Rule One of Business: Get Paid
Posted: June 21st, 2010 | Author: blogman33 | Filed under: Bumper stickers | No Comments »To get paid, just like you would imagine is fundamentally fundamental to your business because if you aren’t paid, what’s the point in business?
You may be astounded at the amount of business people who only get their customer base to pay them when and if they feel like it. I know of such a tradesman who persistently gets bad debts like charms. Why is that? Simply because he can’t bring himself to take the money and lets people intimidate him.
If you allow someone credit, do so only if they have cleared their worth to you by paying cash on delivery (COD) for some period. Secondly, you should find whether they have the cash to pay you – if they don’t then do not do business with them. Don’t push yourself into saying “I need the work” or “I need the sales”. It’s pointless to do the service or providing the goods for free if you do not get paid.
If you are the kind of person who can’t ask for the money even after the work has been completed, try these cheats:
Tell your customer that when all the work is finished, you require cash or cheque. They should likely have it there at the transacation and you do not have to request your fee.
When you hand out the initial quote, make sure your payment terms are understandable.
Complete an invoice including your terms of payment evidently listed and hand the customer the invoice when the service is finished. They will see the invoice and reactively assume they need to pay for it now without you having to say anything. Invent an “evil boss” who would skin you alive if you can not bring back the cash for the job.
Ask your banking to set you up with Merchant facilities so you can use credit cards for example Mastercard and Visa. The majority of people have credit cards and it could prevent the dilemma of the client not operating a cheque account or not having enough cash on hand.
Otherwise, don’t be persuaded against to hand over the goods til payment is paid. Know, until they’re paid for, they remain to be yours.
If you decide you’re going to permit someone credit, make sure you get the following details about them at a time BEFORE 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 know all this information, call the branch and make for certain that they do operate an account there. Then, contact all of the trade reference and inquire if they pay their debts consistently or if they have had any dilemmas 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.
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