How to Avoid Death by Invoice | You Are Not a Bank (Unless You Are)

Show Notes

Are you are invoicing your clients? Do you have problems collecting when the bill is due? Clay and Z are breaking down the details of how to avoid death by invoice.

  1. When you invoice, the customer will wait to pay you when it is convenient for them.
    1. They will say, “they didn’t get the invoice in the mail.”
    2. They will say, “they mailed you a check.”
    3. They will delay paying you.
  2. Thou shall not extend credit to customers directly.
    1. You will lose and you will begin to rob Peter to pay Paul.
    2. FUN FACT – The expression refers to times before the Reformation when Church taxes had to be paid to St. Paul’s church in London and to St. Peter’s church in Rome; originally it referred to neglecting the Peter tax in order to have money to pay the Paul tax.
  3. Third party financing 101.
    1. Companies like Lightstream, Synchrony. Care Credit and major credit cards exists to extend consumer financing to customers.
Business Coach | Ask Clay & Z Anything

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the best business coach thrive time show it’s all about you that we bring them on your radio in west carter, the legal eagle inside, the box the rock’s eric shut up the business coach inside, the box inside, the box. What up we are dealing with right now, I’d, say:i appreciate you imitate in the wu-tang clan with free, but really it did the person that did the attention to detail view. I am going to tee up the principal and I’d like for wes and the attorney and I’d like for you season, entreprenuer in chupp is a best business coach team member to chime in on this. So here is easy concept:you’re, not a bank, unless you are how to avoid death by invoice. So this is what I see all the time when you invoice a customer, the customer will wait to pay you until it’s convenient for them. So don’t say:i didn’t get the invoice in the mail. They said, I mailed. Your check will delay paying you. So this is the problem. The problem is, they will wait to pay you when it’s convenient for them typically buy large, almost every industry without fail. So then the second concept not extend credit. Val shalt not extend credit to customers directly because you will lose and you will begin to rob peter to pay. Paul simon I’ve heard that before. What. Does it mean when the expression refers to times before the reformation, when church taxes had to be paid to st. Paul’s church in london in st. Peter’s church in rome? Originally it was referring to neglecting to pay the peter tax order to have the money to pay the poll tax discount, and then there is a thing called third-party financing want to get things on credit like guitar center today. Do you want to buy a microphone and you don’t want to pay for it upfront take you can get a guitar center, credit card, which is actually synchrony, financial and synchrony. Financial extends the credit and guitar center gets to offer guitar center card. If you want to put a pool in your backyard, you don’t want to pay cash up-front.

You can use a company called lightstream which makes it available tonight for the best business coach listeners. If you would want to have an elective medical procedure like veneers or some type of cosmetic surgery. You can use a company called care credit or you could use a major credit card to get other consumer credit. If you didn’t qualify for those things, but I see a lot of contractors:business owners, dentist, doctors, lawyers, any professional or non-professional any business. They want to extend credit because I can’t pay that customer says I can’t hey. Today you going to a grocery store and they say:hey your total, be $88 today for xyz into my avocados and you say:i don’t have the money to pay and they say:well, here’s the deal mr. Home skillet. You just put all that stuff back in it. Courtney just come on back when you have the money and you don’t get to leave with the grocery store avocados. But you see small business owners that so you know what you just take those avocados there cowboy you just leave and you come back and pay me later, but it never ends good. When you do that and small business, but yet people want to do it they want. The problem is:is that to be competitive? You can’t be a hog. You have to be a pig talk about it. What that means is that you are fairly priced savvy and pricing, your goods and services. So there’s not a whole lot of fluff in your price. That other word. It only takes a few people scamming you, I e robin from you, I e, not paying you two words like it eats into your profits, make it to the life of a contractor, listen to the show, install cabinets or countertop, or can they keep extending credit to people? Listen folks, you are not in the credit business you are in the cabinet business.

You are in the countertop business, mini mini mini organizations out they’re lined up around the corner to extend credit to do that part of it as the best business coach team, but it didn’t get qualified I applied for snap and walk away from the deal this week, a contractile of the guys so much. She says if the person got the okay from lightstream, okay, very hostile. Okay. This is a company’s a third-party credit company. That analyzes are the various factors. There’s there’s multiple credit scores are this:many of them are core competencies and if they won’t lend money to that person, then you shouldn’t come on come on man, the people that are in business to do that, if they won’t do it. Directly west of take on this west. If you are somebody out there in small business and you to extend $32,000 hypothetically to a customer out there of credit and they can’t pay or a thousand I can’t pay, and then you were to hire an attorney such as yourself to go, get it in small claims court at the very best. How much is it going to cost to pay? An attorney to recover said damages at the very least you’re, a very fair price in your attorney or above and so small claims court will actually cap. The attorney’s fees you can charge was the reason. A lot of attorneys won’t touch. Small claims and I get $2,000 for you. I can only take like a $200 attorney fee, which is less than an hour of my time. Give it to me straight how much I have to pay to get that money back the only $3,000 for the decorative I’m going to answer a different question:katrina dog, for free. What happened you come to me, you say:look like they clearly o meats open share. They owe me $4,000.

That’s fine! I will charge you. We will go, get a judgement and that piece of paper, in my judgment, going to be worthless, because if they can’t afford to pay you they have no assets, there’s no way to collect from them. So you’re going to pay me to go, get a win, that’s absolutely worthless to you, whether that’s 5-10 $50,000, but now I’m, throwing good money after bad money is I’m just going to make sure that the capstone thought is, do not extend credit to your customers and less you are a bank finance I got hurt. I got a best business coach message out there for all of your residential contractors or subcontractors be careful with that. A loser of the siren call of that commercial contract. It’s dangling in front of you, okay, come on i, don’t know why I live this life. I grew up in a house watching my parents take a residential, concrete, construction company to the commercial game and I’m telling you what it was the most stressful part of their lives whenever there’s 350500 thousand dollars hanging out there for 90 days and you’ve got 30 grand with the payroll this week it just was on an airplane with a guy who installed glass for a major facility in tulsa.

How many vodkas the purpose of story before cuz I know you like that. So where is 3 + 2, so he actually did get her know we’re out in the area and he said the voicemail paying 60, you ask:how long do you say? How long does it take to get paid as well? Look like cities, I mean. If that best business coach paperwork it’s lost somewhere I mean you might be sitting out there for half a year or a quarter of a year before you get paid to know. How do you do that and explain to his family lineage in where he came from? In the whole background of biscuits, family has a ton of cash. He doesn’t mind sitting on a big facility. Owen and a half million dollars, but if you’re not that from that background, I mean dude, you put the time and it’s not only there, holding your payment when they do pay or they’re still taking 10% for retainage until the jobs done. So your money is just typing away from you and if you have a long-term job, it’s going to be a really stressful process. For you, good, so thrive nation again, I would just way too highly recommend you do not extend credit to consumers and less. You have a third party vendor that you can utilize to extend that criminal bills. That I can’t get a credit card. Why are you giving them? What are you doing? You know said organizations that you’ve already hired to kind of get that credit out there. If they, if they can’t do it, then don’t do it, and here we go any further. I do it’s at 3 and if you and I want

Feedback

Let us know what's going on.

Have a Business Question?

Ask our mentors anything.