Confident Cashflow

As a small business owner, you have to wear a number of different hats when running your business; the marketing hat, the sales hat, the accountancy hat and the credit controller hat. And that is before you have even started on the actual service or product that your business sells.

When starting out, many people want to do it all themselves, but here are five signs that you should outsource your credit control.

1. Lack of Experience

In business there are some aspects you can ‘pick up’ along the way, but not many will know how to be an effective credit controller. If you have clients who regularly pay late, and don’t respond to your emails or calls perhaps it’s time to outsource to the specialists. A professional credit controller knows what they can and can’t do and what works and what doesn’t. In other words, they have the experience to ensure you are paid on time.

2. No Dedicated Team-Member

As a small business you may not be able to justify having a full-time credit controller on the staff as “not that many people pay late or don’t pay.” Perhaps the task of chasing payments is added to the job description of another member of staff. They are not an expert, and sometimes this won’t be done in the most effective manner. Outsourcing the credit control can ensure you get the service you need without having to have a full-time member of staff.

3. Inconsistent Process

As a company you may have Terms and Conditions in place which explain late/non-payment procedure, but without a dedicated team member in-house are these procedures being followed? And in a consistent and timely manner? If not, then it may be a good idea to outsource credit control as this will ensure all procedures are followed to schedule.

4. Don’t Want to Risk Customer Relations

Late or non-payment of invoices can have a detrimental effect on business relationships, especially if the person chasing the debt is the one who then negotiates and does the work. Do you find yourself taking the softly-softly approach? Or letting the late payment go as you want to maintain their business? Having a third party make the awkward calls and chase the payments can ensure that the business relationship is not irreparably damaged.

5. Poor Cash Flow

As much as small business owners love their work and their clients, like everyone, they work for money. If your business’ money is tied up in unpaid invoices and it is having an impact on the business and your family life it may be time to consider outsourcing. By outsourcing credit control the small business owner can rest assured that cash flow will improve in a stress-free manner.  Then once cash flow has stabilised your business has the opportunity to grow.

One of the main benefits of outsourcing credit control, other than improved customer relations, better cash flow and a more effective process is you will be stress-free – at least where customer payments are concerned anyway. If you would like to learn more about effective credit control, why not give Confident Cashflow a call.