labor materials,
anything I'm gonna spend nextweek, I'm invoicing today.
So I might be putting a depositon the cabinets next week.
I'm gonna invoice for thecabinet deposit so that way I
can pay my cabinet company tostart making.
(05:05):
Uh, we might start demo nextweek.
So I'm gonna go in invoice demothis week.
I'm gonna say, hey, this iswhat's happening next week, this
is what we need, and I needpayment this Friday on that.
That way, I'm getting paid everyFriday for the work that's
happening next week.
And then when I invoice nextweek, it's I might check with my
client.
Hey, I told you we'd be donewith demo.
See, we're almost done.
It's gonna be done by tomorrow.
The following week, we're gonnastart putting subflooring in,
(05:27):
whatever it is.
That way, by laying out thetimeline, laying out what we're
doing next week, laying out whatI'm invoicing for, we're having
the conversations about what Ialready invoiced, what I think
is done, that the client mightthink, uh, I don't think that
paint's done.
So we're not ready to pay thenext invoice because we need to
talk about the other stuff we'vealready paid you for.
So it helps you check in.
And secondly, weekly invoicingmeans there's not a point that
(05:51):
the client owes me 40 grand.
There's not a point that if aclient holds my cash, it's going
to hurt me.
Right.
The weekly invoices, I'minvoicing$5,000 for next week,
maybe$15,000 on the front andwhen I'm buying materials, but
most of my weekly invoices arenot going to be over$10,000.
That means there's a$4,000invoice for next week, and then
(06:13):
we kind of don't see eye to eyeon something, and trust is
broken, and the client wants usto exit.
They don't owe me$50,000.
They owe me$4,000 to where fine,hold that.
We can talk about this per ouragreement.
This is how we handle disputes,which in our CEA, it talks about
all disputes are handled throughthe uh American Arbitration
Association, I think it'scalled.
(06:34):
But we we agree that we're gonnago to arbitration, and an
arbiter is going to be a bindingcontract of what they decide is
what we're gonna go by.
So that's in there, but I canuse that and say, listen, if
you're gonna hold$4,000, that'snot harming me to start the next
job.
Hold that.
I'm gonna prove my case and I'mgonna win this.
If they owe me$50,000 and theydelay that payment by two months
(06:54):
for us to get to an arbiter,that might kill my business.
If you're a smaller company,that's going to really slow down
cash flow and the ability tostart the next thing.
So the less leverage that theyhave, the less money they're
holding that you think they oweyou, the better chances you are
at a collecting and b being ableto negotiate and deal with the
repercussions of maybe going toan arbiter or having some sort
(07:17):
of dispute resolution happening.
Um they owe me 50 grand.
I need that tomorrow.
So just fine, give me 40 andwe'll we'll call it.
Uh, where you're losing a lot ofmoney on the back end because
they've got all the leverage onthe negotiation.
So, number one, we want to makesure that we have our client
engagement agreement talkingabout cancellation policy, that
they understand it, that they'vesigned it.
(07:37):
Number two, we're we're doingweekly invoicing where they
don't get over their skis and wedon't get too far out from what
they think they owe us versuswhat I think they owe us.
Um, those two things alone, ifyou're running your jobs through
the processes the right way,those two things by themselves
are going to eliminate 90% ofthe issues on the back end when
someone doesn't want to pay you.
Those two things alone are goingto really help you get paid,
(08:01):
make sure you keep their moneyin your pocket and also exit
cleanly.
So from that point, if we've setthat stuff up and you have both
those things in place with thiscustomer, everything's fine.
And again, I hear all the time Ican't do weekly invoicing.
I do new construction and I gotlenders.
That's great.
There's good every singleclient's gonna be different.
If they're paying cash, ifthey've got a HELOC, if there's
(08:23):
a way that we can do weeklyinvoicing, great.
If you're using a lender and wehave to go through some middles
and uh and different sort ofpaperwork for that, that is what
it is, and that's gonna happen.
So there's clients that we havethat that are that same way, and
that's okay.
It's knowing how we're gonnainvoice and trying to get the
majority of the homeowners to beon the same page.
Honestly, most of those that aredoing lenders that are the
(08:43):
larger jobs don't end up thisway.
It for some reason it feels likeit's that small$30,000 bathroom
or kitchen that a client getsunhappy with and doesn't want to
pay, is usually where you'regonna see these issues for some
reason.
Either way, we're trying to geteveryone to invoice the same way
if they can and get on thatpage.
So let's say we've done that.
We've set both of those thingsup.
(09:03):
They understand the cancellationpolicy on the front end, we're
doing weekly invoicing, we gothrough the job, we get towards
the end of the job, and onething after another has happened
that have broken trust.
First, and and we get to a spotwhere the client calls you up
and says, listen, or sends youan email, sends you a text and
says, Listen, we're good.
Y'all just be done.
(09:24):
I'm gonna hire someone else togo to finish this out.
Hey, just be done.
I don't want y'all to come backhere.
That usually happens becauseI've lost their trust, and and a
majority of the reasoning thatthey feel that way is probably
true.
So the number one thing you needto be doing at this point is
reflecting on what is true thatyou have broken their trust.
(09:45):
Hey, I know I told you that crewwas great, they showed up, their
paint job looked terrible, wehad to repaint it, but I did
bring another crew in and paythem out of my pocket to repaint
it, right?
So, and so I'm starting to gothrough all of the things that
broke their trust, and I'mcalling it out and talking about
it with them, saying, listen, Iget that you're ready for us to
go.
I get that that you don't trustthat we're gonna be able to
(10:06):
execute this, but I want you toknow we can.
So, understanding and claimingand owning the things that you
did wrong and not going afterthem for the things they did
wrong is the way that weneutralize this and get out
quickly.
I don't care.
Uh I I have in my back pocketthe things they did wrong, but
I'm not going after them tit fortat.
Hey, you did this, but you didthis.
So I uh because I did that, it'syour fault at this.
(10:28):
That that's not helping.
The goal is not justice, thegoal is how do I exit as cleanly
as possible?
And I'm saving two things.
I want to save money and I wantto save my reputation.
Usually your reputation is goneby the time that that this is
happening, uh, which we'll talkabout in a second.
But at least I want to save mymoney.
Ideally, both.
(10:48):
So at this point, there's twopaths, and I give every single
client at this point whenthey're when they're frustrated,
ready, ready to part ways, Igive them two different paths.
Path number one is I lay out andsay, listen, we have the
contract.
This is a cancellation policy.
It's gonna cost you way more tomobilize somebody else to come
in and they understand wherewe're at, take it over.
(11:10):
Not only is it gonna cost youmore, it's gonna take a lot more
time.
Looking at what we've got left,I've got one week left out here.
I'm gonna bring this crew out.
I know you didn't like thisdude, so he's not coming back
out, but I'm gonna bring theseguys out.
I'm gonna handle this partmyself, I'm gonna do this.
If we can exit cleanly, we'll beout of here in a week.
Everyone will be good.
We're not gonna sue the pantsoff each other.
(11:32):
We can we can end and part ways.
Listen, I want to get out ofyour house as much as you want
me out of your house.
I need to get on to my nextproject.
And because this is dragged, uhit's it's harming both of us.
So can we make a game plan if Ilay out exactly what the exit
strategy is to where we canfinish?
Option one is let's have a uh akind of a erase the whiteboard,
(11:54):
let's start over and let's havea one-week project to get this
finished out.
And let me lay out to you day byday what's gonna happen.
I'm gonna be here every singleday starting the cruise, making
sure everything gets done.
And you're gonna micromanage andbaby this job.
But we're talking about it withthe client saying, listen,
option one, even though Iunderstand where you're at
frustration-wise, there's somestuff that's out of my control.
(12:14):
There's some stuff that wedisagree on as to who's at
fault.
Let's erase all that.
From here towards next Friday,all I need to do is X, Y, and Z.
And I'm gonna have this crewdoing it.
I'm gonna do this part myself,and I'm gonna have these guys
come in and do this, and thenwe're gonna be out of here.
I'll have my cleaners come innext Thursday or Friday.
We'll be 100% out of your hair.
You're gonna get the job youwant.
(12:36):
We could both go and be done.
That's option one.
Option two is I leave the jobsite, you fire me off the job,
you owe me the cancellation feefor how much is left.
You're gonna owe me for the workwe've done.
And there's honestly a couplethousand dollars worth of free
work that I haven't even askedyou to pay.
And I'm willing to not ask youto pay if we just finish out
this smoothly, right?
And so I'm uh option one isgonna be let's finish this out.
(13:57):
Option two is this is whathappens if you want to fire me
off the job site.
This is how much it's gonnacost, this is how much you owe
me.
And I've calculated that number.
When I know that we're gonnahave this conversation, I'm
going through saying, okay,let's see, paint line.
We're about 75% done with thepaint, so they owe me X.
All right, so flooring, we're100% done with that, so they owe
me all of that.
(14:18):
And so I'm going through everyline item to say, okay, this is
what the final invoice is gonnabe.
Because if I don't have thatnumber, there's no use talking
about it because they have anumber in their head that they
want to pay you, and it's alwaysgonna be lower than what you're
owed.
So at this point, I'm I'mbuilding my invoice, my final
invoice.
I'm saying, okay, they owe me, Ithink they owe me$10,000 of work
done.
And then after that, there'sabout 20 grand of work not done,
(14:40):
and they owe me 15%.
So that's$3,000 for thecancellation fee.
So they owe me$13,000 to exitright now.
And I come up with that numberof what they owe me and how much
it's gonna cost for the fee.
And so I say, listen, option oneis we just get this done.
You pay me what you owe me, Iget out of here, I give you a
good product.
Option two, if you believe thatI can't do that, if I can't get
(15:03):
you to that good product and youjust want me out of here, you
owe me$10,000.
Here's the invoice of what youowe me and why.
And then you owe me$3,000cancellation fee.
And also, there's about$4,000 ofservices rendered of work that
you've asked me to do that Ihave done that I'm gonna tack on
at that point.
I don't want to do that.
Um, and honestly, that part ofit I'm saving kind of as my
(15:24):
negotiation side.
And so I say that to him.
I say, listen, it's$10,000.
I did all this other work, it'sabout four grand.
There's third$3,000 cancellationfee.
We're about$17,000.
But you know what?
That gray area of that otherfour grand of work that I've
done, I'm willing to just cancelthat out if you just want to pay
me the$13,000.
Pay me what I'm owed, pay me the$13, and that four grand of
extra work, I'm gonna throw,throw, throw away.
(15:46):
I'm not gonna charge you for,we're good, let's let's exit.
That way, I'm getting paid fullyof what I'm owed, but it looks
like I'm I'm compromising.
I always want to keep throughouta job, even if I'm doing
something for free, if they callme and say, hey, I know we
picked this tile out and it'salready been delivered.
I'm looking at it.
Can we take it back and do thisother type of tile?
Yeah, I might hop in my truck,go over there, return the tile,
(16:09):
spend a day getting the newtile, bringing it back.
I might not charge them forthat, but at the end, I can say,
listen, you had an exchangeorder.
You asked me to do this, youspent a day of my time, you owe
me an extra$600 for thisexchange because you changed
your mind on the materialselection.
Right.
So we're trying to build ammo sowe can say, hey, you owe me
this, but I'm not gonna chargeyou.
(16:29):
I'm trying to give some sort ofa compromise without
compromising the money that I'mactually owed.
Uh, and so I I give them thosetwo paths.
I say, path one, we finish thejob out.
Path two, you owe me 10 grand ofwork that's been completed.
You owe me three grandcancellation, you owe me four
grand for the change orders andthe extra stuff you've asked of
me.
The service is rendered,keywords, service is rendered.
(16:52):
Uh and uh I'll tell you whatthough, I don't care about that
four grand of service isrendered.
I will compromise.
Let's just get out of here, payme the 10 plus the three, and
we'll call it.
Um, those are your two options.
I really don't want to go thatroute.
I'd love to stay here andfinish.
I'd love to get on the samepage, make sure that you that we
can build that trust and makesure that you're comfortable how
we move forward.
At this point, the client startslaughing and say, I'm not paying
(17:14):
any of that stuff, I'm not doingthat, I'm not doing this.
And so we say, okay, listen,we'll pull off.
Previously to pulling off,though, if you know this is
coming or you feel that tensionhappening, what you need to do
is document the job site.
I want photos of everything.
I want, I want it clean aspossible at the end of the day,
and then take photos at the endof each day.
(17:34):
I want to show what we've done,what we haven't done.
Because once you pull off, theymight not tell you, they might
have another crew that startsworking.
They might pull, they they'veoftentimes I've found that a
client is finding anothercontractor in the background,
and then I get a phone call andsays, hey, don't come tomorrow.
We're done with you guys.
I got someone else to finish it.
And we go out to get our tools,and there's another crew already
(17:56):
there working, right?
They've broken, they've they'veuh broken their warranty, voided
the warranty.
They are uh contractually,they're not allowed to have
other guys out there because theCEA talks about we're the only
guy, only crew that's allowed tobe on site.
There's a lot of stuff of breachof contract that happens at that
point.
So, all that being said, I'm notusing breach of contract
(18:17):
language until I'm getting realthreatening.
At first, it's like, listen, twopass, this is how much money you
you got to pay me to walk away,or we can just get it done, your
choice.
Um, and then they're gonna startnegotiating.
Well, I don't think I owe youthis, I don't think I owe you
this, and I'm not paying yourcancellation fee.
I'll give you$5,000 and we'regonna call it.
At that point, I say, uh, that'sthat's unacceptable.
(18:37):
This is our contract.
You owe me$10,000 for the workand you owe me$3,000 for the
cancellation fee.
Now, that cancellation fee oftenI end up using as negotiation.
That$10,000 they owe me, I'm notbudgeting on.
That$3,000 that they that is acancellation fee is also
additional leverage in terms ofnegotiation because I've got
them dead to rights to owe methat money.
(18:57):
They've signed a contract thatsays that they owe me that
money.
So I can use some of that andend up negotiating down to 10
instead of 13, and I'm stillgetting paid and made whole on
the job.
But again, that's where wethat's where we can do a little
bit of budging.
If we're doing weekly invoicingthough, they're not going to be
owing you 10, 20, 30,000.
They might owe you 5,000, 6,000,and the cancellation fee is
(19:19):
almost as much as they owe you.
So it really helps saying,listen, I don't want to hit you
this.
I don't want to hit you with thecancellation fee, but I got to.
Let's just finish this job out.
The goal of this is to exitcleanly and to get paid for what
you've done.
All right.
So lastly, lastly, let's saythat the client um says, Hey,
(19:39):
you know what?
Fine.
We get a negotiation price,we're gonna pay you 9,000, we're
gonna exit that way, and I'mfine with getting nine to leave
here.
I'm getting made whole, I'm goodwith it.
I didn't get the 13 I wanted,but I'm getting that nine.
If I get to that spot, uh I haveone more thing you need to do.
Don't just go collect that checkand leave.
We have what we call our lienwaiver release form.
(20:01):
This lien waiver release formusually is what a client should
ask of us to sign the lien, lienrelease to say, hey, we're not
gonna put a lien on your house.
And we use it saying that.
We use it saying, listen, thisis a lien release to tell you
that once you pay me that$9,000that we've agreed upon, I will
not put a lien on your propertyand that I'm guaranteeing that
all my subs are paid.
(20:21):
And this is this is protectingyou as our client.
But also in the lien release uhwaiver that we've got, it says
either party are not going topublicly defame or derogatorily
talk about, I forget the exactwords, but it talks about in
there that neither party cantalk about this publicly.
Um, that we're agreeing to walkaway.
(20:43):
And and the terminology insideof that lien release really
protects you from getting thatone star Google review.
Because what they're agreeing tois if you pay me that$9,000, I'm
not gonna put a lien on yourhouse and you're not gonna talk
badly in public about me, whichis a Google review.
Now, can you implement that?
Yes, no, I don't know.
Um, you're I'm have never suedsomeone over that and signing
(21:05):
that and then giving me anegative review, though that's
never happened.
Um, but if that does happen, youcan you can quickly, and if they
give you a one-star review,that's killing your reputation.
So you can say, hey, listen,just so you know, the lien
waiver that you signed torelease this check says X, Y,
and Z in it, which means you arenot allowed to post that.
I need you to delete thatcomment or we're gonna we're
gonna go after you fordefamation.
(21:26):
Um, because you've got themsigning saying that they won't
do that.
So again, there's layers on howto do this.
That that lien waiver is soimportant to get signed.
Am I forcing it before I getpaid?
Sometimes it depends on theclient.
Um, but a lot of times it'ssaying, listen, this is what
we've agreed on.
We're gonna sign this contractthat we're that we're both
exiting and walking away fromthis.
(21:46):
Uh, and it really protects bothsides when in in reality I'm
stopping them from writing anegative review.
All right, so that's a lot.
That was a lot of information.
Let me review quickly.
We're gonna do the front-endclient engagement agreement.
We're gonna have ourcancellation policy in there,
we're gonna do weekly invoicingas much as possible.
Then, if we get to a spot wheretrust is being broken, I'm I
(22:08):
wanna have a heart-to-heart withthe client and talk about what
all we've done wrong to breaktheir trust.
And I viewed that way.
I said, I clam up to everything.
I say, listen, I understandthat's frustrating that we did
that.
I'm sorry that my guys did that.
I don't know why that they wouldleave that in your leave our
souls in your kitchen where yourkids are.
I'm so sorry about that.
This happened and that happened,and I totally understand that.
(22:29):
But I'm gonna make sure thatdoesn't happen.
I'm gonna be here every singleday and I want to exit cleanly.
So option one is let me finish.
Here's a game plan to finish.
Let's get out of here and we'redone.
Option two is gonna be this iswhat you owe me, this is a
repercussion, this is everythingyou owe me, this is the services
render that I'm willing to notgo after you for because this is
(22:50):
all you owe me.
Um, and we negotiate to thatprice.
Those are my two options.
After that we negotiate and wecome to a final price, at that
point I'm having them sign alien waiver that releases both
parties from the project.
If they we can't come and seeeye to eye, that's when we pay
four or five hundred dollars.
(23:10):
We go to the AmericanArbitration Association, we hire
an arbiter, they sometimes willdo it over Zoom, and you present
your case to them.
If you've got your photos,you've got your contracts,
you've got the sign clientengagement agreement, you've got
everything well documented usingthe Pro Truck software where
it's all listed in there in yourjob log.
All of that, you sit down withthe arbiter and they're gonna be
like, yeah, pay the guy.
(23:32):
You owe him that money that muchmoney.
And so you're gonna end upwinning that case because of
what you did and what you'veprepped for.
And if they only owe you four orfive, six thousand dollars, you
can you can wait to collect thattill after arbitration.
If they owe you 40,000, it'shurting your ability to grow and
continue the job.
And oftentimes you're just gonnahave to settle with them quickly
to get paid.
(23:53):
So, long and short of it, if Ican finish the job, if I can get
done with what and finish it outmyself, it's gonna be the
cleanest, easiest.
I'm gonna get made whole.
Don't try to threaten, don't tryto go to court.
We are trying to, even in thismoment, trying to be an advocate
for the client.
We're trying, even if they'renot seeing eye to eye, they're
(24:14):
being mean, they're they'rebeing short with me.
I'm saying, listen, I don't wantto charge you this.
I don't want to charge you this,but I have to because it's
hurting our company.
And so it allows me to have theCEA, the bad guy, and I'm trying
to be the good guy.
Let's not pay this.
So that is the mindset you have.
We're not trying to get justiceand make them pay all I in terms
of arguing and you did this andit was your fault and you didn't
(24:37):
have this ready and blah, blah,that doesn't help at all.
I'm looking past that saying,listen, we don't see eye to eye
on this.
We're gonna start fresh fromhere moving forward.
These are two options.
All right.
If you want to talk about this,if you have a situation that you
have dealt with like this andyou want to talk, go to
contractorcuts.com or you can goto ProShark360.com and go to the
contact us.
I love to talk to you about it.
(24:58):
If you have any questions, I canI can help you through it with
any customers.
If you want to come on ourretreat, I would love to see you
at the retreat.
Uh, it's coming up January 11ththrough 13th.
Uh, it's a fantastic way toreally understand what 2026
should look like for yourcompany.
So please, please, please go tocontractrequest.com, check out
the website, and we'd love tosee you at the retreat.
(25:20):
All right, thanks so much forlistening.
We'll talk to you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.