Make Cashflow the Focus of your New Years Resolutions

There are many factors to running a successful business, but few are more important than cash flow. Poor cash flow can be a critical problem that can have a seriously detrimental effect on your business. In fact, failure to effectively manage your cash flow could threaten the viability and future of your business.

One of the key aspects of protecting your cash flow is to keep late payments to a minimum. Outstanding debt is a fact of business life, but by making it your New Year’s resolution to follow these simple rules, you can help to prevent late payments hurting your cash flow

Know your Customers

If you know your customers, this can save a lot of time and frustration in a late payment situation. Even simple steps such as finding out when their opening hours are, and how and when they process payments, can save you energy and wasted time. Knowing how their business works, and any ongoing issues they face can also be useful.

Stay on Top of Invoicing

No matter what is going on or how busy things are, it is vital to ensure that you don’t get behind with your own invoicing processes and that you don’t take short cuts. The Christmas period may have brought disruption to normal business operations, but don’t let things drift, including carrying out proper checks on customers who are buying with credit.

Take a Firm Line

Where a customer has already exceeded credit limits, be extremely wary of supplying new services or products to them. In rare circumstances, there may be extenuating factors that can justify continuing to trade with them, but generally, it is best to take a firm line in these cases, to ensure that you don’t compound potential cash flow problems down the line.

Take the Time to Review

The relatively quiet Christmas and New Year period can be a good time to take stock. It can be a good idea to check over your credit policies and your business terms and conditions at this time, to ensure that they are watertight and effective.

Don’t Let Debt Drift

Above all, it is important never to let late payments or outstanding debt drift. Not only will this compound your cash flow problems, but it can sometimes mean the customer or supplier takes their debt to you less seriously than other, more persistent businesses. Set out a clear process for debt recovery, and ensure that you follow it professionally and consistently.

Consider a Debt Collection Agency

If debt recovery issues are taking up too much of your time, or you are worried about the potential impact of the debt recovery process on business relationships, you should consider delegating the problem to a reputable debt collection agency.

Allowing a modern debt collection agency to take over your debt recovery issues will free up your time to concentrate on growing your business. It will also put you in the best possible position to maintain long term business relationships as reputable debt collection agencies will take care to secure repayments in the most professional way possible, safeguarding your reputation and your relationships.

Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help you boost your debt collection efficiency and safeguard your cash flow in 2021. 

CLI is a Debt Recovery Agency established in Kent and specialising in debt recovery, international debt collection and international Letter Before Action. CLI is a member of the CSA