Small agency and payment terms

[JustKeepSwimming]

Go for it. If you get it drill down hard on the agency what the payment terms are. No point stressing about it until you get the gig.

[courtg9000]

It’s not a start up.

it’s not wfh either.

I think you are getting confused the client isn’t a start up.

My concern is around the agency the agency that contacted me is not your usual big agency. He is a one man band agent he is the sole person working for the agency that he has setup. I’ve looked at his website and Companies House.

His company the agency name has accounts filed with CHouse and last few years are in big losses and owing with no money in the bank…so cash flow issues or something…

My concern is will I get paid as he would be paying me into my limited company …it’s not like the big agencies who factor their debts and pay you weekly before they even get paid by the client.

Agencies carrying losses, this is a very common thing worldwide and sector wide. Recruitment is a numbers game and timing is key, one payment late and thats it a juicy loss shows and you cannot shift it on the balance sheet for a long time. Money goes out of a recruitment agency at a horrendous rate before it comes in and it can take much longer than in many sectors for a recruitment agency to show profit.

Do some due diligence by all means but realise that across all sectors are too many recruitment agencies for the amount of business available and every day someone somewhere sets a new agency up on their jack jones thinking they will make it. Some do and some don't.

If 30% of all the recruitment agencies in the world went bust tommorow it would not make a difference to the market. It would inconvenience clients a little but thats it.

The chumps that set up on their own after being made redundant would find it difficult to get the business from the clients and the agencies that are left would probably not bother expanding their teams.

Contractors and agency temps - employees would loose money for sure but for the most part the end client won't actually care.

My advice is try and limit exposure. Limited credit to the agency etc. Keep the agent onside, build a relationship with him or her.

[Protagoras]

There is to my knowledge no insurance product available for this.

Not sure whether this would be considered as 'insurance' but looks as if IPSE still has an offering to provide some compensation for agency / client failure.

https://www.ipse.co.uk/become-a-memb...ure-cover.html

[JustKeepSwimming]

Not sure whether this would be considered as 'insurance' but looks as if IPSE still has an offering to provide some compensation for agency / client failure.

https://www.ipse.co.uk/become-a-memb...ure-cover.html

I wonder how much 'in administration' plays into it. As I suspect the most likely outcome if things go south is the Agency just not paying, refusing communication and not doing handling their business by the book.

[BigDataPro]

If you are a much preferred candidate for the client and therefore to the agency, negotiate for a weekly payment. This will help limit your losses as well as to understand agency's financial position.

[Cookielove]

If you are a much preferred candidate for the client and therefore to the agency, negotiate for a weekly payment. This will help limit your losses as well as to understand agency's financial position.

That was my intention.
I didn't get it they took someone who was much cheaper basically happy to work for a v low rate....

[ladymuck]

My last contract was via a very small agency and they paid weekly after I said I wasn't happy about the level of risk. Paid on time, every time for 18 months. Contact with them was so much better than with the bigger outfits.

[edison]

You can get an online Experian Business Credit Report for any UK business for about £20. Well worth it when contracting with small entities/agencies and even larger ones. It gives you details on how good the company is at paying invoices etc and has an overall score which indicates the likelihood of bankruptcy.

I've used it a couple of times. The first time the report said the company was extremely creditworthy. When I used it with another company, there were several red flags but after investigating further, they all had a logical explanation.

[dx4100]

After 6 months out of work I wouldn't be worrying about this to be honest. Ideally you would want weekly pay but I wouldn't fight hard personally. Risk is part of being a contractor end of the day.

[heathen666]

You can get an online Experian Business Credit Report for any UK business for about £20. Well worth it when contracting with small entities/agencies and even larger ones. It gives you details on how good the company is at paying invoices etc and has an overall score which indicates the likelihood of bankruptcy.

I've used it a couple of times. The first time the report said the company was extremely creditworthy. When I used it with another company, there were several red flags but after investigating further, they all had a logical explanation.

That's an excellent tip about the credit report. I was working for an agency who were fairly small, they seemed to only have two or three employees. As I was working for a large PS company I didn't really check out the agency as they were paying on time as agreed (monthly billing with 30 day payment terms). But as soon as Covid hit we weren't paid, which with those terms leaves you approx 45 days down. A week later we all got an email saying the business was no longer trading.