If there’s one consistent story we hear more frequently than any other, when running a community of small business owners, it is stories of late payments.
Depending the where you look for research, the numbers span between 25-60% of small businesses have experienced a late payment in the last 12 months, and in the UK alone, this costs small businesses heavily - 38 small businesses go out of business every DAY due to late payments impacting their cash flow so significantly, they’re no longer able to operate. It’s an £11bn/year problem here in the UK.
And the current government are actively looking to tackle the problem, with new powers under exploration to fine consistently late payers, mandatory interest payments due on late payments, reducing of long payment terms (no more 120 days or waiting until your client gets paid by their client), and maximum dispute windows. The new recommendations are aimed at ‘larger’ companies, i.e. 50 people or above, so it’s not going to stop SME-SME late payments, but it’s an important step in the right direction, and in my experience, it tends to be the larger companies who behave less well.
But the team developing these new policies need our input - to make sure they don’t create unintended consequences: for instance, might hirers avoid working with a freelancer, if they think they’ll have to pay interest on an invoice? Does mandatory interest add burden and conflict when we have to chase and demand additional fees? Will it tangibly improve things, or just see employers taking the hit of the costs, and reducing budgets they spend on our work?
I’m generally in favour of the new recommendations (which you can read outlined here), but the open consultation is a change (and a rare one) to speak directly to policymakers about your experiences and thoughts on the matter.
If you’re a UK small business owner (that means sole trader or limited company), or if you hire and work with freelancers, or have any sort of skin in this game - I’d urge you to take part in the consultation. It’s a bit thick language, and not all of the questions may be relevant to you - but answer what you feel is related to how these new rules might impact your business.
» Take part in the late payments consultation here
Don’t forget, as part of your community membership you get full access to freelancing.support’s resource library and flightplan programme - which includes guides to dealing with late payments.
Bring a piece of work, thinking, provocation or inspiration and share with your fellow community members. Max ten minutes to share what you wish.
It’s a lovely opportunity to talk a little bit about something you’re proud of, or just get to know your fellows.
If you’re keen to take part - leave your details here, and I’ll send you all the details, but if you’d like to come along and listen, register here.
I’d love to connect with any fellow independent strategy folk or OP members who are judging at the Effies on Sep 24th in London! We can hang out and pretend we’re colleagues, all with an blank space on our ID badge where it says “agency name”.
This week’s Community Edition is a takeover - our way of celebrating independent strategy - showcasing our members, their work, opinions and provocations. If you’d like to takeover an upcoming issue, hit reply.
Hi, I’m Mike Plunkett, a writer and strategist living in Tucson, Arizona.
Through my business Good Boy Bentley Creative (named after my corgi), I partner with consumer goods and social impact organizations in what I call copythinking and copywriting. Along the way, I sorta became Canada’s best kept secret (I co-created the Poptastic brand. It won a ton of awards and is doing exceptionally well — but I’m trying to find someone who can send me some down to Arizona. Lemme know if you can hook me up with some popcorn!).
This is my second career after my time in the newsroom, working as a page designer/copy editor/”writer” for newspapers in Texas, California, and in D.C. at The Washington Post for seven years. (Writer is in quotes because I was never a reporter: I finagled my way into bylines by various ways and means.)
Most journalists were reporters but I view my experience as a perk because I learned about design as decision-making where you defend your work beyond “It’s artistic, man!”
You learn the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which is a lesson that came in handy when I was in Las Vegas…
A few weeks back, my wife signed up for an entrepreneurial conference in Vegas and asked if I wanted to go. Our birthdays are both in August, so we took it as a chance to celebrate while we dutifully attended the conference (“dutifully”).
Upon registering, I got this email:
“Huh. Are you positioned? That’s an odd way to get people to upgrade their ticket,” I thought.
More emails came with the same idea. You could attend or you could access.
Not thinking much more of it, we drove to Vegas, got to the hotel and checked for the conference starting in the morning.
The conference itself was fine. Nothing fancy. But this positioned idea kept coming up. How are you accessed so you can get wealthy by buying businesses from retiring Boomers? How are you accessed so you can live sell millions of dollars in excess dresses? How are you accessed so you can never rely on agencies because they all suck and never deliver (pretty much said verbatim).
I’ll say here that outside of strategy work, I’ve never heard anyone ever talk about positioning. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue like spot or ticket or VIP.
But somehow, my positioning at this moment was very off. I had to be in the room where it was happening.
Except I was in the room, like three rows behind the Elite status who paid 5x on tickets to basically have the hotel cater their lunch.
Same experience, same networking, same bottled water.
What exactly was I supposed to access again?
This question came up again as my wife and I walked the Vegas Strip, braving the 108 degree temps (about 42 in Celsius) with “the masses,” Pina Coladas from Fat Tuesday in tow. I say “the masses” because while there are people here, there should be a lot more.
Many casinos were empty. Buffets? Nope. Sports betting rooms? Maybe a couple of folks but otherwise empty. The Sphere is cool but it costs $80 to go watch a movie there.
My wife has never been to Vegas and she wasn’t impressed by the Strip. “Why do people come here again?” she asked me.
“When I was growing up, it was sin,” I replied. “Then it was luxury. Now I’m not so sure.”
It was upon seeing the pictorial Wall of Fame dedicated to Wayne Newton at the Flamingo that it finally dawned on me: Ah, I am supposed to access the overstory…but it’s different now.
Earlier this summer, I read The Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. In his sequel, Gladwell talks about “overstories” and how they hang over cultures and shape them. The book talks about the overstory of Miami and why it fosters an unusual amount of medicare fraud, as well as a nearly blatant disregard for accountability.
(I’ll note here that Gladwell gets criticized for overly simplifying and in some ways, I agree. I find his books to be a journalistic shorthand for these topics so they can be mass consumed, but I digress…)
The thing about these larger stories is that if done correctly, it brings us into the whole. All the parts come together into a way that not just gives us meaning but gives us …. access. The path to the benefits, the perks, the separation of what makes this whole greater than the parts in totality.
But that only works if you can see the whole story and believe that it’s true.
At the conference, I saw a lot of people on stage touting their riches and successes — based on a way of doing business that largely doesn’t exist anymore but yet pedaling a “new way” that isn’t quite there yet. In the hotels and the pathways along the Strip, I saw lots and lots of people touting their luxury and indulgence — based on a way of pleasure that largely is passing but not quite there yet.
As points out, the reality of business right now isn’t creation, but extraction. The riches are in selling what’s left over.
Vegas is no longer the gambling center of America because of the democratization of sports betting. And most of the Casino games are now electronic. You don’t actually play craps or roulette and I saw a lot of Blackjack portals with a computerized dealer.
Again, what exactly is being accessed right now?
We’re in a liminal space, figuring out the new story. Until then, I’ll hit up Able Baker Brewery in the Arts District and say about positioning:
P.S. I will say this — if you want access to the real Vegas, it’s the food. Shockingly good. And if you like Beer, go find the Silver Stamp in the Arts District. You’re welcome.
» Connect with Mike in the community, or via Linkedin
» The Movember Institute for Mens Health has published a new report on the media landscape for young men.
» Taste is the new intelligence - thanks Embre
» Checkland Kindleysides’ Mike Tristram on trends in beauty retail design
» Alex McCann on The death of the corporate job and Pt2
» Juggi Ramakrishnan’s Deck of Brilliance - 200 creative ideation tools.
» High court upholds that whatsapp messages can be a binding contract - positive for freelancers whose clients back out of agreements later.
» Loved this cute thread on LinkedIn, 5 year old gets home made perfume ad on one of MCR’s biggest billboards.
» writes on “The Strategists Shame” - thanks Giles.
» Men are using Reddit to shop, what does it mean for brands? - via Lucinda
» Sarah Housley’s new book on optimism and designing for a more positive future - Designing Hope
Briefs discovered and curated from across the stratosphere.
Promote your brief - or tell us if you’ve found work via the project.
Freelance Content Strategist with personal brand exp (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250905-voiceover.html
Freelance Senior Strategist with comms planning exp (AU)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250905-saatchi.html
Senior Strategist with brand design exp (London,UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250905-rocco.html
Social Strategist with gaming culture exp (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250905-mp.html
Freelance Wholesale Strategist – Beauty Industry (US)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250905-beauty.html
Freelance Paid Social Creative Strategist (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250904-profiles.html
Freelance Strategist (US)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250904-nationswell.html
Freelance Brand Strategist (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250904-dennis.html
Freelance Content Strategist (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250901-content.html
That’s all for this week.
mk✌️
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