What's your biggest business bugbear?

[Dazzling Dazza]

I believe it's a 'given' in business that you don't pay on time. I chase fairly hard, have robust T&C's and yet very few clients pay as per my terms.
From speaking to friends who have been business for years and regardless of the wealth of business they hold on to their cash for as long as they can get away with it. Many moons ago I worked for an extremely wealthy publishing organisation and they had the worst record for payment. So much so that on a regular basis they were refused supplies unless they settled part of their invoice. So much for the credibility of credit checking, eh?

 

[Toni Q]

Doesn't this go back to the 80/20 rule - 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients.

If you can afford to "lose" clients by being pushy, then I think you should. Maybe go through your client base and rate them as A - good B - fair and C - awful. You'll probably find that your A clients comprise about 20% of your order book. Give them terms, say 30 days. B clients get 15 days and C clients have to pay COD.

You may lose a bunch of your C clients - but do you really want them?

 

[Christiane]

cashflow and managing my stock

 

[chinasourcingagent]

To find potential customers accurately is my current tasks.Customer and me know each other very few.

 

[DanMartin]

Many congratulations to Philip Hoyle who has won a copy of Six Of The Best: Lessons In Life And Leadership. Although the competition is over, the poll is still open so make sure you take part and share your experiences.

 

[Grollsta]

Wow. this thread has been quite a read.

Be assured, late payment is a worldwide problem. Especially if you have government as a client.

Perhaps you can put on your terms of purchase, that late payment will cause the debtor to be listed as a late payer with the credit beuraux? (sp? eeeuch!)

I have used blacklisting as a threat before, just send an SMS/Text to the client and state firmly, "payment proof to be received by our office within the hour or we will blacklist you at (blacklist dot com).

I agree cashflow seems to be the next most difficult matter to deal with.

How much would you say its worth, to know exactly how to deal with this? The cashflow matter is the same across all business types. grow a little, and you will feel some pain. Some time back, i had a small security business, that supplied and installed goods. We used direct marketing to reach our market. Cashflow was our number one problem. Late payment just made it worse. A few clients just simply refused to pay, they lied, yeah the check is in the mail and all that. The local laws stipulated that once goods were installed, they cannot be summarily removed even if payment has not been made. I found this to be conducive to people threatening me that i could not remove the goods. Well, we eventually got that idea out of their minds. We did in fact forcibly remove goods we had installed, while the non payers were at work. Boy were they P***d at us. they wanted their goods back! It was really funny. I got a good laugh from it all. Word eventually spread that we were a serious business. We gave exceptional business and did the odd extra thing like dumping trash for some old folk, or installing a secure fence for an Aids orphanage at cost. The mileage we got was just pure pleasure, not much business. I digress. sorry.

I think what we all lack is some basic business and financial education. Some can be learned by theory, reading books and applying what you learn. Most though, is the old school of hard knocks. it is a hard tutor to obey and the only one that really gets the message through.

One thing we all need to know is taught by the really wealthy.

Don't own your asset in your own name.
Own the control of the assets.
Learn how to create capital.
Learn how to create cashflow. As long as you have clients buying and suppliers supplying, you CAN create cashflow.
Be disciplined.
Dont use the business as your current account.

This is a subject i love. sorry if i rambled.

br
Graeme
(yeah Toni thats me , i am moving to the UK to work on my neon tan hee hee )

 

[DanMartin]

Many thanks for that Graeme. You certainly know your stuff and lots of useful advice for other members!

 

[Roark]

Men and women in empty suits.

& Late payers.

 

[Hobbit]

I always find the hardest thing is to get customers.

 

[Grollsta]

Hobbit that's a valid point.

Thanks Dan. No worries. If we can share some knowledge and help someone then there will be less unemployment.

Back to AMM and Hobbits points though.

Which is easier to deal with? To sell a product to a market you know little about? or to find a market asking for something and then find something to sell them?

IMHO, we as entrepreneurs often start the wrong way around. For a few reasons. Steve said in a different thread on this forum, that he wishes our schools taught financial education to our kids. I agree. But as a kid, i would has said it would suck. Money didn't interest me then. It can be made interesting for kids. Kyosaki's cashflow for kids is brilliant.

I bet that most of us who work for ourselves, started doing just that because of circumstance. Didnt like the boss, want to be my own boss, or whatever the reason. Now here we stand, with a product we know well, and think we know how to market. And that is the problem I think.

We started with a product, and we did not start off by asking what are people trying to solve and what can i sell them to help them solve their problem with. Its a real mind bender.

Find the market first that is asking for something. Then sell them the product. Figure out what it is your market is asking and how they are asking. Once you have customers, ask for referrals - it's the cheapest most effective form of marketing. Some call it word of mouth.

Say, AMM, wassup? Let us know where or how we can help you.

 

[kindecs_decorators]

Hi my biggest BugBear is late payment from our clients. We have strick 30 day term and most payments we get on time or within a fews of the due date. As a company we have made descions on certain companies to stop working for them and issuing a Letter Before Action and if required taking the matter further. As most companies I would make our lives so easier but i guess thats business.

My other bugbear is tax and vat, i have no problem with paying our fair share of tax and vat but it seams that a large quantity of our company monies goes to tax and vat. Our average monthly VAT return is £22,000.

Sorry for rambling but i am sure my issues are the same as many companies.

 

[David White]

It has got to be getting payment from UK customers I think if banks made it easier and more cost-effective to take credit/debit card payments without the stupid 2-3% charges then life would be much easier :redface:

 

[ClaretKnight]

Advertising costs can be high.