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I was contacted a few weeks ago by a web company in Cyprus, or more specifically Turkish, northern Cyprus. They asked me to quote for some travel writing for a new site they were building.
I have to admit to being very wary about being contacted out of the blue by people I don’t know about work. Or anything else actually. Nevertheless, I replied to the email and after a couple of exchanges I got the job.
I mentioned it to one or two people I knew who were all very sceptical and one even said I should demand payment up front because it was the only sure way of getting paid.
I decided to take a chance and went ahead. If nothing else, it was more interesting than the jobs I’d been doing recently and I could always just use it as a piece for the offline portfolio I’m building.
I completed all but one of the files but I had a question for the client. I sent them off and waited for the answer. The first day nothing happened, the second day, nothing. By the third day I was beginning to think my mates were right. Bye-bye pay cheque. I was ready to put it down to experience.
I’m generally a believer in the goodness of people so I e-mailed a reminder. “Oh, I didn’t get the files!” he said. “And by the way, when you send the last file, don’t forget the invoice”. Too damn right I won’t!
I sent the file and the invoice the next day. Separately, I think it’s really tacky and smacks of desperation to send them together. Less than 24 hours later I had a notification from PayPal to say he’d paid. I thought he might have waited a few days, but that’s the fastest I’d ever been paid by anyone (all you people that think it’s OK to pay at 130 days, take note!).
Surprises like that are some of the reasons why I love my job. Just have a little faith in people and it’ll be OK.
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