by Kyla Camille | Negosentro.com |
Establishing a service-providing company and working in the field of services in general demands a high level of patience and intelligence. Of course, there are certain benefits for business owners in this area, like working with weal-off clients and avoiding strenuous physical work. But there is also one golden rule for every single company and individual in the tertiary and quaternary sectors – always ensure mechanisms for full payment for your services. It can be achieved in many ways, but only few of them are truly efficient.
Never trust repetitive deal-breakers
Many rookies in the field of services have to close down their businesses in the first two years out of one simple reason – they are simply too gullible. Hoping that someone will stop being a lousy payer is the same like waiting for an unreliable spouse to start behaving rationally. So, in order to become and stay a proactive entrepreneur, never let yourself fall for the same trick with the same partner. Business owners and managers know that they have to pay you, but they decide to stall and postpone that moment. If they have their own calculations, you have a full right to have yours, too. First time somebody cons you or refuses to pay your services, stop collaborating with them and tell all your other business partners about your negative experience.
Payment-nudging discounts
Probably the most important part of every kind of deal in life is setting the rules before the game has started. If people make and sign prenuptial agreements, it should not be too strange for business partners to agree their future business collaboration in advance. One of the most efficient ways to ensure that your customers or partners will pay you for your services is to determine some win-win options beforehand. For instance, you could give your customers an option to get a 10% discount if they pay your services on time. Also, you should always offer your customers significant discounts for cash payments.
Reminding possibilities
Sooner or later, every business owner comes across a customer that cannot be persuaded to pay them on time in a polite way. If your customer does not use any of the offered conditions, it is time to remind them about their obligations in other ways. First of all, you should send them a reminder letter, in which you should show empathy and compassion for their moves. Secondly, you have to tell them that you also need the assets that they owe you. Finally, there has to be a clear deadline until they are expected to pay their debts. Here you can have a look at a letter of demand, created by the business experts from the Australian government, to help small business owners.
Last resorts
Now that you have realized that some customers and business partners will not pay you even after you have reminded them several times about their obligations, you have to apply harsher methods. Start with regular daily phone calls. Engage your secretary to call the owing business once a day, to keep warning them that your patience is coming to an end. After that, pay a few visits in person to that customer of yours. Talk to them in a polite, but assertive way. Finally, if nothing else works, you have to turn to professionals. So, you can contact a debt recovery agency to finally persuade your debtors to pay what they need to pay.
The problem of getting paid for your services is a burning issue in the modern business world. Companies all over the world suffer from turbulent economic turmoil that destroys many honest and reliable business owners. In order to protect their business and personal existence, business owners need to react promptly when their debtors fail to pay them on time. We hope our tips will help them get what belongs to them as fast as possible.
