Why Outsourcing Accounts Receivables is a Good Thing

When you own a small business, there are all kinds of demands on your time and energy. The most important things you can be doing with your time include:

l  Product development                  

l  Marketing

l  Raising capital

All of these are things that are going to make your business more successful and more profitable and to enable it to keep right on growing and thriving.

Unfortunately, though, these all-important things aren’t the only things you have to get done on a day-to-day basis. You also, if you are going to survive, have to think about collections, which garner money you otherwise miss out on.

One of the best things you can do for your business and for yourself is to outsource your accounts receivables. This will save you so much time- time you can devote to improving your business as a whole.

When you outsource your accounts receivable, all of the following are things you no longer have to take care of in-house:

l  Creating and mailing statements

l  Following up on unpaid statements

l  Sending unpaid statements to collections

l  Seeing the collections process through

Furthermore, outsourcing enables you to gather statistics related to your clients, their payments, and more...all of which can help you to make smart decisions about how to proceed in the future. You could do that yourself, but it would take up even more of your valuable time.

Perhaps most importantly, outsourcing can also give you access to the money that you are owed much sooner! This can lead to you having more capital, which you can use to expand or just to get back in the black, depending on how things are going right now.

You can even have your outsourcing companies perform extensive credit checks on all potential clients, protecting you from doing business with those who are more likely to cost you money than to make you money.

If you’re convinced of the benefits of outsourcing (and you really should be!), the next step is simply to find a good, reliable AR outsourcing company to work with. The sooner you do that, the sooner you can start enjoying these awesome benefits.

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Protect Yourself

You might think that you need help with outsourcing accounts receivable, but really, wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t have a bunch of delinquent accounts in the first place? While there’s no way to ensure that you never have to deal with a late payment or a non-paying customer ever again, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the number of late or non-paying customers you are likely to have.

To begin with, make sure that you get everything related to your business transactions in writing and upfront, before any money, goods, or services have been exchanged. You should have a clear

business contract that specifies how much the customer owes you, when the money is due, and what he or she will get in return for the money. Having this agreement leaves no room for miscommunication and will give you a legal leg to stand on should you need to collect your money via that route.

It goes without saying that you should also be doing some “checking up” on potential customers. Before extending any kind of credit to someone, run a credit history check on that individual or business. If you find a lot of unpaid accounts, late payments, or other “red flags,” you may want to think twice before extending credit.

If you’re set on working with a particularly risky customer, then you may want to require some kind of a deposit upfront. You can offer “secured credit,” in which the credit extended is partially secured by the deposit, or you can choose to only deliver goods or services once a deposit or partial payment has been made.

Today’s business world is cut throat, and it’s all too easy to lose more money than you make. Don’t let that happen to your business. Be careful about whom you choose to call a “customer,” and you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble (and money!).

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