Studio Business Advice

Does he have references (has he screwed somebody else)?

I don't have a commercial studio and wouldn't but if I did I'd have a booking contract which addressed issues such as yours.
It's not lunch and I'm already hungry...I'll gladly pay you Friday for a hamburger right now. :)

Tell him he'll have to leave some gear as collateral. Business is business and you haven't had a chance to build a rapport with the guy. He might be trying to pull a fast one and it's a little suspicious he booked the date without knowing he'd have the cash in hand. That would raise a red flag for me even if it only means he may not be super responsible instead of a scammer. Business is business.

spindlebox
he's waiting for taxes to come in. 

Obama ??

I still have the ADAT tapes (x3) for a group I recorded in 1999. They were going to be back in two weeks to pay me for them.
 
And, they were friends of my son.
 
True story. 
 

That one could go either way....
 
you do the sessions and the refund never seems to materialize or needs to be spent to fix the car.... so as long as you don't give up any of the finished or not so finished work.....MP3 or masters, all you are out is the time invested if the guy busts out..... practice time for your skills.
If you cancel the session after having "booked it" then that would likely cause hard feelings no matter what the explanation. It would have been better to say in the first discussion that in order to "book" time, a deposit was required to hold the studio time. Of course that is past and you gotta deal with the reality you face now since you booked the time with no deposit in hand. Based on that, I'd probably still do the session, and get an agreement that no music is delivered until payment is made to your satisfaction. 
 
On the other hand, you do the sessions, the guy pays like he says from the refund and you have a happy client.
 
Unfortunately there's no way to predict the outcome.  
 
being in business is a gamble every day. I run an electronic security business and rarely run any sort of background credit checks on customers. For 22 years in the business, the money I'm owed by deadbeats is minimal. Some are notoriously late but will pay eventually. Others are net30 but it might be net 60 or 90 and yeah, I charge late fees too and the commercial ones rarely pay it. I'm happy to get the original amount owed.
 
Being kind, and doing the job could pay off. It changed my policy toward enforcement of my alarm monitoring contracts. The big companies make you pay to get out early. I had a customer who lost his job and could not afford the monthly monitoring with 6 months left in the contract. I could have demanded payment in full, but I opted to let him out of the contract with no penalty.
 
This same guy later recommended me to his mother. I repaired her old alarm system, and then wired a new house she was buying for a security system. Later, when he got a job and was back on his feet, he also built a new house. Wanna guess who he called to install his security system?  Yep, I ended up with a bunch of work and referrals from this one guy because I opted to let him out of the contract. Had I enforced the contract for 6 months of revenue, I'd have lost thousands of dollars in future income as a result.
 
Sometimes it pays to be nice.

Different business different methods of payments. Not trying to be hard, but really, it just seems too flaky to me as of now. Get the money, reschedule, easiest and best way to make the point, that it is a business.
 
Actually it is your business and you can do what you want. Does the cost of a baseball bat figure into it though?
 
 

spindlebox
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I just ask because it's quite a chunk of change that would be great to have.  Murphy's law predicts that as soon as I cancel the session, he gets the money by Friday.  ;)
...

Tell Murphy to take a hike, and he should not be in the equation or you should not be in business!
 
But I have 2 pieces of writing that I have gotten some help on, and that person has a percentage on it. And they are not my agent, but they helped at a time that I needed it badly.
 
It's a 2-edged sword, sometimes, and you have to look at it directly and make your call and not look back. And there is always the one that will make it, and you do not gain benefits from it in the future, and you can say that you did not know, or have a good enough sense to make a call on it.
 
I would think that I would evaluate that person's work and such, and then make a call, so you don't feel like you have to take on something you don't want, and on top of it, something that is just plain wishy-washy, and becomes a waste of time.
 
I can not tell you what I would do, but I would make sure you take a good look at the work and that person, and then make your call. But it sounds to me that those folks are playing a dangerous game of making sure they can walk away with benefits for nothing, and no one can afford that in this day and age. I'm not saying that you can not afford to do something for free, but maybe, just maybe, there is that one time when you did, and it comes back to ... pat you in the back and then some!
 
You have to take it as you will and not look back is my guess.
 
But when it comes to screenplays, yeah, 2 of them already have 10% of it gone. It's peanuts, you know, because when/if they sell it's a quarter, and my investors stand to gain 25K each ... and it's like a lottery ticket. One day, when you least expect it, there it is! Your dream!

spindlebox
(Moskaie, read my post just above yours.)

I'm not a noob business owner, but am a person that too struggles like everyone else.  I try to balance heartless CEO with Starving Artist.  But I have been burned before, and there is no point in taking chances.
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Never suggested you did!  And I'm not a child either. I'm 63 and not a behinner, either! But there is a time and place, when you might just have to give something away, despite your good sense not wanting to. That one kid, that is actually really good, and you think he has an opportunity, but has no money ... there is always one out there to tempt you, if you will!
 
You're (probably) second guessing you you would do, and I probably would too!
 
Question is, would I give the CHB a second chance? YOU BETCHA! But there is no money in it, either!