Wednesday, 25 August 2010

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Commercial Collections: Business Finance Booster Commercial Collections: setting B2B culture If you're in the business-to-business field, or even if you're a consumer products business that works through third party distribution channels, you probably know what it is to check your mail eagerly every day, reviewing all the bills for the payment which should have been in months. There was supposed to be. If you were a good businessman, honest business deal with other good, honest, "trade collections" are not supposed to be part of their vocabulary. Back in the old days, an invoice or purchase order that had an established company listed in the draft law "to" field was almost as good as a cashier's check. Today, if you're in the business of serving businesses you may find that your cash flow is less reliable than a small time bookie. Commercial Collections: A Personal Story last April that eventually the $ 2,000 a client owed me by work done in December, after spending almost as much money as the value of my time reminding them to pay. No, this was not one of these handshake deals, we had a 5 page contract specifying net-30 payment terms. But that was a guy with a lemonade stand. It was the media division of one of the largest retailers in the United States. The worst part was, I trusted this customer based on my experience working with them a few years earlier. I actually spent the money on Christmas gifts, waiting for the payment to come before my credit card. Avoid outstanding bills of course, you can cut the root problem by cultivating strong relationships with customers who pay on time. Details can be found by clicking Paul Price or emailing the administrator. But customers are scarce, and, as I found, the well can go very wrong very...