Happy Bloo Monday 👋,

The weekly newsletter for businesses owners, organisations, team members and solo entrepreneurs (freelancers) — designed to add some colour to the Monday blues and replace it with a touch of Bloo 💙.

This week we’re flipping the lens, and will be talking about freelancing.

In this week of Bloo Monday’s we’ll be covering:

• 💙 The Art of Freelancing — Sabica’s journey of how art, freelancing and business helped create Bloo.

•  🎨Freelancer Case Study — a look at how freelancers are empowered through businesses to invoice through our app

• 💰 90% of SMEs and Freelancers Experience a Late Payment in the Year — A Guide for small business owners and freelancers if you’re in this situation.

The Art of Freelancing: Sabica’s Journey of Creating Bloo Money

Bloo Money is built with creative freelancers in mind.

Few know the experience of being an artist, chasing payments, juggling gigs, and why we built Bloo to fix what freelancers face daily — than our cofounder, Sabica.

In 2014, Sabica began studying Fine Arts at Wits University and quickly realised her creativity couldn’t be contained by studio walls. If you know Sabica, you’ll know that she thrives on human stories, real conversations, and the chaos of daily life.

During her free time whilst studying and creating art in her studio, she was also creating a life for herself. Freelancing as a photographer, videographer and working as a promoter. Leading South Africa’s first student led consulting firm as a Business Consultant and and social empowerment art projects to create awareness on relevant topics.

One of her earliest projects was a street exhibition she created with a fellow artist and close friend Mikyla. That project got them shortlisted for the Wits Young Artists Awards in 2016. They believed that art didn’t belong only in galleries—it belonged in the streets, where people could actually feel and experience it.

This is an idea she carries through every day at Bloo Money thoughtfully designing the app like it is an art piece.

She believes that finance shouldn’t only be understood by a select few like accountants or ‘finance bros’ in a suit, but rather it should be simplified so that anyone can understand it. There is power in understanding how your money flows.

Even as her work gained recognition, she kept constantly hearing or being asked:
“How will you make money doing art?”

Instead of being discouraged, she co-organised a finance talk for Fine Arts students with Business and Arts South Africa (BASA). Funny enough, years later, BASA used the Bloo Money app for one of their national funding programs, it was like a full-circle moment that validated everything she had been trying to build.

As she started getting further in her creative pursuits and growing as a freelance photographer, the inevitable happened. Clients and businesses she was working with started to ask her to “send an invoice”.

Something she had never been taught how to do. She had created award winning art and created student led movements but she had actually never created an invoice before.

Having no clue at first, she asked her friends and created one on Excel. Yes, after a few incorrect invoices, she did get it right. She got used to the drill of — sending invoices, chasing payments, following up despite the awkwardness and somehow stayed professional while doing it.

That’s when she realised the actual work is only half the job, the admin is half a job of its own. Many of her freelancing friends were experience the same thing. If the admin of freelancing wasn’t already taxing enough. It was also a struggle figuring out how to calculate tax.

The creative and cultural industries contributes roughly R160 billion to South Africa’s GDP annually, this is about the same amount as the agriculture industry. However, with all this value following through the industry it’s been overlooked and lacks tailored financial solutions to help creatives operating in this industry with their finances.

This is the passion which Sabica brings to build an app for freelancers and businesses with the tools she wishes she had.

• Submit invoices in one place

• Get notified when they’re approved

• Know exactly when you’re getting paid

• No back-and-forth, no spreadsheets, no stress

The vision is to build something that gives power to freelancers and businesses who work with them. The goal isn’t to spend your time on our app. The goal is to let you focus on your creative work and let the app help you get paid, and move on.

💡 Use Case: Freelancers Working with Businesses on Bloo Money

As a freelancer, you’ve probably created invoices in all sorts of ways — Canva, Excel, Word, invoicing apps… the list goes on. So what makes Bloo Money different?

Bloo connects you directly to the businesses you are working with. So you can both collaborate and notify each other on the progress of YOUR invoice.

Why? Because late payments often aren’t about bad intentions — they’re about bad systems:

• Invoices get lost in email threads

• You accidentally leave out key info

• Multiple people need to approve the invoice before it’s paid

With Bloo, invoicing is simple, fast, and built for transparency.

✅ Create and submit an invoice in under 5 minutes — Forget over-designing — the goal is to get you paid, fast.

✅ Use the business’s template — No need to guess what’s required — just fill it out and send. Everything is structured to reduce back-and-forth and avoid errors.

✅ Track payments in real-time — See exactly what’s been submitted, what’s approved, what’s paid — and what’s still owed.

✅ Store all client details in one place — No more digging through old emails to find bank details or contact info.

Want to make invoicing easier and get paid faster?

What to Do When Clients Pay You Late: A Practical Guide for Small Businesses and Freelancers.

According to the Xero SME Pulse Survey. 90% of South African SMEs (this includes freelancers and sole proprietors) are owed money beyond their payment terms at any given time in the year.

On average, SMEs are owed R99,801, which can critically affect their ability to pay employees, suppliers, or service debts.

Waiting to get paid isn’t just inconvenient — it’s disruptive, especially for freelancers who rely on steady cash flow to survive. For freelancers these late payments affect cash flow, cause financial stress, and potentially straining relationships with clients

From speaking with and interviewing +100 businesses and freelancers we’ve realised that, payments are delayed not because of bad intent—but because of spreadsheets, manual processes, scattered communication, and lack of financial visibility.

It was one of the reasons we founded Bloo Money—to help small businesses and freelancers alike avoid the strain of chasing payments.

We know that sometimes, no matter how diligent you are with your invoicing and follow-ups, clients may still fail to pay on time. That’s why we’ve partnered with Legal Standpoint, an award-winning legal tech startup, to provide small businesses and freelancers with the legal tools and knowledge they need to take action.

Legal Standpoint is dedicated to democratising legal education and services for South Africans. Through their app, they offer a learning platform and a legal marketplace, making it easier for you to understand your rights and connect with legal practitioners who can help.

✅ How to Protect Yourself from Late Payments Before You Begin the Work

Before starting any project, make sure you have a detailed service agreement or contract in place. If you don’t have one you can visit the Legal Standpoint website and engage with a lawyer to draft you a standard template.

The best way to ensure an airtight contract with all relevant clauses is to have the contract either drafted or reviewed by a vetted lawyer. Lawyers are experienced in drafting agreements of this nature and will suggest clauses which you may not have thought of previously.

Some of the most common clauses include:

1. Payment Terms: Clearly state the payment amount, due dates, and acceptable payment methods.

2. Late Payment Penalties: Include clauses specifying any fees or interest charges that will apply if payments are delayed.

3. Milestone Payments: For longer projects, consider breaking up the payment into milestones. This ensures you receive payments at key points throughout the project, reducing financial risk.

✅ What happens if you’re paid late? What you can do before considering the legal route

What do you do when the payment due date has passed, and you’re still waiting for your money? While it’s frustrating, there are immediate actions you can take to try and resolve the situation without damaging your client relationship.

Here are a few steps to consider:

1. Send a friendly reminder: The first step is always a polite nudge. Often, a simple email or phone call can resolve the issue quickly.
   
   Your client may have forgotten or missed the invoice, and a reminder can push them to settle the payment.
   
   Example message:
   “Hi [Client Name], I hope all is well. I just wanted to check in on the invoice that was due on [due date]. Please let me know if you need any further information to process the payment. Thank you!”
   

2. Offer Flexible Payment Plans: If your client is facing cash flow issues, offering a flexible payment plan could be a way to get at least partial payment while maintaining a good relationship.
   
   This approach demonstrates understanding and gives your client time to pay without the stress of a lump sum and breaking their payments into two or three separate payments spread out over weeks or months.
   
   Example offer:
   “I understand things might be tight right now. I’m happy to discuss a payment plan if that would help make things easier.”

Taking these steps can help address late payments while preserving your relationship with your client. Acting with patience and professionalism can often lead to quicker resolutions and long-term trust.

✅ What happens if you’re paid late and you want to take the legal route?

When all polite reminders and flexible payment plans fail, it might be time to explore legal avenues. Knowing your legal rights as a small business or freelancer is essential to protect yourself and ensure that you receive the payment you are owed.

Here are some legal steps you can consider:

1. Review Your Contract: If you have a solid contract in place, refer back to the payment terms and late payment penalties outlined. This document is the legal foundation for any actions you take. If your client is breaching the agreed terms, you have the right to enforce the contract.

2. Send a Formal Demand Letter: A demand letter is a formal request for payment and is often the first legal step. In the letter, you’ll outline the amount owed, the original payment terms, and a new deadline to settle the debt. This shows your client that you’re serious about taking legal action if necessary.
   
   This step is critical because it constitutes evidence that you have tried different approaches in good faith to retrieve the payment. This will be important in the event that you escalate the matter to the Small Claims Court.
   
   Ensure that the letter is dated, contains all relevant details i.e. existing contract/agreement, amount owed, payment structure, new deadline by which to pay etc. More importantly, ensure that the receiving party (debtor) has actually received the letter by delivering it in person or obtaining proof of delivery if you use a third-party service.
   

3. Consider the Small Claims Court: The Small Claims Court is a powerful legal mechanism to retrieve payments of R20,000 or less from an individual who owes you and/or refuses to pay you.
   
   Typically, this step is taken in the event that the receiving party (the debtor) fails to comply with the conditions outlined in the Letter of Demand outlined above.
   
   Before approaching the Small Claims Court, ensure that you have the following documents: a copy of the Letter of Demand, the contract/agreement proving that the debtor owes you, any document that proves that the Letter of Demand was delivered to the debtor as well as a document with the personal and contact details of the debtor.
   

4. Consider the Small Claims Court: If the amount owed is significant and you want to avoid the hassle of going to court, you might consider hiring a collections agency or legal counsel. Collections agencies will work on your behalf to recover the money, often taking a percentage of the recovered amount.

   By knowing the legal steps available to you, you can ensure that your rights are protected and that clients understand the seriousness of their late payments.

By knowing the legal steps available to you, you can ensure that your rights are protected and that clients understand the seriousness of their late payments.

🔥 Let’s connect

That’s it for this week folks and looking forward to seeing you again next week Monday.