Good debtor management
A good mate of mine did some business with one of my companies recently and gave me a good lesson in taking control of debtors. He charged me $8.00 interest on a pokey little account that was only a month or so overdue.
When I found the statement I was fuming. I thought "Up you mate" then had second thoughts - in fact this was a smart business move. I would have thought that the number of beers and meals at the Lonestar and so on would have balanced a bill not getting paid like this. But after getting off my horse, indignation aside, I realised that he had a point, and I've learned a good lesson. I'll be doing it too from now on. Only I'll be warning our clients beforehand so that they don't get all huffety like I did. And my mate will be buying ME the beer next time we catch up!
The point is, that not only is he simply doing what his terms and conditions say that he can do, he's stupid NOT to do this. Otherwise he's just funding my business and that's not fair or just. He's also making it quite clear that he's a professional, who won't be mucked around.
The chances are that people like that are better to deal with than the others, just the same as you usually trust a mechanic who has a clean workshop more than one who works in a total pigsty.
Now the only thing this dude did wrong was that his team sent the bill to me, not to my accounts people. Fatal mistake. First, I never pay anybody anything so of course it didn't get paid - other people do it for me, usually only when they get hassled enough. Secondly I only stumbled upon his second statement a week or so after his girl sent it into my massive black hole of a mailbox with some 47,000 emails - half of them unread!
The point remains however - he's got his interest money, and he'll DEFINITELY get paid on time - if we ever do another business deal, that is!
Tagwords: debtors
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