Freelancers and creative agencies: get your invoices paid
Client won't pay? Send a $29 formal letter of demand — lawyer-backed and delivered today. The most effective first step for creative industry debt recovery.
Creative industries: the worst payment culture in the service sector
Freelancers and creative agencies are routinely subjected to late payment, scope creep disputes, and outright ghosting. The creative industry has no SOPA equivalent — your only protection is a well-drafted contract and the willingness to enforce it. A formal letter of demand is often the first thing that gets a response.
Many freelancers are reluctant to send formal demands for fear of damaging client relationships. The reality: a client who hasn't paid has already damaged the relationship. A letter of demand is a professional, legal step — not a personal attack.
Ready to act?
Send a $29 lawyer-backed letter of demand in 5 minutes. No sign-up required.
Send $29 letter →Enter details
Fill in creditor and debtor details plus the invoice. Takes 5 minutes.
Letter sent today
Lawyer-backed PDF generated and emailed to your debtor.
Follow-up automated
Day 7 and 14 reminders. Lawyer referral offer at Day 14 if unpaid.
Media & Creative debt types we handle
Graphic & visual design
Logo, branding, print, or digital design projects invoiced after delivery.
Video production
Corporate video, advertising, or social media production invoices.
Web development
Website, app, or software development invoices — including milestone payments.
Copywriting & content
Blog, copy, technical writing, or content strategy invoices.
Photography
Commercial photography, event, or product photography invoices.
PR & communications
Retainer fees, campaign management, or media placement invoices.
Media & creative — the second-highest insolvency rate of any major sector
Our 2026 Australian Debt Collection Report ranks Information Media & Telecommunications as the fourth-highest-risk industry in Australia by per-business insolvency rate: 8.71 first-time external administration appointments per 1,000 businesses in FY24-25 — 2.5× the national average of 3.42. Across just 25,248 operating businesses in the sector, 220 entered EXAD in the year.
For freelancers, designers, photographers, production companies, and small agencies extending B2B credit to media or telecom businesses, the implication is that about 1 in 115 of your media-sector customers will enter external administration this year. That's roughly seven times the rate in healthcare or real estate. If you carry receivables from this sector on standard 30-day terms, you are carrying materially more credit risk than the national norm.
Named media-sector payers in the Late Payer Index
The report's Late Payer Index, built from Commonwealth Payment Times Reports Register filings, names two media entities in the top 40 slowest large-business payers to small suppliers: TikTok Australia at 147 days and TikTok Pte Ltd at 142 days (95th-percentile payment times). The industry median 95th-percentile payment time across 110 large information media and telecom entities is 50 days.
What this means for your collections strategy
In a sector with elevated insolvency risk, timing matters more than in safer sectors. The report's recovery-rate ladder shows that a debtor with 1 default has a 20–24% probability of failure within 12 months; with 2 defaults, 42%; with 3+, 62%. For a creative business, that means moving from invoice to letter of demand at day 30 (rather than day 90) is statistically much more likely to recover the debt — the debtor has had less time to accumulate parallel defaults and slide further down the insolvency probability ladder.
Frequently asked questions
Stop writing off invoices
A $29 letter of demand takes 5 minutes and gets paid more often than a reminder email.
Send $29 letter of demand