A: Gene, I hope that I have never given anyone impression that having your own business is a walk in park. To contrary, I'm like proverbial Chicken Little when it comes to warning readers of obstacles and pitfalls that await those considering entrepreneurial plunge.

To quote myself from a column I wrote earlier this year, "If it was easy, my friend, everybody would do it."

Just to make sure we're in agreement, let me reiterate standard warnings once again. Starting a business is incredibly hard work. It takes long hours and deep pockets. It demands unbridled passion and unquestioned commitment. It requires that you give of yourself until you often feel there is nothing left to give. And sometimes, even after you've done all that you can do and given all that you can give, business fails.

Period.

Blood, sweat, and tears can only carry you so far in business world. Good intentions and grand ideas won't pay office rent. You can not make payroll with Monopoly money.

I certainly don't mean to make light of your situation. In fact, I know exactly how you feel. I failed so miserably my first time in business that I swore I would never think about working for myself again. All I wanted to do was to find a nice, secure 9-to-5 job that provided me with a nice steady paycheck. I yearned for opportunity to grow fat and happy on someone else's payroll for a change.

I never again wanted to have to think about customers or employees or withholding taxes or accounts receivable or anything else even remotely associated with being in business.

I just wanted to crawl in a hole and die because my business had failed, and in my All-American, macho male, "you are what you do" brain that meant that I was a failure, too.

Getting over failure of a business can be extremely difficult, especially if you are one of those entrepreneurs (like I was) who wrongly relates success or failure of a business to success or failure of you as a person.

A: I think your partner is right. If you think this client has been difficult to deal with in past just wait until he opens your bill with six months worth of arrears attached to it without prior notice or a full explanation of amount owed.

Sending such a bill is like dropping a bomb on client's desk, and I guarantee you fallout from resulting explosion would end up landing squarely on your head.

So question then becomes, how do you collect money that is rightfully owed to you from a client who has a history of being difficult? That's easy, Louis. You make your partner call him.

Seriously, whether client owes you money or not is a moot point. Yes, you made an accounting mistake, but if client agreed to pay you a certain amount each month in exchange for certain services rendered, and you have been under-billing that client for delivering those certain services, client owes you money, period.

I have found that in situations like this it is always best to be proactive and face problem (or what you perceive as a potential problem) as quickly as possible. This will save you hours of needless worry since most of time problem is not as big a deal as you imagined it to be.

There can only be three outcomes in this situation.

(1) The client will understand and pay you without argument.

(2) He will argue point, forcing you to offer a compromise plan.

Or (3) He will flatly refuse to pay, forcing you to decide how far you're willing to go to collect what is owed. You should be prepared for either occurrence before getting face-to-face with client. Remember this: In a business negotiation, he who is prepared least gives up most.

With that in mind, here's how I would handle situation.