It’s hard enough for small-business owners to establish themselves as preferred providers in the minds of their customers/clients. With so many challenges to overcome just to stay viable, the last thing you need is to wait an unacceptably long time to get paid after selling and delivering your product or service on time.
I realize it sounds overly simplistic, but small-business owners can’t afford to allow cash-flow lapses to become regular occurrences.
And it’s also a simple truth that one of the best ways to help ensure prompt payment is to pay close attention to your invoicing practices and make any necessary adjustments.
Many factors affect a company’s cash flow, and even those experiencing tremendous success in terms of workload and satisfied customers deal with delinquent debt. But when you’re not doing all you can to give your business the best odds of greatly limiting the rate of late payments, you likely already do or will begin to suffer the inevitable cash-flow consequences.
So give invoicing its due diligence. That’s the gist of the article, “Invoicing tips to improve your cash-flow.”
In the piece the author not only reinforces invoicing’s importance, but also provides a checklist of considerations you can use to scrutinize your own best practices and determine whether they need to get better.
The article also goes beyond the invoice itself by elaborating on actions you can take to not only reduce the risk of non-payment, but also to expedite payments, without offending your customers.
From the piece, here are the nine recommendations:
1) Invoice immediately
2) Email your invoices
3) Write detailed descriptions in your invoices
4) Set your own payment terms
5) Encourage direct payments to your bank account
6) Use your mobile phone to access your accounting system during the day
7) Have someone else call your debtors
8) Send statements
9) Use your Accounts Receivable reports
So take some time to analyze your own company’s cash flow and determine whether applying some of the above-mentioned methods could help you stand on firmer financial ground.
As always, thanks for reading.
