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90% of small business failures are caused by poor cash flow. Put simply, not enough cash coming in the door and too much going out. Getting paid on time and managing your outgoings is critical to business success. Here you will find all you need to know about ensuring you get paid on time and developing effective cash flow policies.
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Are customer payment habits costing you money?
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| Customer payments habits have a significant impact on business cash flow. The latest research from Dun & Bradstreet reveals that more than half of Australian executives are being negatively impacted by late payments even though payment behaviours improved slightly during the June quarter. |
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Collection letters - keep them simple
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| Writing a debt collection letter is never a pleasant experience (why would it be - you're chasing money!) but it is a task that most SMEs will have to perform from time to time. However, the process can be made less stressful by following some simple ground rules that will help your debtor understand the issue and help you get paid! |
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Are you up to date with your customers?
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| Many SMEs have a relatively small number of loyal customers with whom they have built a trusting relationship over many years. These customers are responsible for a significant portion of an SMEs revenue and are relied upon to provide a stable source of ongoing income for the business. |
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Securing yourself against Cheque Fraud
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| Cheques are often used as the mode of payment for various business and personal financial transactions. However, cheque fraud is an alarming concern, estimated to cost Australian businesses somewhere between $800 million and $1 billion (2007). |
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Short on cash?
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| It's every small business owner's nightmare - you're short on cash and you can't pay all your bills. When your cash flow falls short, it can be embarrassing but remember that you haven't failed - it happens to most businesses at one point or another. Hold your head high and remember that the survival of your business depends on what you do next. |
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Invoices impact payment
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| The quality of your invoices will impact the time it takes for your business to get paid. Don't let payments blow-out because your invoices aren't up to scratch, increase your chances of getting paid on time by reviewing your invoice process. |
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Get paid faster using smarter invoicing
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| Most small businesses recognise the financial difficulty of having clients who are slow paying their invoices. Understandably most also believe the power to change this is in the hands of the customer. |
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Bring in the experts - how a collections agency can help
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| Few small businesses recognise the benefits of engaging a collections agency when a debt is outstanding. There is a common belief that the costs of commercial debt collectors make the practice financially out of reach for smaller operators. |
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Managing cash flow for small business
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| Cash flow is vital when it comes to managing the finances of a small business as research shows that around 80 percent of small business failures are the result of poor cash flow. |
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The best protection against cheque fraud
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| Cheques are often used as the mode of payment for various business and personal financial transactions. However, cheque fraud is an alarming concern, estimated to cost Australian businesses somewhere between $800 million and $1 billion per year. Find out how the best protect your business. |
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Its time to get tough on late payment
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| Late payment is an ongoing problem and for many SMEs an unpaid invoice can be the difference between survival and collapse. So, how should SMEs handle a client who doesn't pay on time or simply won't cough up at all? |
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Even good customers can declare bankruptcy
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| Cash flow is the back bone of any business - an absolutely essential element for sustainable growth. Since the Global Financial Credit Crisis, companies which relied heavily on client payments were forced to take a second look at their outstanding accounts, some faced the realisation that their biggest clients had gone under. Let's look at how you can protect your business. |
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How to recover from stalled profit
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| Making a small business profitable is challenging, however maintaining profitability can prove to be the ultimate stumbling block for many small businesses. Under pressure to pay creditors companies take out short term loans to pay off bills that are due. This could be a sign that the business is in trouble. |
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The true value of your business
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| Knowing the value of your business is an essential part of understanding how well your business is doing today and assessing what it might look like tomorrow. Understanding the true worth of your business allows accurate evaluation of business performance and the adequacy of your income. Without this information, you do not truly know how your business is doing given its assets, revenue or the industry it operates in; whether you are underperforming or well above the mark! |
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Successfully negotiating a payment plan with a problem customer
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| We've all had one...a problem customer that has used every trick in the book to avoid paying their account. In most cases the best way to deal with a problem customer is to negotiate a settlement or payment plan. However, doing this in a way that provides the best possible outcome for your business requires three key elements: preparation, careful consideration and common sense. |
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A short guide to calculating start-up costs
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| Entrepreneurs with the best ideas can fall at the first hurdle through lack of capital to keep their business afloat before it begins to generate cash and becomes profitable. Lack of working capital is one of the most common reasons small businesses fail within the first twelve months. In order to ensure your business gets off to the best possible start you should sit down and work out how much money you are going to need to get your business off the ground. |
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Improving the efficiency of your payment system
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| Payment systems and processes are critical to business cash flow. If your business has inefficient processes you are effectively punishing yourself by extending the time it takes to get a payment from your customer into your bank account. However, improving your cash flow through process improvement can be surprisingly simple - sometimes it just takes a little time up front to reap the benefits in the long-run. |
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Tips to ensure you get paid
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| Are you having problems getting your customers to pay their bills or dealing with clients who drag their feet when it comes to forking over the cash |
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How to cope with a surge in overdue debts in the New Year
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| Regardless of what time of year it is, chasing overdue debts is a task that most small business owners dread. But, chasing those debts post Christmas is often an even more arduous task as the pile of overdue accounts seems to climb higher than any other time of year. If this is the situation you find yourself in you are not alone! |
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How to create a budget and why you need one in the first place
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| Creating a budget is one of, if not the most, critical steps you can take to help ensure your small business maximises its chances of surviving beyond the first few years. Most entrepreneurs like yourself, start with a good idea, an identified market niche and a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to do whatever it takes to make the idea succeed. |
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What to look for when hiring collectors
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| You have been having some difficulty getting your customers to pay on time and have decided to appoint a debt collection agency to help out with your problem, but what do you look for in a collections agency? Many small businesses feel that once they have exhausted their own methods to try and re-coup outstanding debts they need to bring on board a go-getting, hard hitter who will collect their debts quickly. But truth be told, this isn't the best approach to take, especially if you want to get paid and keep your customers. |
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How to deal with bounced cheques
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| Being a small business it's highly likely that you've received a cheque from a customer that has bounced and, while bouncing a cheque can be a deliberate strategy to delay payment, more often than not the source of the problem is a cash flow issue. |
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Financing your business
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| Accessing finance is often a challenge for SMEs and although the Australian business environment looks to be on the up and up, credit providers look set to maintain a tight rein on their credit books. This means finance will continue to be hard to come by so, you need to ensure your cash flow is healthy. |
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Keeping up cash flow
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| A step-by-step guide for SMEs to maximise their cash flow potential. Managing the invoicing process, setting the right credit terms, and minimising bad debt. |
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Understanding cash flow jargon
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| Every industry comes with its own language and its own jargon. The finance and credit management industry is no exception, there are a number of terms and phrases that are common to the industry but probably less so for business people where finance is only one component of their working day. |
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Writing a collection letter
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| Chasing overdue accounts is a task that most SMEs dread and often put off but getting the accounts in the door is an absolute necessity for effective cash flow management. Also, if you have provided a product or service to a customer they are obligated to pay for the item they have received - always remember that you deserve to be paid on time and in full! |
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Positive cash flow
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| No matter what the economic conditions, businesses are always looking for the edge over their competitors and in most cases, getting this edge requires cash. Cash is effectively a way for business to keep score as it tracks the flow of available funds that come into your business and flow back out again. It is vital to your success as without the inflows of funds you will be unable to pay your suppliers, employees and financers. |
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Collecting overdue debt
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| Late payments can be an issue regardless of how carefully you choose your credit customers. How will you collect them Your first consideration is to ensure you have a system in place to alert you to aging receivables. |
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Time for collectors
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| There is no secret about what debt collectors do. They collect outstanding debts on behalf of customers. Collectors can work on either a contingent basis, where they charge a percentage of the debt collected, or they can purchase the debt outright for a fee which entitles them to any money collected. |
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Managing bad debtors
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| Legal proceedings can be complicated and expensive and as a consequence it is important that small firms consider this option carefully before pursuing a claim through the courts. The first thing to consider is the size of the debt - is it worth pursuing given the time and costs associated with legal action. |
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Top tips for cash flow
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| You know cash flow is important but you are not sure how to start the process? Here are the top tips for managing your cashflow effectively. |
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