Chapter 20
Ten Tricks for Collecting Money
In This Chapter
Knowing and loving your credit policy
Chasing money without delay
Getting on the phone and letting those debtors know you care
Tracking every call made, every promise received
Following through on your threats
One of the trickier jobs that often falls to a bookkeeper is chasing money from overdue accounts. If you don’t have an outgoing personality or you’re not naturally an assertive person, the process of phoning people up and demanding money can feel like something akin to torture.
This reticence quickly turns into a negative cycle, because the longer you leave a debt before you chase it, the more likely it is that the debtor won’t pay. The secret to getting paid is to have clear credit terms and make contact with customers the moment they go beyond these.
I can’t cure any innate shyness you may have, but in this chapter, I do provide a lot of tricks about how to chase money. Good luck!
Draw Up a Credit Policy
If you’re ...