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 How often do you hear business owners complain that their clients are 'slow payers'?
Before working with me, one of my clients who has a pool building business, told me that they only asked for a 10% deposit at the start of the project and then invoiced the balance at the end of it.
The process of building a pool takes weeks! In the meantime her company would have to cover wages, equipment and all other costs throughout this time. What often happened at the end, the clients were slow to pay causing them even more financial stress.
It was easy to fix their cash-flow issue. 50% payment was made on the signing of the contract with progress payments throughout the key stages. Final payment was made before completion.
Work would not continue until each progress payment had been made.
If they had waited for that last payment, chances are it would have been delayed. No payment, no work! It's amazing how quickly you can get your money when you make these simple changes to how you do business.
Never deliver anything without some form of payment.
Wherever possible get credit card details and partial or full payment up front, especially when dealing with first time clients. If you're offering a service, have new clients sign a contractual agreement and pay a percentage retainer fee before commencing work. Most professionals have adopted this practice and it is a recognized part of doing business.
Avoid having to rely on your clients paying you by bank transfers, cheques etc. You want to have control over money owed to you. Allowing payments to be made by a bank transfer or cheque means you have to rely on your client to actually do this.
If you're worried about the bank or credit card company fees, increase the cost of your products and services to incorporate them.
If you offer high priced services and products, consider setting up an automated payment plan over a period of weeks or months to make it easier for clients to buy from you.
For instance, my Productivity and Profit Home Study System is $697. You can choose to pay the amount in full or 8 easy instalments of $97 a month. If you were going to invest in this program, which option would you choose?
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