Many freelancers and small business owners want that special something that's going to set them apart from the competition. The secret that's going to put ahead of the herd; Yeah, everyone wants a piece of that magic quality that is going to make their business the awesome example instead of the cautionary story. Small business owners are faced with a minefield of problems on their way to success in today's competitive marketplace.
Some small business owner or freelancers don't realize that a huge part of attaining success lies in the way you manage your businesses invoicing and payment collection. It seems almost a no brainer to have efficient procedures in place to deal with invoicing, payment collection and management of bad debit. But all too often one comes across companies that overlook this important aspect of their success entirely.
Making your business more successful though efficient invoicing procedures:
Don't spend a lot
Keeping the cost of operation to a minimum is a key concern for anyone wishing to make their small business successful. This is very important when it comes to controlling the cost of your billing and collection of payments.
Use insightful online systems and systems automation to keep the number of workers you need to employ in your accounts division low. There are lots of systems on the market currently that allow you to automate recurring billing giving you maximum control over your daily operations with an almost skeleton staff.
You must shop around for payment gateways with the lowest rate. Some payment gateways do not give you the ability to easily export your customer's payment data. This stops you from switching gateways readily. Shop around for a payment facilitator that stores user payment data on your and the gateways behalf. This makes it easy to switch between payment gateways or have multiple gateways, so you always have the best rates and your customers the most choice.
Become trustworthy and professional
Have you ever been sent a poorly formatted invoice full of spelling errors, missing fields or incorrect details? What did that make you think of the business sending the invoice? It is easy to make a sloppy, unorganised appearance to customers though badly made invoices, but just as easy to project a trustworthy, professional one.
Changing those unprofessional do-it-yourself Microsoft Word or Excel format invoices for professionally generated invoices is likely one of the best investments you can make in your businesses growth. Get software or an online system designed to create professionally formatted invoices. And even then remember to always ensure the clients information are correct and review spelling. If you are issuing tax invoices insure all the legally required information appear correctly on any invoices you make. Appearing professional fosters trust in your clients.
Many payment options
The more the merrier! Now that you have issued your well formatted invoices you need to give your clients the opportunity to pay you. Collecting payment for the products or services you offer becomes infinitely simpler if you make it simple and hassle-free for your clients to pay. Have as many simple to understand, working payment options on offer to them as possible. To increase you payment gathering ability we advise having a minimum of 3 basic methods of payment on offer to your customers:
- Ways to process and capture direct or bank deposits as well as electronic funds or wire transfers
- Facilities to capture and apply electronic funds or wire transfers as well as direct or bank deposits
- A facility to record and process electronic funds or wire transfers as well as direct or bank deposits
Good cash flow: Manage bad debt
In each business it is viatl to not only control paying customer's accounts, but to look at over due and non-paying clients. Keeping tabs on bad debt will ensure that your cash flow stays strong and constant. Prevention is better than cure. One of the greatest ways of handling bad debt is working hard to prevent it in the first place. And you would be surprised how easy this really is.
This requires correspondence on an organized, automated scale. Issuing text message (SMS) and email warnings to customers throughout your repayment, due and past due periods will increase your chances of getting paid. We suggest going with a basic notification schedule for at least 30 days after sending of an invoice. If payment on not received on COD invoices within 90 days of sending we recommend making use of a professional debt collection service to take charge of collection of payment.
Stand out from the crowd: Offer a high quality service
Standing out from your competitors means more business. What makes you better than your competitors? Have you got something to make you stand out from the crowd? The only way to hoenstely stand out from the herd and keep clients coming back is to offer a quality service or product reliably.
Limited success can be achieved through gimmicks and unscrupulous marketing, but this more than often does more harm in the long run than good. Offering a constant, exceptional service and quality products are the genuine way to make vocal positive advocates for your brand. Strive to ensure your level of service meets your clients expectations and then, if possible, provide that little bit extra not only meet their needs, but exceed their expectations.
So there you go. Now you know the secret to making your small business a success. What are you waiting for? Go out and achieve it!
Some small business owner or freelancers don't realize that a huge part of attaining success lies in the way you manage your businesses invoicing and payment collection. It seems almost a no brainer to have efficient procedures in place to deal with invoicing, payment collection and management of bad debit. But all too often one comes across companies that overlook this important aspect of their success entirely.
Making your business more successful though efficient invoicing procedures:
Don't spend a lot
Keeping the cost of operation to a minimum is a key concern for anyone wishing to make their small business successful. This is very important when it comes to controlling the cost of your billing and collection of payments.
Use insightful online systems and systems automation to keep the number of workers you need to employ in your accounts division low. There are lots of systems on the market currently that allow you to automate recurring billing giving you maximum control over your daily operations with an almost skeleton staff.
You must shop around for payment gateways with the lowest rate. Some payment gateways do not give you the ability to easily export your customer's payment data. This stops you from switching gateways readily. Shop around for a payment facilitator that stores user payment data on your and the gateways behalf. This makes it easy to switch between payment gateways or have multiple gateways, so you always have the best rates and your customers the most choice.
Become trustworthy and professional
Have you ever been sent a poorly formatted invoice full of spelling errors, missing fields or incorrect details? What did that make you think of the business sending the invoice? It is easy to make a sloppy, unorganised appearance to customers though badly made invoices, but just as easy to project a trustworthy, professional one.
Changing those unprofessional do-it-yourself Microsoft Word or Excel format invoices for professionally generated invoices is likely one of the best investments you can make in your businesses growth. Get software or an online system designed to create professionally formatted invoices. And even then remember to always ensure the clients information are correct and review spelling. If you are issuing tax invoices insure all the legally required information appear correctly on any invoices you make. Appearing professional fosters trust in your clients.
Many payment options
The more the merrier! Now that you have issued your well formatted invoices you need to give your clients the opportunity to pay you. Collecting payment for the products or services you offer becomes infinitely simpler if you make it simple and hassle-free for your clients to pay. Have as many simple to understand, working payment options on offer to them as possible. To increase you payment gathering ability we advise having a minimum of 3 basic methods of payment on offer to your customers:
- Ways to process and capture direct or bank deposits as well as electronic funds or wire transfers
- Facilities to capture and apply electronic funds or wire transfers as well as direct or bank deposits
- A facility to record and process electronic funds or wire transfers as well as direct or bank deposits
Good cash flow: Manage bad debt
In each business it is viatl to not only control paying customer's accounts, but to look at over due and non-paying clients. Keeping tabs on bad debt will ensure that your cash flow stays strong and constant. Prevention is better than cure. One of the greatest ways of handling bad debt is working hard to prevent it in the first place. And you would be surprised how easy this really is.
This requires correspondence on an organized, automated scale. Issuing text message (SMS) and email warnings to customers throughout your repayment, due and past due periods will increase your chances of getting paid. We suggest going with a basic notification schedule for at least 30 days after sending of an invoice. If payment on not received on COD invoices within 90 days of sending we recommend making use of a professional debt collection service to take charge of collection of payment.
Stand out from the crowd: Offer a high quality service
Standing out from your competitors means more business. What makes you better than your competitors? Have you got something to make you stand out from the crowd? The only way to hoenstely stand out from the herd and keep clients coming back is to offer a quality service or product reliably.
Limited success can be achieved through gimmicks and unscrupulous marketing, but this more than often does more harm in the long run than good. Offering a constant, exceptional service and quality products are the genuine way to make vocal positive advocates for your brand. Strive to ensure your level of service meets your clients expectations and then, if possible, provide that little bit extra not only meet their needs, but exceed their expectations.
So there you go. Now you know the secret to making your small business a success. What are you waiting for? Go out and achieve it!
About the Author:
An online billing and invoicing system is critical to allow any business to uphold a professional image. SnapBill has been helping businesses for years and are providing a free account to get going.
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