Every year I always wait until the second week of January before verbalizing my resolutions. That is because even though I think about them around New Year’s eve, I usually don’t carry most of them out……so a week wait confirms my intentions.
This blog is Part 1 of 3 and will deal with improving not only my business but yours as well.
All of us have a tendency to procrastinate and one if the worst places to do so is with the billing and colection cycle on our accounts receivable. Once a service is performed or a product sold you should immedialely issue an invoice. If you go into a store to buy something they ring up the cash to complete the sale. Every business should do the same. If you can’t hand the invoice to the customer at the end of the service you should email, fax, deliver, etc the invoice immediately. Snail mail will still work but could prolong the time the invoice is outstanding and hurt your cash flow. So stay away from any service that adds to the collection time. In so far as collection, offer ‘aids’ to help the customer pay quickly……wire transfer, credit card, debit card, email transfer, etc.
Take a look at your accounts receivable and determine why there are some accounts that just will not pay ‘on time’. By improving your billing and collection processes you will iliminate excuses that your customer can use for delaying payment.
Should you require any specific advice that involves your invoicinga and clooection system, we can help. Give us a call or send me an email with your questions.
Next week I will deal with why we should review all our costs of doing business at least once a year and why the beginning of the year is the correct time.
Have a safe, profitable and HAPPY NEW YEAR