The current economic slowdown is compelling increasing number of businesses to hold on to payables as long as possible. Companies are delaying making payments to preserve funds for their own business operations. Studies have shown that payments delayed for long periods often go uncollected. Consequently, companies awaiting payments are becoming more vigilant in collecting payments from customers. If you have piled up bad debt on your books, you have three options.

1. Assign bill collection to in-house Accounts Receivables

If a payment is being delayed, the in-house Accounts Receivable (AR) department is assigned the job of collecting dues from the customer. It is in the interest of both customers and your business to share a good relationship. Customers want products and services from trusted companies and companies want continued sales to customers.

The AR personnel work out a payment plan with customers who are unable to pay on time for any reason. The AR personnel can take informed decisions on these accounts, as they know the customer and understand the business need. They also have the authority to withhold pending orders of these customers, to refuse new orders, and to warn them about possible legal action.

If the delinquent customers are still unresponsive, AR personnel can decide to call in professional collection agencies to collect the debt.

2. Hire a professional collection agency

The chance of a debt being recovered reduces with time. Non-payment or delay in payment of dues is costly to your business as it reduces your revenue. When it becomes apparent that a customer is not responding to invoices and payment reminders, it is time to consider using the services of a commercial collection agency.

Collection agencies offer professional services for collecting debt. They charge 15% to 50% of the collected debt based on the age of the debt and the effort put in to retrieve it. However, the actual amount of debt they will recover from the debtor cannot be ascertained in advance. The point of time at which you decide to pass the customer account to the collection agency is very crucial. The earlier, the better. Timely intervention of collection agencies results in higher collection at a lower cost.

It is not easy to decide when to call in a collection agency. You need to assess the best time for recovery of debt. Sometimes, a collection agency is called in when continued contact by the AR personnel is going to adversely affect the relationship with the customer.

3. Sell your debt to debt purchasers

Selling the debt to a debt purchasing agency is an option when your business is low in capital and needs funds urgently, or you do not have adequate staff to pursue bad debt collection. The upside of this is that you get your money immediately irrespective of the amount recovered by the debt purchaser at a later date. The downside is that the debts are priced very low in the market. However, if you had written off the bad debt, it is better to get some of your money than nothing at all.

Deal with those unpaid bills with a sense of urgency. If you ignore them for long, you may have to write them off. But if you take timely action and hire a collection service, the possibility of collection is reasonably high.

Before you select a vendor, compare price quotes from leading collection agencies

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If you’re new to the merchant services industry, you’ll find that there is a very high level of competition going on among its participants. In choosing an account provider, one usually goes for the one that offers the lowest credit card processing rates. On the other hand, things may not be that simple as the merchant will need to have a good understanding of these rates and how they play a role in the way an account will be handled.

Basically, there will be six types of card rates depending on the type that a customer uses. The PIN-based debit transaction rate is the lowest that a merchant may incur. It is based on debit or ATM cards which, when connected to a checking account, may be used for an ATM transaction using a four-digit personal identification number. The card bearing a VISA or Master Card logo can also be used with the charges recorded as PIN-based debit charges. Hence, the user is charged for a PIN-based debit transaction fee.

At least 60% higher than the debit transaction rate is the check card rate which is charged to the customer who uses his debit card as a credit card. A merchant may keep away from this charge by having the customer enter his PIN on a PIN pad. Once the PIN s entered, the card will register as a debit card. PINs only apply to debit cards.

Coming a close second to debit transaction rate is the qualified rate which the merchant pays when a customer uses a typical VISA or Master Card. If the card is used with rewards or frequent flyer miles, the merchant in point of fact ends up paying for the privilege earned by the customer through a mid-qualified rate which is higher than the qualified rate.

The non-qualified rate is the highest that a merchant will be charged. This is incurred as a customer pays when the card used is a VISA or Master Card issued to a business or the government. This rate applies to credit card payments made occasionally through the telephone. Basically, this is the highest rate simply for the reason that the conditions that apply are the most risky. It is also assessed on a card payment which is taken over the telephone. The card is not present at the time of the transaction. The non-qualified rate is the highest rate because it is the most dangerous. There is a likelihood that the owner of the merchant account may go broke or the person maintaining it could commit fraud in handling the card number.

Credit card transactions that are regularly made over the phone or through the mail qualify the merchant for the mail order rate. Compared to the non-qualified rate, which is charged for an uncommon phone transaction, the mail order rate is lower and in fact saves the client from being charged a non-qualified rate when a VISA or Master Card payment is used to pay for a buy.

It is, of course, basic for each merchant to first carefully consider these credit card processing fees before jumping at an opportunity to acquire a business merchant account.

The government’s “cash for clunkers” program, which offers credits between $3,500 and $4,500 to those disposing of gas-guzzling vehicles and buying new, more fuel-efficient cars, is bolstering auto sales – and auto makers.

After the initial $1 billion apportioned to the program was rapidly drained, a proposal to top up the funds with an additional $2 billion passed the Senate Thursday by 60 to 37 votes and was signed by President Obama without delay. So far the program (formally the Car Allowance Rebate System, or “CARS”) has led to about 250,000 cars being sold.

As one of the goals of the program was to get more fuel-efficient cars on the road, it should not come as a surprise that some of the best-selling cars are foreign makes. In fact, as of the latest data available, four out of five new cars purchased through the program are manufactured by non-U.S. companies like Toyota and Honda. As the program has won its additional funds, the hard-hit auto industry will likely benefit from incentive-related sales for a little longer, despite some indications of the waning interest. It’s also important to note that in addition to the U.S., other countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and China also offer several measures (consumer credits, tax breaks, subsidies) that are boosting the industry. It was reported that Russia is also considering similar measures for domestic cars. It’s very likely that cash-strapped consumers taking advantage of the program, while getting a good deal on a new car, will have less money in their pockets for other discretionary purchases. And if the economy does not improve significantly by the time the additional $2 billion runs out (which is unlikely), “cash for clunkers” will have revved the auto industry’s engine only temporarily. However, this extra boost should prove helpful to the strongest companies in the business who are getting an incremental advantage over competitors.

One such company is Toyota, a leader in fuel-efficient cars. Toyota, which gets more than a fourth of its sales in North America, holds a second place in cars purchased under the program. Recently, it has provided investors with a look into its future as it released operational results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2010. Despite remaining in the red, the company is now more optimistic about the near-future. Toyota now expects higher sales in Japan for the first time in five years as the result of the government-sponsored program for promoting fuel-efficient vehicles. Its earlier forecasts did not include the effects of government incentives at all. Toyota also narrowed its expectations for full-year operating loss to 750 billion yen from 850 billion yen, a significant improvement. Toyota’s balance sheet remains strong and continues to be a significant long-term positive. While purchases prompted by the governments’ incentives do not necessarily reflect sustained demand, the boost they are giving to Toyota is already helping its near-term results. I like the company because of its industry dominance, which is likely to improve as the industry goes through the slowdown. Toyota’s recent guidance may prove conservative as its technological dominance and financial strength will continue helping it to win over competition.

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Inform Your Customers

If you do not cue your customers that you are
ease in byplay they may lose. Utter customers
are the lifeblood of any commerce. Beneath are trinity
effective strategies you can use to remind your
customers that you are console in acting and get
them to buy over and over again.

1. Ask your customers to subscribe to your unconstrained
publishing. It could be an indicant newssheet, e-zine,
production, journal etc. You could ship out the
printing weekly, monthly, every two months, etc. The
articles in the business should be advisory
and laboursaving to your readers. You can gain
echo purchases by including advertisements of
new products and services that you provide.

2. Ask customers to sign-up to an e-mail update
that tells them when you jazz prefab changes to
your web situation. Whenever you update your web
tract transport them an e-mail to remind them to jaunt
again. If you are using this strategy it’s consequential
to update your web tract oftentimes. Add new communication
that would be of welfare to your customers. You
could also add supply poppycock to your web site similar
software, online utilities, ebooks etc.

3. Follow-up with your customers. You could
follow-up by e-mail, shortest communicating or by telecom.
It’s ever alpha to get their authorisation to
follow-up sprouted of second. You could communication
them and ask them if they were felicitous with their
purchase. Transport them online or off-line acknowledgement
cards on holidays and birthdays. You could also
follow-up with a disembarrass sharing letting them bonk you
realise their commercialism. You can get occur
job from them if you permit other quantity
wage or punt end fluid with each follow-up.

In section, any of the trey strategies above
leave amount the confine of emit purchases from
your live customers. You can amount their
effectuality by compounding all of them into your
marketing campaign.

Umteen fill do not score the minute or skills to compose
and create ebooks to snap went to their web place
visitors. Gift away ebooks from your web position
can easily increment interchange and income. Why not
create promotional ebooks for else grouping to
use so they can designate their web place.

First, you present impoverishment to write and create your own
ebook to cater inaccurate to your visitors. If you do not
poorness to make one, you could ask authorization to
use added writers’ article or substantial. Be trusty
to let your schoolbook or flag at the showtime of
the ebook.

Formerly your ebook is uploaded to your web place
you can afford people to download it and give
it away to their web position visitors. Your ad give
move to be circulate all over the cyberspace.

You can verify this strategy one block more to
work it flush more reigning. Estimate group to
sign-up to get an edition of the ebook with their
own schoolbook or headline ad included in it. With their
own ad included in the ebook, they will transform
harder to advance it. That capital your ad present be
seen by symmetric statesman people. It’s now a win/win
situation for you and your visitors!

Follow-Up With Freebies

It’s chief to follow-up with potentiality online customers.
People up with them can gain your interchange and income.
The many nowadays group see your ad, the greater chance
they leave buy your production or accommodation.

Before you can follow-up with them you penury their e-mail
come. You can get their e-mail accost by having them
subscribe to your e-zine, change out a web position create, or e-mail
your follow-up autoresponder.

Most fill will not dedicate you their e-mail speech unless they
get something in regress. The most telling way is to act
them a cyberspace freebie. Here are some ideas.

Independent E-Gifts
It could be escaped package, journalist books, web space, graphics
communication boards, etc.

Slaveless Net Services
It could be unfixed e-consulting, hunt engine submissions,
web designing, etc.

Independent E-Information
It could be an autonomous e-book, e-report, web fact, e-course,
e-zine, etc.

When you follow-up with the gift, you can include your
ad somewhere on the gift. If it’s a disentangled mating, hump
your ad in the follow-up e-mail. Neaten certain you ever get
their authorisation before you follow-up with them by e-mail.
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For the small business owner, keeping up with all of the available benefits can be difficult. In addition, how does one meet the requirements for a minimum number of employees in order to find good rates on insurance? Unlike the larger companies, it’s not as simple as calling someone and knowing you qualify to participate. Many insurance plans require a minimum number of participants in order to offer group rates, so oftentimes the small business owner is left in the cold.

This is the point where a small business can take advantage of some of the various organizations that exist just for them. Various organizations offer different benefits for the small business organization, including those who come together as an association so that small business can take advantage of benefits previously only offered to large businesses. For examples, some credit unions offer insurance benefits to their members at group rates, while labor unions quite frequently have plans already in place for their members, no matter the size of the individual organization.

Each existing small business organization has its own function and plan for helping the small business owner. Some offer training in order for the business to grow in its knowledge of the product it produces, while others offer working capital to allow the business to develop and flourish. The government operates some of these organizations, while others are privately owned or non-profit organizations that are funded by major corporations. Whatever the needs may be for a small business, there is an organization there to meet those needs. The difficulty is not in an organization being in operation to assist with those needs, but for the small business owner to have the capability of locating these organizations when he needs the information. Thanks to the Internet, this process has become easier, but for a start up business, access to online sources may not always be an option. Fortunately for those who do not have online access, or choose not to utilize it, various books and publications are available to assist a small business in locating organizations that are specifically geared toward helping small businesses succeed.

When you re just starting out, it is very difficult to know all of the places to search for information, so another good source of information is your local university. Quite often the business development centers of the universities offer many different services to small businesses in the private sector. This includes information about start up funding, different types of financing based upon the scope of the business and its ownership, and training in essential areas of business ownership. In some areas, these classes are even sponsored in cooperation with the Small Business Administration and other small business development organizations.

Written by Ricco Richardson
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