RIABU - Tips and tools for getting paid on time by your customers

RIABU recommends some new year resolutions for SMEs

In a poll by The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), almost half of small firms in the UK are predicting a downturn in their performance for the near future.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood tells Mark Laudi his advice to SMEs looking to start the year well on the receivables front, by looking at specific risk components and ironing out any difficult relationships with their customers.

How to deflect payment excuses before the recession hits

Late payments became prevalent in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and have remained. Now that a recession is coming, it seems companies are going to continue using this excuse.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood talks to Mark Laudi about how smaller companies can use consistent customer service as a way to deflect any excuses for late payment from their customers

SME owners: manage and screen your customers for better mental health

Surveys have shown that late payments have caused nine in 10 small business owners to suffer from mental health issues while it has also caused some SME owners to stop paying themselves salaries.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi talk about how to manage and screen your customers so that you don’t need to suffer anguish and mental health issues over late payments.

Law firms suffer from late payments, too

Law firms experience difficulties in getting paid, with them never seeing payment for up to 14% of all hours billed to their clients, according to Clio’s 2019 Legal Trends Report.

It might be hard to sympathise with law firms who get ripped off by their customers, considering that they charge such high fees and have little assets in their business models.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi talk about the value of having upfront discussions with your customer, and ask questions such as:

• Should there be a tier system for customer service experience to avoid delayed payments?
  
  
• Should there be upfront negotiations over ancillary charges?
  
  
• Do offering more payment modes result in more prompt payments?

When do you decide you cannot continue with a business anymore?

The Ogdensburg International Airport has been seeing delayed payments for its security force from the OBPA, the city’s bridge and port authority. OBPA is already three months behind on payments. This is an unfortunate case in which the payer and the payee are both struggling for cash.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi talk about what you should do if your operations are three months overdue on payments to your suppliers, and at what point to decide that you cannot continue with the business anymore.

 

Construction of nuclear plant in Argentina halted because of late payments

Construction has stopped in a nuclear plant in Argentina because the government is late in its payments to the contractors.

Late government payments are an endemic problem in the construction industry and in many countries as governments run low on cash towards the end of the year.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi dare to ask the question that is on everyone’s mind when they read about this - what happens when contractors don’t get paid? They do shoddy work. What happens when there’s shoddy work in a nuclear plant?

Failed SMEs in Singapore land owners in huge debt

Most business owners think only positive thoughts when they start their company, but when it fails, they usually end up with huge debts and can even lose the family homes they put up as collateral for loans.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi talk about what new SME owners need to know about the invoicing process and managing relationships with their customers so that their businesses stand a chance of surviving.

UK SMEs are wasting millions of hours chasing late payments, but whose fault is this?

If you’re spending your early mornings and late evenings chasing payments, you’re not alone. SMEs in the UK spend 56.4 million hours a year chasing overdue payments, most of which is done after hours. And at any given time an SME has nine outstanding payments.

The phrase: “cash is oxygen” is often used to describe the small businesses, meaning they should get paid on time, all the time. But is it always the customer’s fault if payment doesn’t come on time? What can companies do to stop chasing payments?

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi talk about the need to manage your receivables and customers properly, and why if you find yourself always chasing payments, it’s always too late.

Economic uncertainty from Brexit means bad cycle of late payments in the UK

More than half of B2B sales in the UK are now made on credit as opposed to cash transactions, as businesses try to make themselves more attractive to potential customers amid the uncertain climate of Brexit. But credit can also lead to a cycle of late payments and 45% of UK businesses are reporting that they are delaying payments to their own suppliers due to being victims of late payments themselves.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi talk about how to make sure payment terms are agreed upon by all the parties so that your customer is more likely to pay you on time.

The importance of a credit policy

In order to get paid on time, we need to be able to establish the credit policy early, at the start of the agreement.

But some suppliers might think it will interfere with their process of selling their service if they were to reveal their credit policy at the start.

What can we do to ensure that all terms and conditions are clear to the parties involved at the beginning?

In this podcast, RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi discuss the importance of drafting a credit policy when you start a relationship with a customer.