SYB 99 | Getting Paid • Accounts Receivable Inc.

Every small business owner learns that their biggest headache is collecting the money owed by their clients. Small businesses survive on cash flow - they don't have thousands of dollars sitting in the bank just waiting for a bill to pay or a payroll to meet. Money comes in and immediately goes out. Paydays are particularly harrowing when bank accounts are showing only a few hundred dollars, but payroll is several thousand, even though accounts receivable totals more than enough to meet payroll.

Making that dreaded phone call to try to pry payments on long overdue invoices is an event that today's guest says "makes the phone weigh 2,000 pounds". No entrepreneur wants to make that call. Research shows that more than half of small business owners struggle with getting timely payments from their customers.

There is $12 trillion in outstanding consumer debt in this country and $675 billion of that debt is at some stage of delinquency. No industry is immune to delinquent accounts so it is incumbent on the small business owner to not take it personally when a client goes delinquent - but to understand this is a normal part of business and to have a system in place that will result in both maintaining the client relationship and getting the delinquent account paid.

Today, Melissa Nash will share her secrets about collecting money you are owed. Her company bills itself as a "receivables management company", not a collection agency - but collect money you are owed is precisely what she does for her small business clients - and best of all, it doesn't cost the small business anything.