Saturday, August 10, 2013

Solutions For Small Business Success

By Susan Bapsnill


All freelancers and small business owners want that secret something that's going to set them apart from the competition. The secret that's going to put ahead of the pack; Yes, everyone wants a piece of that elusive quality that is going to make their business the awesome example instead of the cautionary tale. Small business owners are faced with a minefield of problems on their way to success in today's modern marketplace.

Making a success out of your business is never as easy as it sounds. Efficiently and effectively controlling the billing and payment collection in your businesses is one of the main challenges obstacles faced by SMME's and freelancers. Many of you will be surprised to hear that this crucial aspect of a business's success is shockingly often neglected. You can never put too much importance on the necessity to have an effective billing policy.

Discover the secrets to making your business profitable, robust, efficient and cost effective:

Don't spend too much

Key among the problems the small business owner or freelancers face is making the cost of operation low. This is doubly true when it comes to keeping the costs of billing and payment collection to a minimum.

Use creative online systems and systems automation to keep the amount of workers you need to employ in your accounts division to a minimum. There are lots of tools in the marketplace currently that allow you to automate recurring invoicing giving you complete control over your daily operations with an almost skeleton staff.

It is crucial to remember that you have choice. Always shop around for payment gateways with the lowest fees. To keep your options free look for a payment facilitator to act as middle man between your business and the payment gateway. Many payment gateways do not let you to readily export client details and for businesses using more than one gateway merged management is crucial. A payment facilitator will store client billing details safely on your and your gateways behalf and allow quick switching between gateways.

Create trust: Be professional

How many times have you received a badly made invoice full of grammar errors, missing fields or wrong details? What does that make you think of the people issuing the invoice? Poorly put together, incorrect invoices reflect badly on the products and services you render. This method of making a bad impression of your businesses degree of service is just as easy to prevent as it is to perpetrate.

Switching out those unprofessional do-it-yourself Microsoft Word or Excel format invoices for professionally generated ones is likely one of the smartest investments you can make in your enterprises future. Invest in software or a web-based service designed to create professionally formatted invoices. And even then remember to always ensure the clients information are right and review spelling. If you are issuing tax invoices make sure all the legally required information appear correctly on any invoices you send. Looking professional nurters trust in your clients.

Fund collection

Now that you have sent your professional looking invoice you need to collect payment for it. Giving your customers several ways to pay your invoices is always recommended. The easier it is to pay your business the more payments you will receive. We advise having the following payment options available to increase your ability to collect payment:

- Ability to apply and save direct or bank deposits as well as electronic funds or wire transfers

- The option for clients to pay through an automated recurring debit order from credit card or bank account

- The ability for clients to pay via an automated recurring debit order from bank account or credit card

Keep your business liquid

The need to monitor and control bad debt in a vital factor in the success of your business. Controlling bad debt will ensure that your cash flow remains strong and constant. One of the most effective ways to do this is working hard to prevent it in the first place. This calls for correspondence on an organised, scheduled scale. By this I mean, keep your customers informed every step of the way.

The trick is ready access to billing data and clear, easily understandable correspondence. Keep your clients in the loop every step of the way. Send reminders, payment warning, past due warning and suspension messages. Do so via email and text messages (SMS) in a clear controlled fashion over the course of the client's repayment. Allow your client the greatest degree of access to their billing data, account balances and required repayment amounts. To help you do this, ensure you have procedures in place to assist you to automate and schedule correspondence with clients.

Make your business exceptional

Standing out from the crowd means more business. What makes you better than your competitors? Have you got something to make you stand out from the crowd? The best way to truly stand out from the crowd and keep clients coming back is to provide a quality service or product reliably.

Don't look for the answer in gimmicks or throw away thousands on marketing and promotions that often do more damage than good. The only way to build long lasting customer relationships and create outspoken positive advocates for you brand is to give your clients consistent, exceptional service and quality products and services that meet their desires and expectations.

So there you it is! Now you have found the magic tricks to making your small business more successful. What are you sitting around for? No time to waste, start putting these ideas to good use now!




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