Rule One of Business: Get Paid
Getting paid, just as you would imagine is vitally fundamental in your business because if you don’t get paid, what’s the point in business?
You will be surprised at the heaps of business people who have their customer base to pay them when and if they get on with it. I know of one business owner who always gets bad debts like weeds. Why, do you think? Very possibly because he can’t bring himself to ask for the payment and people just take advantage of him.
If you allow a customer credit, only do it because they have proven consistency to you by paying cash on delivery (COD) for some time. Secondly, you should check whether they have the money to pay you – if not do not do business with them. Don’t fool yourself into saying “I need the work” or “I need the sales”. It’s fruitless when you do the work or providing the goods for nothing if you don’t get paid.
If you are the sort of person who can’t request the payment when the service has been done, try these ideas:
Tell your client that when the service is done, you will need cash or cheque. They will more than likely have it to hand over at the point of sale and you don’t need to ask for your pay.
When you send out the quote, be sure your payment terms are clear.
Do up an invoice with your terms of payment clearly stated and hand the customer the invoice when the service is finished. They can take the invoice and generally know they can pay the money now without you going to say a thing. Fabricate a “nasty boss” who would burn you alive if you can not go back with the pay for the work.
Arrange with your bank branch to have you running with Merchant facilities so you can accept credit cards for example Mastercard and Visa. The majority of people utilize credit cards and it could prevent the difficulty of the customer not operating a cheque account or not having the right cash on hand.
As another option, don’t be afraid to hold any goods till they have been paid for. Know, until the goods are paid for, the goods are still yours.
If you choose to let a client credit, be sure you have got the following contact information off them a week PREVIOUSLY you let them credit.
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Bank name and address
- Account no.
- 3 trade references with their names, addresses and phone numbers
Once you possess all this information, call the bank branch and make certain that they do have an account with them. Then, call every trade reference and find out if they pay their invoices consistently or if they have had any problems with them.
Most people will be willing to tell you if the person is troublesome. If everything is OK, allow them a moderate level of debt, say no more than $500 (depending on your business). Monitor the operation of the account for a few months before allowing this amount to be exceeded.
If you’re looking for a Brisbane web design company or Brisbane SEO company, talk to Search Tempo. Check out their SEO prices today.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.