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joeyjimbles

Lois
Another thing that you can do is to get someone else - a fellow self employed person perhaps - to chase your late payers for you and you can return the favour. I have just done this for a friend who was getting herself into quite serious problems due to late payers and it worked brilliantly.

I telephoned her list of clients who were overdue. I asked to speak to the individual and gave my name but no more. When I got through I simply said that I was phoning on behalf of X regarding non-payment of their bill. Not one of them asked who I was and no-one prevaricated which I was very surprised at but I think they assumed that might have been done by the secretary or where it was just a one-man-band they were just a bit ambushed. All of them paid up within 4 days of the call being made!

If they had asked I was going to say that I was an associate of X which has some loose truth. Its definitely worth a try but make sure its someone you trust, who won't get aggressive and will respect the fact that you probably want to have an ongoing relationship with most of these people in the future.

Horace

The word I was looking for earlier was factoring:j

I guess I am good at getting money out of people because I used to the accounts at a firm where I worked and one of my jobs was to phone people up, I only ever took one person to court and had great delight in personally delivering a winding up order - that was after about a year of bounced cheques, etc etc (the man was just taking the michael). Yes, be polite but just ring up and ask to speak to so and so but not say which firm you're at - that always works.

If you go in with the please would it be possible if you could pay this overdue bill - they are just going to ignore you and put you to the bottom of the pile. Another way of getting money out of them if they don't pay is to put their account on stop that means that if they order stuff, you keep a hold of their order and inform them that they can't have the goods until the outstanding monies are paid.

HTH

pcfixmanchester

Purpleroses wrote: »

aye your accountant can also chase late payments and deal with invoicing etc but it comes at a cost. We used to have people who paid late but found that resending the invoice on pink paper worked well. I've heard some companies won't send payment until they get the pink invoice and it seems to be true!

Another tactic I use to ensure prompt payment is to offer a "discount" for payment upfront or on the day. There is no Discount, but if they wish to pay on 30 day terms then my hourly rate is £50 instead of £25. I find even the most hard nosed finance dept will expedite a cheque if it means the invoice is halved, and for those very few who insist on 30 days then I make double my normal rate ;-)

Admittedly in IT Support you tend to not have one main client, but I find if you doing a good job, be friendly and explain that if they organise payment in advance they get the work 1/2 price then they make the effort to make sure your paid.

Andy ;-)

Essex-girl_2

Good Morning All

Didnt get on here yesterday - had a day of running errands and things & before I knew it it was bedtime. Also wednesday is sort of my day off from the office.

Today I will spending time in the office and doing housework, when the house is bad like it is today I cant concentrate very well. Definately need a clean house for a clear mind. However as I will again use the 30 min thing I know that the time spent in the office will be doing office work.

I use a factoring service, it is an extra expense but with our main client so worth it, also as we are looking to expand in August we will be paying wages and fuel out immediately & no way could wait 30 - 40 days for our money.

So plans for today are - housework till 10, 10-12 in office, lunch then if I have made a dent in the office work I will then attack the ironing.

Nelski - slow cooker - have moved on to the Remoska now :rotfl:

blue_monkey_2

Morning everyone. I am here today - hubby has been away this week and most of the housework is done, the house remains tody, the kids calm and I can do what I want, when I want without him hovering around in the background. Just waiting til 7.45 to get the kids upstairs and dressed. It generally takes us an hour and then off to school.

Yesterday I packed 120 bags of eggs for the PTFA, printed orders, answered emails, send my parcels before going off to my Autism support group for about 3 hours.

After school the kids played outside so I made and then sent a customer email for the new promotion one of the bra companies are running (hoping to bring in extra sales).

Then last night managed to get more products on the website. I can really feel it coming together now and we are offering a wider range of products. The scary thing is that I am only halfway there, I still have so many to do and so much more to get on the website, there never seems enough hours in the day.

So today it'll be sorting the website, tomorrow I've a few hours during the day and I MUST do some accounts as I like to be done as soon after April 5th as I can - and I am consious that it is so close now. I have to get the Tax Credits side sorted as they stopped it last year as I never got it done in time and my figures in. I do not think I have made anything as such, I spent a huge amount on stock - thinking I would sell these gorgeous Gossard bras as they were so cheap - and I've sold around 10 of them. And I bought over 200. Kind of depressing really.

But you have to built on your experience and now if I get offered discount lines I'll do them to order as well as I do not have the capital to buy outright. And I am annoyed with myself as if I had not bought that stock I'd have had a good amount of money in the bank. I do not usually sell 'fashion' colours because I canot afford to keep them in stock and usually they are to order but I've got my rep calling today because if there are good stocks I can put them on my website until they sell out with the manufacturer as it helps both them and me. They would not let me do it before - but how times have changed!! In the past I have spent thousands on stock and I've not been able to shift it so now I concentrate on the 'basics'.

And swimwear season is looming so I have to get onto that and get some swimwear onto the website too. I do not usually do any work stuff during the day in the school holidays so I think I am going to be pretty exhausted in a few weeks time.

Time to get the kids dressed - an hours fight coming up. I've got to wrestle the DS off my daughter (they are only allowed to play it in the mornings before 7.45 because it keeps them quite and so they do not wake the neighbours, LOL). Wish me luck. LOL!!

blue_monkey_2

I agree, clean house - clean mind!!

Oh, I was going to add something from experience - if you are sending another invoice to the customer please ensure that you stamp 'copy' or 'overdue' on it so as not to cuase any problems. If the company has 2 people in accounts, it'll cause untold problems if it is booked in (as possibly paid for) twice.

It could also mean there might be delays in getting paid while it is sorted and if they are anything like my old company, if you do not get onto that months 'cheque run' you do not get paid for another month. Some companies do not need any excuse and some companies leave the general accounts people to tell you that 'sorry, you missed the cheque run it'll get paid next month'.

You might find that some customers only have one cheque or payment run at a set time in the month so even thought you want 30 days if you send the invoice on 1st Feb it will not get paid until 30th March.

Ballymackeonan

I'm up-to-date with my invoicing at the moment - I've switched from invioicing at the end of the month to when the job is completed. The usual suspects are late and getting statements sent today...Against these, I've got the ones who pay on receipt of invoice (bless 'em!). I'm gradually loading the slow payers' prices to reflect the hassle. I know the state of their finances, and that they can pay me easily, they just seem to "forget"!

For new contracts, you can add the right to invoke the Late Payment of Business Debts Act - charge interest at 8% over base on overdue debts, and add a charge for calculating it..

Bank factoring is quite expensive, and you'd need to build the factoring cost into your customer prices. But the most effective debt collection service I've ever come across was used by one of my clients. His uncle was retired, a bit bored, and he took over the worst bad debts on a basis that he got 10% of all he collected. Then he went to the customers' premises, with his flask of tea and biscuits, and sat in reception until he got a cheque. He said it was good fun, he chatted with the receptionist and people coming in and out - and it got him out of the house.

It's a lovely morning here, and I've got to go to clients' premises where I'll be sitting in a windowless cubbyhole this morning. But they are the ones who pay immediately...!

Hope you all enjoy your day!

itsnowtime

Hi Everyone,

Sounds like we're all making good progress. Like Blue_Monkey today is the day I start sorting out my numerous websites.

And its now time I start running a business not just a hobby!!

I intend to do 1 website at a time and have spent the last few days designing new images etc.. and sorting out some new website software to be able to provide my customers with everything they're looking for.

If I get 1 done today I'll be a very happy bunny.... there's not many products to add to it!

Have a good day everyone...

Horace

Morning everyone.

I won't be on here much this morning as I have to head off to my fortnightly meeting at the chamber - I need to be there for 12.30 which means I have to get the 11am bus as it will take me at half an hour to walk from the bus stop up to the chamber (unless I hop on a bus part way). I was due to do a mystery shop today but my tummy is feeling a bit gippy and as its a lunch buying exercise have decided to give it a miss in case I actually have a lurgy:eek:

Thoughts are coming together for my assignments at long last - I will be glad to be rid of them to be honest with you, I have decided to do as much or as little as possible - the thing is with me I am no good at padding things out with waffle and will use as few words as possible to get the same meaning across and I think I get marked down for that - but I cannot change a lifetime of being a PA where it was my job to use as few words as possible to cut down on waffle:rolleyes:

My test trading period ends on 26 April and I have a lot to do between now and then - there is no way I am going back on the dole, I am determined that it will be a case of sink or swim and I have no intention of drowning:rotfl:

Have a good day folks:D

Purpleroses

hello all!
Hope your meeting goes well H and that you don't have the lurgy!

Have had a hectic but productive day and its only noon! Sent off all the orders and invoices (one on pink paper grr) and updated accounts. Have had some enquiries in today so aiming to get the sample cards done today and then onto more tidying. The pile of papers on my desk is looking like the leaning tower of Pisa so need to sort it before it falls!

Hope everyone has a productive day