www.1001TopWords.com |
Collect that Debt - Your Business Depends on it
The efficiency of debt collection is the difference between a business that will succeed and a business that closes up. If you do not have control of your debt collection then you will eventually fail. All businesses that grant credit will be faced with the problem of bad debt at some stage. The best way to deal with bad debt is to have a good debt control system in place. There are three types of bad debt: This is where your debtor can pay but will drag out non-payment as long as possible. They do intend to pay but only at the last moment. This type of debtor have no means of paying the debt either momentarily or ever. They are not necessarily avoiding payment but do not have the means to do so. This type of debtor is the worst. They will try to get away with not paying, know the debt collection routine and will not pay until the matter goes either to court or through a debt collection agency. The solution to this is to get your money when it falls due or have a collection procedure that does not let your debtors get away with anything. Once you stop chasing the money that is due to you the amount owing to you will increase. The longer you allow a debt to remain unpaid, the less chance you have of recovering it. There are three ways to collect debt: This is the least costly method and involves phoning the debtor, sending letters and as a last resort, going to court to have the debt paid. This involves having your lawyer send letters of demand before it is taken further. A fee will be charged dependent on how long it takes for the debt to be recovered. If going to court is involved and your debtor is forced to pay you through a court order your legal fees could be recovered. However if not, then you will have to cover the court costs as well. These are firms such as Baycorp, who specialise in the collection of debts. A percentage of the amount collected is taken as a fee. If the debtor does not pay the debt it will usually affect their personal credit rating.
StartRunGrow (http://www.startrungrow.com) is a global online information organization that specializes in creating, developing and marketing business help information specifically with the aim of "making business easier" for entrepreneurs around the world. The StartRunGrow objective is to become a dominant player in the business help arena providing end to end solutions for the millions of small and medium businesses worldwide who continue to struggle daily with the difficulties of starting, running and growing a successful business.
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Top Ten Tips for Leveraging Conferences for Big SUCCESS! As I am preparing for my attendance to the CoachVille's Third Annual Coaching Conference, I have been considering how I can make the most of my conference attendance. These ten tips will support you in leveraging those conference you will attend in the future and for creating an unforgettable experience! Small Business Secrets: Self-Confidence Can Be Arranged At first blush this idea might be difficult to wrap your brain around. That's because you've been taught that self-confidence is achieved through mastery of knowledge or skills. How to become a Career Coach for Profit A career coach could be simply defined your job seeking partner. A career coach could be a career management coach, who helps you in managing your career or a career marketing coach, who helps you build contacts, posts your resumes, tries to find the best jobs for you and helps you secure the best jobs. He basically tries to market you effectively in the job market. Going Public: Now that You Have Successfully Made the Transition, What Do You Do? Ok, you have successfully accomplished your dream of being the CEO of a public company. The stock of your company has a symbol and you are continually going to the computer to check the price, you tell all your relatives and friends and you even tried to encourage them to buy the stock. Deciding Which State To Incorporate Your Small Business In Once you've decided to incorporate your small business the next step is deciding which state to incorporate in. A common misconception is that businesses must incorporate in their state of operation. You can, in fact, incorporate in any one of the 50 states and the District of Columbia regardless of where your business currently operates. Small Business Mistakes: Are You Making Enough of Them? That's right are you making enough mistakes in your business? Some of you are probably annoyed at my question; others are thinking "Geez, Rose! If I made any more mistakes I'd have to run screaming back to a day job!" How to Profit from a Concrete Roof Tile Business Concrete Roof Tile Business:During the 2004 summer season, storms plagued the United States. Damages from the Hurricanes in Florida alone sent resources in the southern states scrambling. The shortage of qualified roofing professionals and supplies were felt immediately. Roofers from all over the United States began hunting down supplies and heading south. There were also many people who saw a roofing business opportunity and invested in roof tile businesses. Do You Need the Help of a Virtual Assistant? Running a business, whether large, small or in your home, is full of challenges. Getting the day-to-day tasks completed, e-mail, faxes and telephones answered, bills and statements sent out, reports run, schedule updated, travel arrangements made, marketing pieces and website updated, as well as a plethora of other tasks, can be downright daunting. Administration Of Your Small Business You've been meaning to tend to the administration part of your business, that is, the growing list of things to do that relates to your small business. You've shoved all other appointments aside and starts getting down to working on the nitty gritty details, you're ready to go all out and tick everything on the list off! But where in the world is the list? 9 Things You Must Do To Maximize Your Chances Of Obtaining A Small Business Loan To get approval for your small business loan application, you must be able to meet the lending criteria set down. Some organisations are more risk averse than others, and will therefore have more stringent criteria. To vastly increase your chances of a successful funding application, you will need to present the following information: Accounting and Billing Procedures for Small Business No matter how small your small business is, it is essential to have some sort of accounting and billing police and methodology. This will prevent you from making mistakes and upsetting vendors or even bouncing checks. Most sole proprietor and single employee companies do not have a plan of attack for accounting and billing procedures until there is a crisis. There is no sense in allowing a crisis to take hold, especially when a few procedures are set in place to prevent it. Remember Noah built the Ark before the rain. Pressure Washing Companies; Pricing Dock and Deck Cleaning If you own a Pressure Washing Company and wish to get business at the local Marina there are a few things you should know. You need to be careful in bidding these types of jobs. How to Integrate Yourself in Someone Elses Business When do you need to get more involved with the day to day activities of your business partner? Creative Metrification - A Technique to Improve Some things in business are relatively easy to measure ? these are the "hard" metrics such as sales volume and profit, production per man-hour, time without an accident, shipments without error, number of customers served, on-time delivery, etc. Other, "soft" metrics, are more difficult to quantify, but with a little creativity, measurement can be made of just about anything. Using Business Broker In the Franchising Industry for Franchise Sales Franchising companies often use Business Broker to help attain sales goals. Here is an interesting fact. Most large Business Broker Chains promote franchises and charge franchises money to join their network and programs. Not chump change either. Then the Broker Network takes all the logos and prominently displays them in ads and websites, and titles, meta tags and key words those pages. So as to attract customers, franchise buyers. But when a franchise buyer calls up, they are sent to the local business broker who secretly hates franchises? Small Business - Is The Accounting Profession Ripping Them Off? My 16 year-old daughter said, "Gee Dad! You look just like an accountant" And she wasn't being complimentary. Accountants are perceived to be boring, stodgy and conservative.Over the years we've been the butt of many jokes. I've heard them all.Why did the accountant cross the road? Because he looked up the file and that's what they did last year! Ha Ha!What do accountants use as a contraceptive? Their personality! Ha Ha!"Why do accountants become accountants? They don't have the charisma to be undertakers! Ha Ha!What do they call an accountant at the bottom of the sea? A bloody good start! Ha Ha!I think I am the exception.That's why I've begun to call myself a business strategist and counselor. "You're still an accountant," says teenage daughter. I am still an accountant and I'm still as passionate about it as the day I started. Because accountants have an impact on people's lives. The advice we give changes people's businesses which in turn changes their lives. I'm excited in my role of accountant.Accounting is not stodgy. Accounting is exciting. Accounting is cool! My ambition is to become the "cool dude of accounting". (do they still say "dude", do they still say "cool". Remember that song: When I say, "cool, man, cool, I don't mean cool, man, cool, I mean you leave me cold, Jack")We were throwing some ideas around with some of our clients as we do from time to time, looking for that unique benefit that our firm gives to our clients. That unique something that distinguishes us from other accounting practices.One said, "You have helped me to improve my business. Not only am I making more profits and have more to spend, but I also have more time to spend away from the business. The more time I spend at home with my family the happier my life is. And the happier I am the happier my wife and children seem to be. When my wife is happy all sorts of good things happen ? even our sex life improves. That's it! You can advertise that using Kelvyn Peters CPA and Associates improves your sex life"I don't think so! Sorry, we haven't accepted his idea. You're completely on your own in that department, but we can help you improve your business and consequently your life. And your goal might not be extra profit but extra time for living! We know we can because we are doing it for others.We repeat ourselves so often because the truth is the truth and there is only a limited number of ways to tell it. You've heard this before. If you are spending every waking moment in a hassle about your business, there must be a better way. There is! Accountants have been ripping off their clients for yearsIn 1973 I attended a workshop for accountants at the Finance Management Research Center then headed by Dr Keith Cleland. The workshop was intended to drag participants into the 20th century."Accountants have been ripping off their clients for years", he told us. The 25 participants were shocked. These represented vibrant accounting firms from all around Australia, both large firms and small. They were at the cutting edge of the industry. Otherwise they would not have been at this kind of workshop.To a person they resented that comment and one fellow wanted to punch him on the nose. (It wasn't me, but I would have held his coat).By the week's end we discovered how we were charging high fees for things that our clients couldn't understand, couldn't use and didn't need. At the same time we were neglecting the information that they did need to increase their profits and safeguard their businesses. 20 Years Later what's Changed? I attended a week long seminar hosted by CPA Australia in 1993 which was to train us in "client based accounting".Dr Cleland presented the initial module. He did not openly criticize accountants this time, after all, it was the CPA's hosting it, but he gave almost the same speech (same jokes, too) as he had 20 years before."These things aren't taught in Universities", he said, "so the accounting profession has mostly ignored them. They have let small business down but things are changing".Know-it-all, Kelvyn Peters had to jump to his feet and say that the doctor had said exactly the same thing 20 years ago. Where were the signs of change? Universities were still not teaching accountants how to help their clients."This seminar with CPA Australia and the suggestion they might make client based accounting a speciality is a good sign", he replied.10 Years Later?Nothing has changed. Our hopes have withered on the vine and small business must look elsewhere for help. Recently I was called in to assist an ailing restaurant. We were happy to work with their existing accountant. We'd rather do the fun stuff and let the accountant do the boring tax returns and compliance work. In this case the client insisted we take over the whole of the accounting function.The accountant was most unhappy. "They are difficult clients", he said, "I have kept the fee lower than it should be and I have done extra to help them".Indeed, he had! The financial statements were beautiful to behold with colored graphs and key ratios compared against industry average. (most accountants still don't do that.I had advised that both wages costs and cost of foodstuffs were too high. Our focus was to form tactics to reduce them."But I had already told them that", said the Accountant, "what do they need you for?'I told him that the client knew the kitchen wages were too high and what he wanted was for someone to show them how to reduce the wages in the kitchen."I can't do that", he said, "I'm an accountant". I would have to camp down there in the restaurant to see what's going on. And they wouldn't pay the fee".Yes they would. They were going to pay me.Most accountants see their role as being the provider of financial statements, cash-flow projections and tax returns, and there's the rub. Each of these is a tool not an end in itself. It's like giving the client a hammer and saw and telling him to go build a house. He needs more than the tools, he needs to be shown how to use them.Of course the client will complain about fees whatever the level if all he receives are not useful to him. Accountants generally are flat out preparing financial statements and tax returns. Meeting dead-lines. They haven't the time to 'smell the roses'. Anything that doesn't help meet a dead-line has to wait until later. Often its too late.I may still look like an accountant, even the cool dude of accounting, but there is nothing I like more than talking with a business owner about his business. There's nothing a business owner likes more than discussing his business and planning to make more money. It's great fun and he loves to pay me for it. How to Start Home Based Travel Businesses Home based travel businesses are no longer the wave of the future. Home travel businesses are the hot trend right now. So if you're considering becoming a travel agent, this brief guide will provide you with information you need to know. FTC Franchise Rule if Enacted will Trigger Hardship for Private Sector The FTC Franchise Rule maybe changed, as the Federal trade Commission has put out a report to the franchising industry as to upgrade the rule. If enacted will it will trigger hardship for private sector and cost many trees their lives; Paperwork. If this rule is passed; tree MUST die because everyone will have to their already 200 plus page franchise disclosure documents. Business Success - The 42 Greatest Business Tips What does it take to grow a business and run it successfully? The main ingredient is attention to the basics, operating with integrity and following the way other successful people have run their operations. The Hidden Treasure in Your Business I started working with another new client last week. He has been in business for about a year and a half. Yes, he has managed to make plenty of mistakes, like we all do. But, he has done something so very right that I thought I'd share itwith you. |
© Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |