If you are a freelancer or an influencer and run your own website to attract new clients you may be struggling to get your clients to pay up when they owe you. If you run an online store  you may be struggling to get people to complete the payment process. They get so close and then they give up or abandon their carts somewhere along the way.

Not getting paid for whatever reason is going to affect your cash flow and your ability to expand your business. It is very frustrating.

The tips I am going to give you here should help you to take your business from broke to flush. Take a read and you will be in a much better financial situation:

Make Sure You Have A Solid Payment Policy In Place

 

Have a solid, professional payment policy in place. This ensures that you and your clientsor customers are on the same page. It should cover things like invoicing, collections, and anything else they need to know. You will want to include information like the payment methods you will accept, the processes followed for non payments, how often you will invoice, and anything else that is pertinent to your own particular business.

This should be on your website and easy to find. It could also be sent to new clients via email. It may also be wise to get them to reply and accept those terms and conditions. Number one, it will make them think twice about not paying on time and number two it will be seen as a form of contract if you do have to take it further to collect payment.

Know Who To Avoid Working With

As the owner of a business, you need to know who to avoid working with, just as much as you know who to work with. Don’t blindly work with everybody that comes along!

You should be confident in the rates you charge. Don’t work with anybody who tries to haggle you downing your prices, telling you that you are 50% more expensive than other companies like yours. These people will be hard work and will probably find fault in your work so they don’t have to pay.

 

It is also important to be wary of clients that don’t really understand what you are offering. If they are hesitant about working with you, you will likely end up with unpaid invoices.

Clients that know they need you are best people to work with. This is something you will learn as you go along in your business. When starting out it is so tempting to take on every client but you need to learn to trust your instinct. It is okay to say no to work, especially if there is an inkling that they may not pay or will be a difficult customer.

You should avoid working with anybody who doesn’t want to sign a contract, either!

Offer Multiple Ways To Pay

Offering multiple ways to pay makes things easier for your clients and encourages them to follow through with the sale right through to completion. This is especially important for those of you that sell products online.

 

Looking at sites like https://merchants.services/ can give you a good idea of what software and payment types you can use. There are companies that provide software and hardware that let merchants accept payments, process the payments, track customer accounts, record loyalty points, manage employee schedules and hours, and so much more. Using software like this will help you to keep things organised and ensure that your numbers are in order!

Collecting Overdue Payments

No matter how hard you try, you will more than likely get late payments from time to time. How you handle these situations will make a huge difference as to whether you eventually get paid or not.

Don’t wait. Get in touch with these clients as soon as possible after they have missed the payment deadline. The longer it is left the less chance you have of being paid. Be polite. Either send an invoice reminder by email or make a pleasant no blame phone call. Each and every one of us have forgotten to pay for something because we are so busy or distracted.

If you still haven’t been paid after a month, charge interest. You should put this in your terms and conditions and your contract.

Some clients will need to be nudged multiple times before they actually pay you. In some cases, you may want to offer them another option, such as paying in installments to ensure you get paid. Trying to understand their problems can mean keeping them on board, especially if in the past they have been a valuable client who pay on time. Maybe they are struggling with their own cash flow.

If all else fails, there are companies who will buy the invoice from you, so you get paid a large portion of the invoice and then they chase the client for payment. However, this should always be a last resort.

Dealing With Large Companies

Large companies are notoriously bad at paying invoices and I know a lot of influencers who have promoted products on their social media and website only to have to wait months for the payment. In these cases it is usually the large company who sets the contract and terms and conditions and because you are keen and eager to work with brands you agree to them.

 

When you are not then paid on time it can be quite hard to get to speak to the right person to get the payment signed off by the finance department. Take note most finance departments in large companies will have a no client contact policy. So make sure you have a good rapport with someone in the company that can chase your invoice for you.

Final Thoughts

Dealing with the financial side of a business is a problem for many small business owners. I don’t really know why but many of us struggle to ask for money and we often undersell ourselves. Take the advice I have given you and then it’s shoulders back and do it scared! You have done the work and you should be paid.

The more you handle these situations, the easier and more naturally it will come to you.

I hope you have found this post useful. If you have, please give it a share on your favourite social media platform. It will be much appreciated.

As ever if you have any questions or want to share your own thoughts on to ask for money, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can

With Grace and Gratitude

Karen