Show Me the Money

>>The work has been done, but payment hasn’t arrived. Your business might be facing unpaid accounts for the first time or dealing with a massive list of deadbeat clients.

It’s a scenario more Southwest Florida companies are dealing with, and attorneys and collection agencies have seen an influx in businesses seeking assistance in obtaining their hard-earned money.

“In some cases it’s sad, because when you’re talking to a lot of these small businesses, they’re struggling to keep their doors open,” says Kim Cameron, owner of Professional Adjustment Corp. of S.W. FL, a Fort Myers-based collection agency that works on a contingency-fee basis. “Companies that are calling up never had to use an agency before.”

The chances of collecting your money are excellent in some situations, but next to zero in others, especially when a company has gone out of business or filed for bankruptcy, experts say.

“I have executives sitting in my conference room not quite in tears, but not far from it, just desperate to find ways to increase receivables,” says Fort Myers-based attorney Patrick Buckley, who has worked with companies ranging from small, locally owned sign vendors to national homebuilder Centex.

A common problem is among companies working for homeowners’ associations struggling to pay for maintenance, landscaping and other services promised to residents.

Cape Coral-based Coastal Window and Pressure Cleaning was owed more than $14,000 for work completed in one community this spring, but when a different property management company took over, “nobody wanted to pay us,” owner Shalon Bridges says. “It was like a ring-around-the-rosie kind of thing.”

She hired Buckley as a “drastic measure.” After two weeks, right before they were ready to file a lawsuit and garnish wages, they received a check for the entire amount. For other clients, she’s gone to the courthouse and placed builder’s liens against homes on Captiva Island, Sanibel Island and in Naples.

“When you’re owed that much money and no other money is coming in, it’s very, very hard,” says Bridges, whose company works in Lee and Collier counties.

Here are five winning strategies for making clients pay.