Each small business owner and freelancer wants the edge; that thing that's going to set them apart from their competitors. That magical quality that is going to make their business the shining example instead of the cautionary tale. But implementing it is never as easy as it sounds. In our competitive, fast paced marketplace small business owners and freelancers are faced with many challenges on the road to success.
Making a success out of your business is never as easy as it sounds. Efficiently and effectively controlling the invoicing and payment collection in your businesses is 1 of the main challenges obstacles faced by small businesses and freelancers. Most of you will be shocked to hear that this vital part of a business's success is shockingly often neglected. You can never put too much importance on the necessity to have an effective invoicing policy.
Find the secrets to making your company more profitable, robust, efficient and cost effective:
Don't spend a lot
A key concern for anyone wishing to make their small business a success is keeping an eye on the costs of operation. Keeping the costs of invoicing and payment collection low is extremely important when it comes to controlling the costs in your business.
A excellent way to keep costs low is to implement tools that facilitate automation of invoicing policy. Keep the amount of staff you need to employ in your accounts department to a minimum by using innovative online tools to automate systems. This allows you maximum control over your daily operations even with very limited employees.
It is vital to remember that you have options. Look around for payment gateways with the lowest fees. Many payment gateways do not give you the facilty to easily export your customer's payment details. This prevents you from switching between gateways easily. Shop around for a payment facilitator to give you more freedom. A payment facilitator will keep customer billing data securely on your and the gateways behalf and allow simple switching between gateways, so you always have the cheapest fees and your clients the most choice.
Create trust: Be professional
It is simple to create a trustworthy, professional look to customers, but just as easy to foster a sloppy, unorganized image. Issuing poorly made quotes and invoices in Microsoft Word or Excel format is not professional. You may be surprised, but a low quality invoice points negatively on your client's option of the services you render.
A poor quality invoice reflects badly on your customer's option of the services you render. Doing away with those unprofessional do-it-yourself Microsoft Word or Excel format invoices for professionally generated ones is probably one of the best investments you can make in your SMME's success. Get software or start using a web based service designed to make professional quality invoices. Always check that the customer's information is correct and if you are issuing tax invoices make sure all the legally required fields appear correctly.
Get paid: Help them help you
So, you have sent your professionlally formatted invoice, now you need to collect payment for it. It is advised to offer your customers as many easy ways as possible to pay your invoices. Collecting payment for the products or services you sell becomes much easier if you make it simple and hassle-free for your customers to pay. We recommend having the following payment methods available to maximize your ability to collect payments:
- A way to accept instant safe payments via credit card
- The option for clients to pay through an automated recurring debit order from credit card or bank account
- The option to accept immediate secure payments with a credit card
Become proactive with payments
In all business it is important to not only monitor paying customer's accounts, but to look at over due and non-paying customers. Controlling bad debtors will ensure that your cash flow becomes strong and constant. Prevention is better than cure. One of the better ways of dealing with bad debt is working hard to prevent it in the first instance. And you would be surprised how simple this actually is.
Efficent communication and access to account details puts your customers in the best possible position to pay you. Sending text message (SMS) and email messages to customers throughout your repayment, due and past due periods will increase your chances of getting paid. To help you do this, ensure you have software in place to help you automate and schedule communication with customers.
Make vocal positive brand advocates
Standing out from your competitors means more business. What makes you better than your competition? Have you got something to make you stand out from the herd? The best way to truly stand out from the crowd and keep clients coming back is to offer a quality service or product reliably.
That being said, limited success can be achieved through other ways. But the single way to build long lasting customer relationships and foster outspoken positive disciples for you business is to give your customers constant, excellent service and quality products and services that meet their needs and conjectures.
So there you it is! Now you have discovered the secrets to making your small business more profitable. What are you sitting around for? No time to waste, start putting these secrets to good use today!
Making a success out of your business is never as easy as it sounds. Efficiently and effectively controlling the invoicing and payment collection in your businesses is 1 of the main challenges obstacles faced by small businesses and freelancers. Most of you will be shocked to hear that this vital part of a business's success is shockingly often neglected. You can never put too much importance on the necessity to have an effective invoicing policy.
Find the secrets to making your company more profitable, robust, efficient and cost effective:
Don't spend a lot
A key concern for anyone wishing to make their small business a success is keeping an eye on the costs of operation. Keeping the costs of invoicing and payment collection low is extremely important when it comes to controlling the costs in your business.
A excellent way to keep costs low is to implement tools that facilitate automation of invoicing policy. Keep the amount of staff you need to employ in your accounts department to a minimum by using innovative online tools to automate systems. This allows you maximum control over your daily operations even with very limited employees.
It is vital to remember that you have options. Look around for payment gateways with the lowest fees. Many payment gateways do not give you the facilty to easily export your customer's payment details. This prevents you from switching between gateways easily. Shop around for a payment facilitator to give you more freedom. A payment facilitator will keep customer billing data securely on your and the gateways behalf and allow simple switching between gateways, so you always have the cheapest fees and your clients the most choice.
Create trust: Be professional
It is simple to create a trustworthy, professional look to customers, but just as easy to foster a sloppy, unorganized image. Issuing poorly made quotes and invoices in Microsoft Word or Excel format is not professional. You may be surprised, but a low quality invoice points negatively on your client's option of the services you render.
A poor quality invoice reflects badly on your customer's option of the services you render. Doing away with those unprofessional do-it-yourself Microsoft Word or Excel format invoices for professionally generated ones is probably one of the best investments you can make in your SMME's success. Get software or start using a web based service designed to make professional quality invoices. Always check that the customer's information is correct and if you are issuing tax invoices make sure all the legally required fields appear correctly.
Get paid: Help them help you
So, you have sent your professionlally formatted invoice, now you need to collect payment for it. It is advised to offer your customers as many easy ways as possible to pay your invoices. Collecting payment for the products or services you sell becomes much easier if you make it simple and hassle-free for your customers to pay. We recommend having the following payment methods available to maximize your ability to collect payments:
- A way to accept instant safe payments via credit card
- The option for clients to pay through an automated recurring debit order from credit card or bank account
- The option to accept immediate secure payments with a credit card
Become proactive with payments
In all business it is important to not only monitor paying customer's accounts, but to look at over due and non-paying customers. Controlling bad debtors will ensure that your cash flow becomes strong and constant. Prevention is better than cure. One of the better ways of dealing with bad debt is working hard to prevent it in the first instance. And you would be surprised how simple this actually is.
Efficent communication and access to account details puts your customers in the best possible position to pay you. Sending text message (SMS) and email messages to customers throughout your repayment, due and past due periods will increase your chances of getting paid. To help you do this, ensure you have software in place to help you automate and schedule communication with customers.
Make vocal positive brand advocates
Standing out from your competitors means more business. What makes you better than your competition? Have you got something to make you stand out from the herd? The best way to truly stand out from the crowd and keep clients coming back is to offer a quality service or product reliably.
That being said, limited success can be achieved through other ways. But the single way to build long lasting customer relationships and foster outspoken positive disciples for you business is to give your customers constant, excellent service and quality products and services that meet their needs and conjectures.
So there you it is! Now you have discovered the secrets to making your small business more profitable. What are you sitting around for? No time to waste, start putting these secrets to good use today!
About the Author:
A recurring billing and invoicing system is critical to allow any business to uphold a professional image. SnapBill has been helping businesses for years and are providing a free account to get started.
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