Do Business Well

Even if you managed to obtain adequate finances for your business, one of the biggest traps is cash flow. Cash flow basically means the movement of money into your business (from the sale of your goods or services) and the movement of money out of it (to suppliers, the bank, other creditors and employees). The relationship of these two flows is very important. Many businesses go under because although they are owed a lot of money they do not have enough in hand to pay the bank/their own debts. There is nothing more frustrating than knowing you are owed 0,000 but not having enough cash in hand to pay for the weekly shop. Continue Reading »

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As you look through these or refer back to them, please see them first as a source of inspiration for specific ideas on how to handle specific problems. Then begin to develop a sense of how to solve all problems with creativity and a can-do attitude.

1. Tomorrow is Friday. For your company that means payday. Time to pass out paychecks to your employees. Time to take home the bacon for you.

Unfortunately, sales have been soft for a full week, or your largest customer is behind in paying you, or you made a substantial error in your checkbook, or you had to put out a large amount of cash to fix a piece of equipment or . . . any one or two of many things that could happen, and now, you can’t make payroll tomorrow. Continue Reading »

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If they say they will mail it right out, mark the date that you both agree it should reach you on their file. Keep a record of each phone call by time, date, contact person, and details of discussion. Also keep a copy of all correspondence in the file.

B. Responses to wrong answers. Many times you will be told that they did not receive your copy by mail. Immediately send out a copy of the letter and invoice by certified mail, return receipt requested. If the amount is large enough or important enough you may want to use an overnight service. The key is to use a system that requires a signature. This will quickly eliminate this excuse. Follow up again with a phone call on the day you figure the item has arrived to confirm with your contact that they now have the invoice copy. Continue Reading »

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I owned and operated a wholesale company with approximately one thousand retailers as my customers. I was completely computerized and sent statements to my customers every month in addition to their invoices.

We offered a 3 percent cash discount for payments received within ten days of invoice date. We charged 1.5 percent per month interest on accounts that were not paid within the standard thirty- day terms. The U.S. economy had enjoyed two very prosperous years. For all of these reasons, the company was collecting its accounts in an average of thirty days.

In addition, we had only needed to write off .5 percent of our total sales because of the bankruptcies or liquidations of our customers. This was excellent, given the number and quality of our customers. Continue Reading »

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Your approach to payment of your accounts may have almost as much impact on the performance of your company as does the collection of your receivables.

In a perfect world, we would all enter into small business with plenty of cash. We would make money from the first day, never outgrow our financial resources, and never have a crisis interrupt our ability to pay. I have actually known a couple of small business owners for whom this has been true. Continue Reading »

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This is a brilliant promotion in itself. Whereas unhappy clients never stop telling other people how badly they were treated, happy clients barely murmur, unless it is an amazing case of ‘And they even…!’ If you are going to be talked about, let it be in the latter way.

You can do simple things, too, such as taking care of people’s parcels as a kind gesture and security measure. In New York you have to hand in any bag bigger than a small handbag and, even though it is an anti-theft measure, it allows you to shop hands- free.

Recently, in a well-respected department store, I tried to check in my overnight bag and was advised quite firmly that it was against security regulations. I could not carry the bag and shop at the same time, so I left. In this case ‘they even’ made it seem a criminal offence for me to have asked! I just do not feel like going back, despite having shopped there for many years. Continue Reading »

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