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Crook, Idiot or Naive?

A local guy is building food trucks and he's referred a fair number of folks to me for graphics.

My only direct personal complaint about the guy is he is constantly running behind on his projects, so that's screwing with my install schedule, but I can deal with that.

However I've developed some friendships with his customers and former employees. His customers complain him missing deadlines. The former employees that I know quit over payroll issues. The guy isn't paying his people on time. He does seem to be paying them but it's very late (weeks late) and often not the full amount.

He's been really cheap on his labor estimates and his builds have taken much longer than expected. He keeps quoting 1 week labor and I haven't seen him produce a truck in less than 4 weeks. So I probably know more about his business than I should but the whole thing is making me uncomfortable, it's starting to feel like a train wreck. In one month I've had 2 of his former employees and 1 of his customers ask if I would testify in court but it seems that he's managed to work something out with those folks.

Whenever he refers someone to me now, I start the conversation off explaining that my business is in no way affiliated with the food truck business and any work that I do is separate from the actual build of the food truck, my invoices are due when my work is completed, etc... Folks seem to understand.

I was trying to give the guy some room, just starting a business, it's easy to make mistakes but this employee issue almost seems to be status quo now. The new guys he had working last week have been replaced by two new employees.

I'm trying not to worry about what he's doing or not doing, it's really none of my business, and focus on the graphics however it's not easy, I'm concerned that it's going to damage my reputation.

I'm just not sure what to do in this situation.
 

Pat Whatley

New Member
Exactly what you've been doing, just let them know upfront you're not part of his business and that you can't start your work until he finishes his. Let them know up front how much time it will take AFTER the truck is delivered and you aren't responsible for missed deadlines if the truck is late getting to you.

Other than that do the work, make money, and don't let the truck builder order anything without paying up front.
 

kanini

New Member
I have a customer like this right now, they are always in a hurry and have piles of overdue notices on their desk, they order wrong sizes, assumes we are mind readers etc. They always order last minute and lately they are months behind with payments, so I'm very careful that they now pay off a lot of the old orders until they place new ones so hopefully soon they will catch up with payments.

I suggest you keep an eye on their payments, usually if a customer don't pay wages or have other debts and their business is more or less chaotic, you should get paid in advance or have some other security for your payment.
 
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