talking points On Getting Paid in China

These days, most every course designer on the planet wants to work in China. But is a commission in the People's Republic all it's cracked up to be?

Here's what Brian Curley, a principal of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Schmidt-Curley Design, has to say about doing business in China. His comments were originally posted in an interview with Golf Club Atlas.

Asia is different on multiple levels. On one hand, jobs can go fast, although very few ever go as fast as they first promise. As most know, China is in the midst of a moratorium on golf construction, and illegally built courses do get shut down on occasion. So not only are developers taking major risks, but architects need to be aware the job they were promised can vanish in a heartbeat.

Farmland and villager issues are huge and not going away. It is very common to begin construction on a project only to be told that land first planned for development has disappeared and the property line has changed, causing a total change of plans -- and “we need it yesterday.”

Essentially all clients expect and demand a lot of up-front work -- for free -- before they decide who to use. They will use these plans to work competing bids and can make promises that often go unfulfilled.

A number of architects get concerned that their plans will be used with no contract or payment, and they will. We had a client who, despite my radar telling me to stay away when we first negotiated, was cordial for most of the project but later built a second course that we provided plans for yet never were paid. He turned into the guy I first met, and I felt lucky to make it out of his office with a substantially reduced final payment offered on a “take it or leave it” basis.

We found a project selling memberships touting us as the designers although we had nothing to do with the course.

Then, you want to get paid. Sometimes you have to wait a long time, sometimes you may never see a dime. We have been largely very fortunate, as we have many five-star clients. But there can be major hiccups. We are large enough to ride the ups and downs.

In the U.S., you have legal avenues when all these issues arise. But in Asia, are you going to sue? We have decided a few times to take our lumps and move on.