Getting paid for your work is the final step in every sales process and still one of the biggest issues every company faces. You provide the goods and services, but how long until you receive payment? The longer it takes, the higher the opportunity costs and the less likely you will be paid. Many times it feels like “the check is in the mail” for an eternity. How can your company get paid in a more timely manner, so you can stop stressing out about money? Here are five ways to get paid faster.
Go Digital
Image via Flickr by yum9me
Mailing out physical invoices to your customers is so last decade, and if you’re still doing it, you are adding a lot of unnecessary delay and expense into the overall payment process. Instead, you should start emailing customers online invoices, and work with your bank to set up your business bank account so you can receive electronic payments. Most customers actually favor this method.
Provide Options
The more options a customer has to pay, the better. Make it so they can transfer funds through electronic bill pay, use PayPal, or pay with a debit or credit card over the phone or online. The idea here is to make it as convenient as possible for your customers to pay and to remove all excuses for why they didn’t pay.
Offer Incentives
Motivate timely payments by offering customers a small discount if they actually pay early. First, do an analysis to make sure the financial tradeoff is worth it to your company before you extend an offer of this sort, and then if it does make sense, make sure your payment system is set up to handle it correctly. Conversely, you should also charge late fees to any customers that pay more than a week late.
Send Invoices Immediately
You would probably be surprised how many times companies actually forget to invoice for goods and services they’ve provided. Your clients aren’t going to tell you if you forget to bill them, so the responsibility is all yours. Create a system that is immediate, consistent, and reliable. Invoices should be easy to generate, look professional, and contain all the information necessary for getting paid fast.
Get Paid While You Wait
You don’t have to wait to get paid from your client in order to have the money in your hands. You could choose to have a provider like Kabbage pay your outstanding invoices and then have clients pay Kabbage. That means you know when you’ll get paid, and you can use that consistent influx of money to invest in your business. You will no longer have to worry about how long it takes your client to send in the payment.
Getting customers to pay the correct amount on time and consistently is one of the biggest challenges for any company. When the problem goes on too long, it could eventually shut down your company. It’s vital to stay on top of payments and have efficient systems in place for accounts receivable and collections.