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A few days ago, a copy of the "Getting Paid Survey" landed in my mailbox. The survey was conducted by an independent firm for Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks, from Oct. 7-10 and included a sampling of 751 small business owners with less than 10 employees. The results say some really sad things about how small business owners are managing the cash side of their business. I know you know better, but I'll share the results with you anyway.
Don't Do This
- Let your invoices age
- Guess how many invoices are overdue in your business
- Forget to invoice
- Forget to follow up on an overdue invoice
- Manually handwrite your invoices
- Lose a customer because you don't accept credit cards
If you're not doing any of the above, good for you. But the survey results paint a different picture. Here's what the survey revealed.
- Nearly 40 percent of small business owners have aging invoices of over 30 days with some not knowing how many days it takes to get paid.
You simply must collect on your invoices. Don't allow them to age. Invoice as soon as work is completed, or better yet set milestones for payment and get that cash in your account.
- Nearly 20 percent of small business owners admit to forgetting to invoice or follow up on an overdue invoice.
There is no excuse for this. If you are uncomfortable asking for money from your customers, you shouldn't be in business. Get this taken care of now.
- 66 percent of small businesses still handwrite invoices, use word processing programs and spreadsheets, or simply don’t have a standardized method.
Time to move into the 21st century. Get a financial software program like QuickBooks (or sign up for one online) and get those invoices generated.
- 20 percent of small businesses admit to having lost a customer because they could not accept credit cards.
Lots of people carry little to no cash these days. They can't buy what you sell if you don't take credit cards. If you can't find a merchant account, check out PayPal online as an option.
What do you think? Please leave a comment.
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I was hurt on the job many years ago and had to file through the employers insurance program due to it being on the job. I went through a solid year of physical therapy to walk right again and found that through the use of chiropractic care, I was able to get better. I kept going to the chiropractor for several years, the frequency lessening as the time went on. I was set up on a maintenance type program for my back and neck and kept up my appointments.
All medical care for these injuries was to be paid for life by the insurance company through work. So, I thought as long as I went to the doctor, I could keep it up and hopefully avoid having the surgery they wanted me to have.
I didn't realize what was happening on the billing side. The doctor's office was not timely billing the insurance company for these visits, which was critical to me keeping the care paid for. I never thought to ask them about it. By the time I found out what was going on, it was too late and the doctor I had been seeing moved away. (this is what led to my discovery)
What happened was that I lost my medical care for my back and neck because the doctor had not billed the insurance company and they thought I had not been going to the doctor. Now the doctor had moved and I couldn't find him, and I couldn't find another doctor's office to help me get everything started up again and get through all the paperwork. So, needless to say, although it hurt him because he didn?t get paid, it hurt me in the long run because now my care is no longer paid for and I have an injury that I will never get over. Not billing can hurt both parties.
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