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You sent an invoice to your customer and now payment is past due. It’s time to make your first contact to find out why the invoice has not been paid, but should you pick up the phone and call or do you send them a letter, a fax or an email?

The purpose of the first contact (which should happen when the invoice is 3-5 days past due) is to initiate a dialog and find out why the payment is late. You are asking for information and not demanding a payment. You do not want to introduce an adversarial or confrontational tone to the discussion at this stage. In many cases, particularly for larger customers, an invoice with a problem of some kind will sit until you initiate contact to get the matter resolved.

First Phone Call

Ideally this first contact is made by phone. A two-way conversation with the right party can get to the point very quickly. However, not every business has the resources to call every past due customer in a timely manner and in many cases it is difficult to reach a knowledgeable person at your customer, especially if it is a very small business and you are trying to reach the owner. It is appropriate to send a written request for information for invoices less than a specific dollar amount eliminating the initial attempt to reach them by phone. A written request is also recommended if you have left two messages and have not been called back.

Written Communication

The written communication should be very brief and to the point: “Payment for invoice 1234 was due on March 15 but as of today we have not received payment. Can you please take a moment to complete the bottom portion of this letter and return it to me or, if it’s more convenient, give me a quick call to discuss the matter.” Provide a phone number, fax number, mailing address and email address on the letter. The letter will have the same content regardless of how it is sent.

Create A Checklist

A critical element of the letter is a checklist you provide to define reasons for non-payment. Providing an easy form for your customer to complete will accelerate resolution times. The specifics can be tailored to your industry and your specific types of customer but might include some of the following options:

o Payment was mailed on _____________ by check number ____________
o Payment is scheduled for ______________
o Invoice not received. Please provide a copy.
o Need Proof of Delivery in order to process for payment.
o Need approved time sheets in order to process for payment.
o Need Purchase Order number (or copy of PO) in order to process for payment.
o Other reason: ____________________________________

Mail, Fax, or Email

The next question is whether to send this letter by postal mail, fax or email. There are advantages and disadvantages to each.
• Mail is more expensive because of materials cost and postage and takes longer to get there. However, a professional looking envelope sent to the Accounts Payable Department of any business will be opened and read. Further, you will be notified if the mail is undeliverable – potentially a serious problem – and can request “Address Service” to be informed by the Postal Service (for a small fee) that mail is being forwarded, allowing you to update your records.
• Fax requires that you have a working fax number for the business that goes to the right department. Some small businesses do not have fax lines and large corporations can have many. Ideally you would have requested a fax number on your credit application or order form but that does not always happen. Depending on your office equipment, sending a fax can take significant effort and may be just as costly as mail.
• Email is easy, fast and inexpensive but does not always get to the right person. Email can be easily ignored, blocked by spam filters or sent to a generic address (info@somecompany.com) and wind up nowhere. Also, the email address on file is often the purchaser and not the Accounts Payable department.

Email is the preferred method of communication only if you have the personal email address of a responsible individual that you have reason to believe will receive and read your emails. You might want to test that by sending a “welcome” email to new customers and asking for a response of some kind to verify that it was read. Send a fax if it’s easy to do so and the customer has provided a fax number for their accounting or accounts payable department. Mail works in every other case.

Consistent Follow-Up

Follow up on communications. Give the customer no more than five business days to respond to a letter or three days to respond to an email or fax. If they do not respond within this time then move to the next step in your collection process, which could be a phone call or, for smaller transactions, an initial demand letter. A second written communication should be sent by mail and not by fax or email.

Document Communications

It is important to document communications you have with your customers so that you can reference discussions, dates, and review how many attempts it takes to resolve a past due invoice. Collections software is useful for documenting phone conversations, automating outbound email communications, storing inbound email responses, or for creating mail merge letters that you mail to your customers.

On this week’s Bootcamp call, we talked about the age-old debate: I need money to be able to do marketing, yet I need marketing to bring me the money. I, too, had this dilemma when first starting my business.

I had set aside a specific amount of money to invest in my business and to pay bills while the business was getting up and running. What I’ve found is that whatever amount that is for you, you could always use more. Unless you maximize your investment along the way.

Before I quit my job in corporate, I had hired a Virtual Assistant to develop and set up my website, and to get things accomplished more quickly. This worked well for me, since although I had these expenses with no income for a period of time, I knew it would bring me to an income more quickly once I quit my job. I highly recommend starting your business before quitting your job, since it allows you to make decisions without the added pressure of having no income.

You can’t do it all on your own.

Instead, you need to leverage your time and your resources. By doing it this way, it also almost forces you to delegate, systematize and automate as much as possible. This is a good thing, since it frees up your time once you do move more fully into the business, allowing you to focus only on your brilliance work: working with clients and attracting more clients.

Outsourcing allows the person you delegate to do their brilliance work. I found that although I could do a lot of things, and do them quite well, it wasn’t the best use of my time to be doing them. My time was better used to meet with people to attract more clients and more work, and to work with clients who are thrilled to work with me.

Let me give you an example. I hired an onsite/virtual Business Manager. This means that she is someone who is local, who works both at her home and comes in to my home office periodically. She has a marketing & human resources background, which is similar to parts of my background. I could let my ego get in the way, wondering if she’ll do a better job than I would do, thinking that she might market in ways that I don’t want her to.

Instead, I’m thrilled to have someone of this high caliber on my team, to train her in my way of doing things, to depend on her to organize, systematize and implement the plans we’ve created together. This can only be a good thing! It allows us to get more done, make more money, and enjoy your time off! She is doing what she loves to do, which allows me to do only the things I love to do.

I learn from her just as much as she learns from me.

And yet, she’s not me. So clients who connect with me wouldn’t necessarily connect with her. They are attracted to me because of ALL of my experiences and background, along with my natural abilities and the inner magnetism that each one of us automatically has. There is no one who is exactly like me.

My team currently consists of:

• Online Web Virtual Assistant – 10 hours/mo
• Onsite/virtual Business Manager – 16 hours/mo
• Social Media VA – 10 hours/mo
• Social Media Manager – 5 hours/mo
• Public Relations/Speaking VA – 40 hours/mo
• Travel Agent – 2 hours/mo
• SEO on an as-needed basis
• Accountant
• Graphic Designer on an as-needed basis

Total hours saved monthly: 83+ hours each MONTH!

Soon I’ll be adding:

• Bookkeeper

What do I use my time saved for? Taking care of me, creating products & services, learning and brainstorming, time with my family, flexibility to schedule my time. I LOVE being self-employed!

How did I get to be “OK” with outsourcing? As my income grew, the amount I outsourced grew. Could I do this all by myself? Maybe. Would I be healthy and sane? Probably not. Could I get all of the things accomplished in the same amount of time? Definitely NO. For example, I write my ezine content each week, then send it to my VA. Could I put it into the ezine format, and send it to my list? Sure. I used autoresponders a few years back when I was Affiliate Manager for two online real estate companies. But it would take me longer and it would definitely be more heartache and frustration. I’m HAPPY to pay my VA to do it for me. I think of the time it would take me to do this, and instead I focus on attracting a new client or doing client work. THIS is a better use of my time. Focus instead on your brilliance work.

Depending on your rates, usually you can pay someone else to do certain tasks for much less than you could do it yourself. If your rates don’t support you being able to outsource, take a look at your hourly rate and figure out what rate you would need to charge to support outsourcing. Next look at what value you would need to add to be able to charge a higher fee. Can you add this value, or do you need extra training to be able to do this? Sometimes its our own limiting beliefs that hold us back from charging what we deserve.

Personal development is becoming more and more popular, and for good reason. It shows you how what you think to be true may not necessarily be true, it could be a view to life that has been learned. I recommend you start reading some of the personal development books available, a great one to start is The NEW Psycho-Cybernetics co-authored by Dan Kennedy.

My team and I have a weekly team call every Monday. On the call, each person has 10 minutes to update what they are working on, what questions or clarification they need, and ideas they want to share. This has become a very valuable time, since it helps everyone to understand areas they can support others in growing the business.G

Here is a great quote from Melanie Benson Strick,

“Surround yourself with powerful implementers. When you leverage your time and build a team of good people, then your dreams become real 100 times faster. Most entrepreneurs are really great with ideas but lose traction when it comes to details and managing projects.”

I’ve been fortunate to have worked the past 8 years as Manager of Operations, Marketing & Human Resources, so as an entrepreneur I’ve had practice with the details and managing projects. But I still surround myself with high-quality people. My dreams ARE becoming real 100 times faster.

Have you ever thought about the different things that you purchase and the packaging that comes with it? For most people they can relate to helping a child open a brand new toy and commenting that they made the packaging adult and child proof. The toy is so tightly packaged in the box with all kinds of twist ties and zip ties and even padding that you might start to wonder if the toy is even in the package. When you finally get the toy out of the box you realize there was much more packaging to the box than the toy.

Maybe you have ordered a cellular phone and it is showing up at your doorstep. Have you ever opened up the box and been grateful that they were careful with the packaging so that your phone arrived in one piece? In fact, often times many different packages come with the bubble wrap and children love jumping on it and popping the bubbles. Whether you realize it or not different kinds of packaging play a role in our lives every day in the different products that we use.

Whether it is boxes that are firm and solid enough to not fall apart or bubble wrap that is wrapped around things so they don’t break we all need different kinds of flexible packaging. We wouldn’t only want a hard box for a nice framed picture that we order. We would want something that can wrap around the item and keep it safe.

It might sound like a dream come true but really, this dream can be your reality. There are ways to make money while you sleep. The first step into making this happen is to have a system that works on auto pilot for you.

If you are an author, artist or an entrepreneur, you can reap the benefits of being paid over and over again for something you have done once in your life. The payment can be through royalties, sales and membership fees. If you do not find yourself to be that creative and need a boost, there are still more ways to make money while you sleep.

If you have not tried an online business, do so. There are so many international companies that have a good reputation and are legitimate. You could try to start something online. Make sure that you have the proper training and support to begin. If you are a beginner you will need a lot of mentoring and coaching. Choose a business that will allow you to sell products but will train you at the same time. This way you can earn while you learn.

If you decide to choose an online business, choose something that will give you residual income. This way, you will continue to be paid each month for just having members on your team. You will still need to work, but you will be seeing the money pile up slowly as you recruit more and more members and be able to work less as time goes on. You should also choose a business that has an automated system. Some businesses will call your leads for you and give you automated email systems to help you send out emails automatically while you sleep. This is the key to making money while you sleep.

It is essential to identify some of the factors which would determine whether or not an organization’s asset is efficient. Seen in another perspective, it is essential to identify fundamental metrics in terms of the assessment of asset viability and in terms of investment returns. Such factors would be centered around performance according to objectives and the baseline for industry expectations. Asset sustainability is now becoming more widely recognized as an indicator of value. Companies understand how their activities may impact the people and environment all around them and are beginning to interpret the true meaning of corporate social responsibility. The company understands that it relies on natural resources to operate and that it must be a better steward of these resources. What factors determine whether a particular asset is efficient or not within any given organization? Placed in another light, what should be the most essential metrics in terms of asset viability assessment and ROI? Traditionally, these factors are centered around performance based on specific purpose and the benchmarks used reflect manufacturer or industry expectations. Every company needs to decide how it can minimize its exposure, while trying to operate to its maximum potential. This can be a difficult juggling act, especially in the modern era, when all its activities appear to be much more visible to interested stakeholders. Asset sustainability directly affects the amount of energy that the company is responsible for procuring and using. We know too well that such energy could create a volume of GHG emissions, and that every single effort needs to be aimed at curtailing carbon emissions as the threats are causing increased anxiety. If energy is to be treated as a scarce commodity, a different set of metrics must be used to record the sustainability of each asset. An asset that is procured for a specific purpose and because of its efficiency would typically be measured based on benchmarks for the product or industry. In short, the asset is termed to be operating efficiently and to purpose if it performs as measured by specific parameters. Very rarely is it measured according to its carbon output, or determined to be ultimately sustainable, or not. Asset sustainability would need a breakthrough in asset design and production. It is conceivable that such an asset may be designed to be less than ultimately efficient from a pure performance perspective in future, if such a design makes it environmentally unsustainable. This is a significant change in approach and will take some assessment.

Is it possible for you to achieve 119% business growth in the next 90 days?

Yes absolutely it is possible and in this article I will share with you the three key areas to focus on, and why you only need to make incremental improvements in these three key areas to achieve substantial business growth.

The key is getting access to the right knowledge and implementing the right systems into your business. (Note: You want to make sure you are getting advice from the right people… don’t take advice from a Prosperity Coach for instance, unless they have a truly prosperous mindset and results. Many business owners have made the mistake of having the Yellow Pages rep determine how their advertisment should look).

Following a simple formula we have been able to help clients achieve business growth of up to 10 times in less than 90 days. The obvious question is how do you do it? What do you focus on to create this sort of business growth?

Well the good news is this… there is only three things to FOCUS your attention on to grow your business. These three things are:

1/ ATTRACT More Leads – Your ability and your SYSTEMS for attracting new leads to your business will greatly determine your success in business. If you are not attracting leads to you then chances are good your business will not prosper and grow. When you have in place the right system to ATTRACT an endless stream of leads to you then you are on the right path to build a successful business. So the question then is this… How many leads have you attracted to you this month? If the answer is not many then this is where you start… put in place the SYSTEMS to ATTRACT more leads to you.

2/ CONVERT More Leads Into Clients – When you are attracting leads to you then the next step is to CONVERT those leads into paying clients. Again this requires a well thought out system… its about designing your Marketing Funnel and the logical sequence of events you take your leads through so that they sell themselves on becoming your client. What are the steps in your Marketing Funnel that help leads sell themselves on becoming clients? What is your current conversion rate of leads to clients? If you do not know then it is costing you money and holding you back from growing your business.

3/ INCREASE Value Of These Clients – The final step to growing your business then is to INCREASE the value of each of your clients. There are many different strategies you want to consider here. One of the biggest mistakes I see Small Business owners making is that they don’t package their products / services correctly and they don’t value what they do sufficiently. In other words they are underselling their worth in the market place. You want to fix this asap. How can you increase the value of each of your clients?

If you are not getting the RESULTS you are looking for from your business then what you need to fix are these three key areas above. Now for the good news…

You only need to make incremental improvements in each of these three areas to make substantial increases in overall business growth.

Let’s look at an example for a moment of say a Business Coach with the following numbers:

- Number of Leads per month 50 (Of which 5 turn into genuine prospects)
- Conversion Rate 4%
- Number of Clients per month 2
- Value of Each Client $5,000

Therefore on these numbers this Business Coach would be doing appx $120,000 revenue per annum.

So what would happen if we focused on the 3 key areas and made a modest improvement of just 10% in these 3 areas? Well now the numbers look like this:

- Number of Leads per month 55 (Of which 5.5 turn into genuine prospects)
- Conversion Rate 4.4%
- Number of Clients per month 2.4
- Value of Each Client $5,500

Now the Business Coach has increased revenue to $158,400 which is an increase of $38,400. This is an increase in their business of 32%.

What happens if you developed the right SYSTEMS in each of these three areas, and implemented them with the right guidance and created a 30% increment in each of these three areas? Now it gets exciting…

- Number of Leads per month 65 (Of which 6.5 turn into genuine prospects)
- Conversion Rate 5.2%
- Number of Clients per month 3.3
- Value of Each Client $6,500

This increases revenue now to $257,400 which is more than double the size of your business, or a 119% increase in your business. (Note: You may not be a Business Coach however the same principles apply).

So could you achieve an increment of 30% in the three key areas? Well lets look at this example… is it possible to ATTRACT 15 more leads a month? Could you really improve your CONVERSION rate by 1.2%? Is it realistic to expect your client value to INCREASE by $1,500?

The business world is presenting a number of limitless opportunity these days and your small business should be ready at all times in case that huge opportunity happened out of nowhere. The readiness that your business has is crucial because it will be a great loss that if by the time an opportunity falls onto your lap you are not ready to take advantage of it. The readiness of your company can cover many different things from the Business Working Capital, the human resources and many others. When it comes to business working capital, some companies are just difficult to get instant cash to fund a business opportunity. The access to instant cash is very important because your company might lose a once in a lifetime opportunity only because you cannot handle it financially.

The solution to this problem is business cash advance from the BusinessCashAdvance.com. As you may have known that cash advance has been known for being the easy way out to get cash for many different purposes. Some people get cash advance for paying dentist services or other personal expenses. You can also get the benefits of cash advance for your business. BusinessCashAdvance.com offer cash advance to help small business like yours to be able to grab that opportunity that falls onto your lap and  make the best of it.