Streamline Your Business Invoicing with Biz Invoice for Support

Biz invoice for Support

how do you collect on invoices without losing the client that's what I'm talking about today on the bits at one of the biggest challenges when you run a service agency is cash flow getting paid on time and making sure that you've got money coming in as well as going out so when you have monthly expenses that you pay you know rent payroll payroll bi-weekly software costs there's all kinds of things that you spend money on that come out on a regular basis and yet sometimes you're waiting weeks even months to get a check-in from a client and this can make managing your cash flow super difficult so how do you get around this situation first I'm going to talk about ways to avoid getting into this cash flow current situation in the first place and then other strategies for how to actually collect from a client without killing the relationship so first a little story I once had a client who ran a commercial real estate company and we had designed their website to have social media buttons but when we launched the site they actually said they weren't ready they couldn't launch their Facebook page or their Twitter page and which was fine but they said they weren't paying the final invoice because the original design had social media buttons and yet they weren't ready to launch their social media site well the site was still launched so they were trying to weasel their way out of paying and I wasn't having any of that so I actually went into their content management system and kicked them out of it and said like you're denied you cannot log in and edit your website until you pay the final invoice well a check was cut that afternoon and we got paid for it I had to go to kind of extreme measures to get paid you shouldn't have to do that you know clients can be shitty so how do you avoid this in the first place there's a few ways to make sure that this doesn't happen so first of all the one thing is to not wait until the end of a job to invoice the full amount it kind of goes without saying and a lot of people do it they'll go and they'll do a job they'll put in the weeks the hours and then they'll invoice the project at the end of it and then they wonder why it's hard to you know sustain their cash flow so make sure that when you close a deal with a new client when everybody's happy and the ink isn't yet dry on the contract that you're invoicing at least 50% of the project or splitting it up into equal monthly payments not doing it based on you know certain milestones being met because of a client delays with their content for example or giving you a design approval or what-have-you if you're waiting to invoice installments based on their approval then you can be waiting a long time so that's that's one way to make that easier the the next point is to stop putting net fifteen net thirty net 60-day payment terms in your invoices you're basically just inviting the client to not pay their invoice on time some clients ask for longer payment terms I think you should be putting due upon receipt on every invoice not giving them any sort of payment days you know as soon as they get that invoice they should be working on paying it not waiting a month no nothing works that way right they don't go and order groceries and then like you know pay the grocery bill in 30 days they don't wait 30 days to get their own personal paycheck and neither should you there's just no reason around that the client should be paying it as soon as they get the invoice now client might say well we're part of a big machine you know I I'm not in the accounting department I don't have the ability to choose payment terms there's a couple ways around that one I mean you could just be hardline and just say this is our policy like it or lump it another one would be to say well we have to hold off on work until we get paid so if we send an invoice through and like a week goes by and it's not paid the work stops like we don't do anything until we're paid if that's too hard if that's too strong arming the client then just make friends with you know Gladys in it in accounts payable or Charlie or whoever it is like go and make friends with the person in the accounting and make sure they see your face they know your name you've brought them cookies you're talking about Netflix and TV shows with them being their buddy is the best thing because then when you they see your name on an invoice they're gonna associate your face and think I like that person I want to make sure I pay them on time next you'll really want to push for online billing it's kind of crazy when you think about it that nowadays in 2017 when this video is published that clients still want to be mailed a piece of paper and then take that piece of paper and write their name on another piece of paper and then mail that piece of paper so you can take that paper down to your bank and get it deposited it's cheques are archaic right there's no reason why they shouldn't be making bank transfers or paying through PayPal or paying through stripe or square or whatever online system you use for online billing there's just no reason why they shouldn't be doing that you should be pushing for that sometimes the client doesn't even know that's an option they that's just the way they're do things is they write checks so if you can push for that battle help with your cash flow I talked about payment structures a little bit but once again it's important to reiterate getting paid regularly is important so monthly retainers are a great way to even out your cash flow and get paid on a regular basis sometimes a client thinks that they're just paying a one-off payment for a project when really they're gonna need maintenance and support and ongoing refinement or ongoing marketing measurement like there's all kinds of services you can be offering your clients so work on selling monthly retainers instead of just selling one-off projects it's better for you because you get paid more regularly and sometimes it's better for your client because they get to even out their cash flow and not have these giant lump sum payments that they need to make so you've implemented all these processes and systems and yet you still get a delinquent payer what do you do in that situation a couple of things one is don't just email the client and say hey you know checking in on that invoice can you pay it sometime pick up the phone because emails are the easiest thing in the world to nor right but if you get them on the phone it's a lot more awkward for them they'll feel like a like an for not paying the payment on time and then they'll be like okay I'm gonna take care of this I'm gonna make sure that you get paid a great time to talk about this with the client is when they come back to you for new work so you might have a client who owed you money on the last job and then they come back to you and they say hey we want you guys to do something else for us this is a prime opportunity to bring it up and say hey thanks for bringing the business by way it would love to help you out but you know you guys were late last time paying if I'm gonna take this on I need you to assure me that you're going to pay on time and that might be enough to get them to clean up their act a little bit finally have some type of leverage over your clients so don't just give them everything and then hope that they pay you make sure you withhold something from them that could be passwords to the content management system like I alluded to earlier it could be not launching the website not giving them access to the accounts not sending the print files to the printer whatever kind of final deliverable it is if you can withhold something then you at least have some kind of leverage if the client is just the client just sucks and they're trying to get out of paying you you could say hey well you're not getting this final thing until you pay up and you know sometimes that's all that's needed to get them to pay a couple final tips to even out your cash flow make sure that you mark up whatever you're paying on the clients behalf so if you're buying things for the client buying media buying stock photography photography paying contractors make sure you're marking it up by at least 30 percent there's nothing that says that if the clients getting you to buy things on their behalf that you shouldn't be applying a markup you're providing a service just by making it easier for the client and giving them you know one-stop shopping they should be fine with you marking it up it's worth it for that risk to your own cash flow collect on invoices as soon as they're due so sometimes agencies wait until 30 days or 60 days to even begin looking at their past due receivables and by then you've kind of signaled to the client that getting time isn't really that important to you so if you're collecting on them very quickly after they're sent then that signals to the client hey getting paid is important I am a priority and they will make you a priority I hope these tips were really helpful if you have any other questions or comments please leave them below make sure that you subscribe to us on YouTube also on iTunes SoundCloud Google Play where everywhere so make sure you subscribe to get more information including our weekly email sign up to that to get new great content every week thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time [Music] you