This week I have a guest post from Andrew Stone of EC Credit Control.  Getting paid for all your hard work is vital to the survival of your business.  In this post Andrew talks about some of the causes for a blow-out in accounts receivable and what to do about it.

Businesses often call EC Credit Control for help when they are having difficulty getting their debtors to pay.  While sorting out the slow paying clients, we learn why it is that the debtors are dragging the chain. Almost every time we discover some, or all, of the following 7 deadly sins of credit management have created the situation.

1.     No clearly defined Terms and Conditions disclosed

In the past it has been common for businesses to do business on a simple handshake with problems experienced by either party.  As consumers have become wiser, and maybe a little more cunning, business owners, are now often faced with uphill struggles when they are running their business.  Whether it be getting paid on time,  jobs cancelled at the last minute, defects being noted some 12 or 24 months after the work was completed, or being able to pass collection costs on to the customer for late payment, without Terms of Trade being disclosed prior to work being completed, or services provided, you could be heading for disaster. 

2.     No formal Credit Policy

One of the biggest failings in business is that after the job is completed there is no follow up for payment, and before you know it, the invoice can be 3 months overdue.  By having a clear credit policy from the start of the relationship with your customer i.e. a completed credit application form, credit checking the customer and then a robust credit control process, a lot of potential problems can be erased.  There is no point you having done the job and then never get paid for it because you haven’t bothered following up payment.  It can be as simple as sending an invoice, then statement and then a reminder phone call.  If they still haven’t paid, then don’t be afraid to escalate.

3.     Have a Credit Policy but never use it

How often have we spoken to clients who have paid hard earned cash for a good solid credit management program and still have it sitting in the bottom draw, or better still, have it wrap up in the box it came in!  If you have a credit policy, then use it.  If you aren’t the right person to be implementing it then find someone who can as well as someone who enjoys doing these duties.  You would be surprised at how quickly your cash-flow improves when you follow a structured approach.

4.     Provide Credit when in fact you state you are a Cash Business

A cash business is exactly that – your customer pays cash as soon as the job is completed.  If you allow the customer to pay in 7 days then you provide credit which means you need to have a credit policy in place.

5.     Procrastination when dealing with slow payers

Too often we hear clients say “I will just give them one last chance” when the debt is 6-12 month old.  How many chances do you need to give your customers?  What communication have you had with your customer over the past 6-12 months?  If you are not talking to your customer then what chances do you have in collecting the money? Next to none I would suggest.  If your customer has not paid you then don’t be afraid to escalate it to the experts i.e. a collection agency, where most agencies work on a commission basis only on successful collect, meaning they take the risk.

6.     You believe everything the customer tells you

If I was asked to write a book on every line or excuse we have been told when it comes to asking for payment, the book would be an extremely large novel.  If someone says they will pay you, then get a date from them and the amount they will be paying as this gets a commitment (make sure you diary this date so you can follow up).  You don’t have eyes and ears around the place to ensure you have up to date information on all your clients.  There are some great products in the market which can assist you with this.  You can place an alert/monitor on your customers which will alert you of anything from change of business address, credit enquiries made against them or any adverse credit placed against them.  This service is very inexpensive as well as potentially saving you financial ruin as often you can be advised of customer issues prior to anyone else knowing.   

7.     Reliance on Trade References rather than an independent robust credit checking

So many times a business will phone the trade references written down on the credit application form and funnily enough receive a glowing reference.  Well of course you will as the customer is not really going to put down someone who will say negative experiences are they!  Unless you can control who they write down as a referee, relying on trade references can be very dangerous.  To ensure you receive a robust and independent picture on your new customer, we would suggest a thorough credit check is completed through a credit bureau.  This will provide you with important data i.e. identification of your customer, credit history (enquiries and any adverse data), on companies you will receive the correct legal entity of your customer, who the directors are, whether company forms have been lodged on time, as well as any adverse credit the company may have had in the past.  To enable you to complete such reports you will need to have your terms of trade in place and up to date to ensure you comply with current Privacy requirements.

If you would like to receive any further information on any of the above please feel free to call me, Andrew Stone on 021 400 116 for a no obligation meeting. If you prefer to drop me an email, my address is Andrew.Stone@eccreditcontrol.com    

Do Something Remark-Able

In Seth Godin’s 2003 book called Purple Cow, he challenged businesses to stop playing safe by continuing to do what they have always done, or making small changes to existing product/service lines, and rather try more radical ideas to take a market by storm. The business world is a bit different now than in 2003, but the principal remains very relevant, I believe. The opportunity to gain significant market share by coming out with revolutionary ideas for new products or services are just as good now as they were 10 years ago.

Seth used the analogy of a Purple Cow. Nobody really notices one cow from the next. They are very familiar and pretty boring. A PURPLE cow however. Now that is something that would grab your attention and be something to talk about. Imagine if you could come up with a purple cow in your business. What level of free publicity would that provide and in these days of social media, how fast could that positive talk spread? How “able” is the idea to make people “remark” about it to their friends and become “remarkable”? What sort of additional sales and profit could that lead to?

Seth provided a guideline in his article to help you in the thinking process. I have included it below and I encourage you to talk to your staff about this list and challenge them to think about purple cow ways you can change the company. It doesn’t need to be a totally new and radical product that will cost millions to develop either. It can just be a radical new way to answer the phones or provide customer support, or guarantee customer satisfaction.

Here is Seth’s list to help you in the thinking process:

1. Differentiate your customers. Find the group that’s most profitable. Find the group that’s most likely to influence other customers. Figure out how to develop for, advertise to, or reward either group. Ignore the rest. Cater to the customers you would choose if you would choose your customers.
   
2. If you could pick one undeserved niche to target (and to dominant), what would it be? Why not launch a product to compete with your own that does nothing but appeal to that market?
   
   
3. Create two teams: the investors and the milkers. Put them is separate buildings. Hold a formal ceremony when you move a product from one group to the other. Celebrate them both, and rotate people around.
   
4. Do you have the email addresses of the 20% of your customer base that loves what you do? If not, start getting them. If you do, what could you make for them that would be super-special?
   
   
5. Remarkable isn’t always about changing the biggest machine in your factory. It can be the way you answer the phone, launch a new brand, or price a revision to your software. Getting in the habit of doing the “unsafe” thing every time you have the opportunity is the best way to see what’s working and what’s not.
   
6. Explore the limits. What if you’re the cheapest, the fastest, the slowest, the hottest, the coldest, the easiest, the most efficient, the loudest, the most hated, the copycat, the outsider, the hardest, the oldest, the newest, or just the most! If there’s a limit, you should (must) test it.
   
7. Think small. One vestige of the TV-industrial complex is a need to think mass. If it doesn’t appeal to everyone, the thinking goes, it’s not worth it. No longer. Think of the smallest conceivable market and describe a product that overwhelms it with its remarkability. Go from there.
   
8. Find things that are “just not done” in your industry, and then go ahead and do them. For example, JetBlue Airways almost instituted a dress code– for its passengers! The company is still playing with the gift certificates. A book publisher could put a book on sale for a certain period of time. Stew Leonard’s took the strawberries out of the little green plastic cages and let the customers pick their own. Sales doubled.
   
9. Ask, “Why not?” Almost everything you don't do has no good reason for it. Almost everything you don't do is the result of fear or inertia or a historical lack of someone asking, “Why not?”
   
10. What would happen if you simply told the truth inside your company and to your customers?

I challenge you to come up with a remarkable, purple cow in your business and then milk it for all it’s worth!

For a full copy of Seth’s article, click here.

Andy Burrows

Business Advisor, Coach and Mentor.

Find me at www.iconbusinesssolutions.co.nz

Zen and the Art of Business

In case you hadn't noticed the Chinese know a thing or two about business and have been pretty successful at it for a few thousand years. The communist revolution put the brakes on entrepreneurship for a while, but you can't keep a good thing down and the leaders of China know it. Entrepreneurship is the new religion in China again capitalism is not a dirty word any more.

I thought you might like to look at a few Chinese proverbs and how they are applicable to business. You could do a lot worse that incorporating some of this Chinese Zen philosophy in how you lead your own business, so read on.......

1. “In every crisis, there is opportunity.”

Most entrepreneurial ventures arise from a solving a problem. If you are faced with a problem, craft a solution and sell that solution to others. As an interesting side note, it’s a common misconception that the word crisis and opportunity mean the same thing in the ancient Chinese language. This misconception initially gained momentum when John F. Kennedy incorrectly cited it in a speech in 1959. (source: smallbusiness411.org)

2. “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”

Entrepreneurship starts with an idea and ends with a destiny. You craft your destiny with your actions, habits and character. You make your destiny, it doesn’t make you.

3. “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Aside from 20 years ago, there is no better time to start a business than today.

4. “If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people.”

The goal of every entrepreneur should be to start a business and find capable people to run the business so that they don’t have to.

5. “A bad workman blames his tools.”

A bad entrepreneur places blame on someone or something else when things go bad. First and foremost, you should hold yourself accountable for a negative outcome of your business.

6. “A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood.”

As an entrepreneur you always have to be open to new opportunities. If you aren’t actively looking for new ways to make your business more innovative, you won’t be very successful as an entrepreneur.

7. “A fall into a ditch makes you wiser.”

When bad things happen, a good entrepreneur learns from them.

8. “A fly before his own eye is bigger than an elephant in the next field.”

When you focus only on the opportunities that are right in front of you, you might miss the larger ones that take effort to find.

9. “A jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good-for-nothing until he is educated.”

A strong education is often the foundation of a strong business. The more you know about entrepreneurship, the more equipped you will be to face its various challenges.

10. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Every entrepreneur in the history of the world started their business with a single action.

11. “A person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the man doing it.”

As an entrepreneur, you will undoubtedly encounter people who will doubt you. Don’t let those people get in your way. Instead, use their doubt as motivation.

12. “A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.”

You can learn a lot from talking to experienced entrepreneurs. They have been through the process and can teach you more than most any book.

13. “All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws.”

All people love to make money but few people pursue entrepreneurship because it’s full of challenges and uncomfortable risks.

14. “Cheap things are not good, good things are not cheap.”

As a small business owner, always focus on providing quality.

15. “Customers are jade; merchandise is grass.”

What good is a business without customers? You should value your customers more than any other aspect of your business.

16. “Defeat isn’t bitter if you don’t swallow it.”

You will encounter setbacks, but don’t let those setbacks defeat you.

17. “Defer not till to-morrow what may be done to-day.”

One of the most challenging things for an entrepreneur is simply getting things done. According to numerous entrepreneurs I have spoken with, procrastination is one of the largest causes of failure in new businesses.

18. “Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.”

Though a good entrepreneur isn’t afraid to take risks, never rely too heavily on projections of profitability, success in a certain market, etc. A good entrepreneur always considers, and has a plan for, the worst-case scenario.

19. “Don’t stand by the water and long for fish; go home and weave a net. “

Instead of complaining about how you aren’t making much money, find new ways to earn it.

20. “Easy to run downhill, much puffing to run up.”

It’s easy to run a business when the going is good, but the true test of an entrepreneur is how he or she behaves when faced with challenges. As the current economic climate makes overwhelmingly clear, every market has its ups and downs.

21. “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

This one is so clear, it requires no explanation.

22. “Falling hurts least those who fly low.”

The less amount of money you spend, the less it will hurt if your business fails. It’s common for entrepreneurs to bootstrap the initial costs of their business. Bootstrapping means doing whatever you can to spend as little as possible.

23. “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”

If you’re going to put effort into starting a business, then make sure you put 100% effort into every aspect of your business.

24. “If you get up one more time than you fall you will make it through. “

When you get knocked down, get back up. If you don’t get back up, your business will fail.

25. “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”

When you get to the point of hiring employees; the more you pay, the higher quality effort you will receive.

26. “It’s as difficult to be rich without bragging as it is to be poor without complaining.”

As an entrepreneur, it’s important to remain humble, especially when you’re rich. Humility is difficult to maintain when things are going well.

27. “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”

Learn from your business and it’s something you will never lose.

28. “Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come. “

If you make your customers happy, they will talk and those they talk to may become new customers.

29. “Patience is a virtue.”

Having patience with your business is essential to your success. Very few businesses are profitable in their first year.

30. “Rich not gaudy.”

When you become rich, don’t become gaudy, or tastelessly flashy.

31. “Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.”

Being taught something will only get you so far. You must independently apply that learning to become successful.

32. “The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.”

You will encounter trials and tribulations as a business owner, but these trials and tribulations will mold you into a better entrepreneur.

33. “The emperor is rich, but he cannot buy one extra year.”

Your business and the money it generates are not the most important things in your life.

34. “The loftiest towers rise from the ground. “

Even the most successful businesses in the world started with the conception and implementation of an idea.

35. “The palest ink is better than the best memory.”

When you conceive an idea on how to improve your business, write it down!

36. “There are two perfectly good men, one dead, and the other unborn.”

No one is perfect. Always be open to learning from other people.

37. “To open a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art.”

Starting a business is simple in comparison to keeping it.

38. “We all like lamb; each has a different way of cooking it.”

Entrepreneurship is like an art: there is not always a right and wrong way of pursuing your business goals. Let your personal taste and style as an entrepreneur be your strength.

39. “Who is not satisfied with himself will grow; who is not sure of his own correctness will learn many things.”

Remember you don’t know everything. Actively seek out advice and information, and you will learn.

40. “A smile will gain you ten more years of life.”

What’s the point in owning a business if you’re not having fun with it? If your business doesn’t make you smile, then it’s the wrong business for you.

Need More Time in Your Day?

(Adapted from an article by Trent Hamm, March 2009)

If one of your New Year resolutions was to spend more time doing _______ , (you fill in the blank) just how will you find the extra time to achieve it? One way is to stop doing some other activity, but that is not always practical as it may be important and necessary for the successful running of your business.

Another way is to get better organized and find some “extra” time in your day to use as you see fit. But how do you do this? There are many books and systems around on time management. Some are good and some are not. Rather than investing a lot in new software, try a few of these no cost ideas, implement them CONSISTENTLY, and together they should enable you to find some of that extra time you need to help achieve your New Year resolution.

1. Avoid multitasking like the plague.
Research has shown that multitasking has a similar level of effectiveness to someone smoking marijuana (without the benefit of feeling good). Switching from one task to another makes it difficult to tune out distractions and can cause mental blocks that can slow down your progress

Focus on only one task at a time. Pick the most important one and let the rest slide. Work on that one task in bursts – at most an hour in length. Then stop and catch up on any incoming messages you need to deal with, take a break, and so on. To optimise your results, bunch similar activities together and block out dedicated time in your calendar to complete them. If you have client calls to make, set aside a regular time each week in your diary, then commit and follow through, without getting distracted by any other activity.

2. Keep a notebook with you and write down your ideas.
We all have lots of good ideas float through our heads throughout the day: things we need to do, ideas for future directions, facts we need to look up. Many people try to just trap these in their conscious mind until they can do them, but doing that makes it harder to concentrate and really bear down on an important task.

Instead of doing this, keep a pocket notebook with you at all times to jot down any small things that pop into your head. This enables you to quickly clear the mind and return your focus to the (more important) matter in hand.

3. Process documents/mail/ideas once or twice a day.
Take some sort of action on all of those stored-up items – toss them in the trash, file them away, take care of the task, pencil it in on your calendar, or so on. I have a small sticker on my monitor saying R.A.F.T. This reminds me to handle a piece of paper only once and do something with it: get RID of it (give it to someone else), ACTION it, FILE it or TOSS it in the bin.

The goal needs to be eliminating everything in your “inbox”. You should strive to get to “empty” once a day, with everything in there dealt with in some capacity. If you let it build up, it will grow out of control.

4. Keep a project list – and focus on it at least an hour a day.

Keep a “to-do” list that is a maximum of thirty items long for projects that are perhaps not urgent but you would like to get done. Order it by the date you thought of it so that the oldest one is always at the top of the list. If the list has thirty projects on it and you want to add another one, you need to decide on which one to delete. It probably will be the oldest one as it will be the project you are least interested in.

5. Stop procrastinating

Procrastination in itself isn't bad. What's bad is what happens to whatever you're procrastinating about when you do it. Problems grow. Misunderstandings multiply. Rubbish piles up. Dealing with things when they're smaller not only saves time but makes it much easier on yourself too.

6. Learn what your personal time wasters are and eliminate them. Personally, I can easily spend forty-five minutes browsing the internet in the morning checking out the Herald online, Metservice and other “essential” information sites. Guess what? It will make NO positive difference to my business and I will eliminate it. Once you know what your favourite personal time wasters are, it's usually easy to come up with a strategy to stop doing them. Can’t decide on what to wear in the morning? Decide the night before and lay it out.

5. Keep a PRIORITIZED to-do list for each day.
Keep a to-do list and review it each day. Decide on the 5 MOST IMPORTANT things that need to be done and then rank them from most important to least. As a guide to deciding what to start on use the self-question, “if I could only work on ONE item today, what would that item be?” This will be your #1 item. Start on it and try to finish it (or reach a logical stopping point) before moving on to the next item.

The most important task may not be the most fun or the easiest. In fact it may be the worst one and one that you would prefer to avoid. Suck it up and as Brian Tracy suggests, Eat That Frog! Look at your lowest pay-off activities and consider delegating to someone else, or contracting these out. Consider a bookkeeper for example to process your day-to-day accounts.

6. Check email only twice a day.
Email is almost always a major time sink. It’s rarely a simple matter of just reading messages. Many messages demand responses, and some messages demand follow-up tasks. Leaving that email window open throughout the day ensures only one thing – your concentration will be interrupted constantly by messages that come in that need responses.

The solution is to simply close the program. Open it only two times a day or so and do an email session, where you deal with everything in your inbox. Then, close the program completely (including notifications) and move onto something else. If it’s truly urgent, someone will come directly to you, so don’t worry about missing out on something vital.

7. Create Procedures and Check Lists

Document the specific way you do things and begin to standardise your processes. Creating ‘How-To’ guides for your core activities will make it easier for you to tweak them over time and hand them over to someone else. Plus, by using your processes, you can start to repeat your successes time after time.

8. Automate Actions

Creating ‘set and forget’ systems will save you buckets of time. Assess each activity to determine how you could put it on autopilot. For example, when people sign up to your online newsletter, you can automate the thank you message they receive. You could set up a series of autoresponder messages to provide clients with information at pre-determined intervals. Or create a FAQ page on your website to direct people to, rather than repeating yourself.

9. Take lots of microbreaks (or at least switch to very different tasks regularly).
One of the biggest enemies in a workday is lethargy. It’s easy to find yourself in a low-energy period, sitting there having trouble keeping your eyes open or concentrating on anything. Once you’re there, it’s often very hard to pull yourself out of it – you’re running on low energy for the rest of the day, even if you do rebound a bit.

The best way to combat it is to never let your energy level get that low. That means not sitting at your desk or your work area for long periods. Get up and move on a regular basis. Instead of eating a big, heavy lunch, eat smaller snacks throughout the day. Stretch. Drink water. Do this as often as you can – bookend task sessions with a microbreak where you do these things.

10. Become fitter.
I know that I perform better and can get through work faster if I am feeling good and physically fitter. Do not ignore your personal well-being and schedule some time (ie. book an appointment with yourself in your diary) every day for some physical exercise.

A bit of short term pain will have tremendous long term gain, both for your work and your personal life.

There's a saying, "It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness". The good news is that these strategies to leverage your time and get more done in less time will help you light the candle in your business and help lower your stress. For help in implementing any of these strategies contact me at andyburrows@iconbusinesssolutions.com or phone me on 09 912 1901 for a no obligation chat and further information.