[Ian W]

Ian, I read a book written by an accountant. In it he described various ways of improving things for your customers that ultimately makes things better for you.

One thing I remember was to make it easy for your customers to pay you. He suggested prepaid envelopes which worked for him. Now I know you are always telling people not to pay for postage, but it seems to work for some.

I will find the book later and post the title. I found some good ideas in it.

[steve.ternent]

 : I was just thinking it would be hard to enforce thats all!

The only options are
1/  losing customers if they don't pay
2/  Take them to court (in my opinion not an option!)

So it's a no win.
Just let them pay when they will/desire
It works for me! 

[macmac]

I've never had a problem with people paying (eventually) by letting them pay the stamp & write the envelope. BUT just after xmas & with all the doom & gloom over credit crunch etc i noticed a longer delay in payment, even from the best payers too. Went over to SAE & the result was terrific for me. Payments now come in far quicker & it's just another advantage to me in an ever increasing competitive trade.

Tony

[Ian W]

I have just looked up the title of the book I mentioned in my earlier post.

It is called "Proper coffee and other ways to grow your business". I would recommend it to anyone who is interested.

I have just looked at Amazon and it appears it may be out of print...  :

However, if you take a look at the amazon page for this book you can take a look inside the book. The second chapter discusses using freepost envelopes! 

[Paul Coleman]

i think 7 days is a decent amount of time to pay a small bill for a good service.... even if they are late... at least they are on their toes. 

  I agree with you, but I don't think putting it on the form adds to peoples "desire"
to pay!
I know this sounds ridiculous but I am sure one customer paid "By Post" and it arrived before I got home (or maybe it seemed that way!) 

Other not, shall we say, not so eager take two weeks! 

But I can live with that!  :

If they don't pay then ...I send the wife in!!!!    
Poor sods! 

I cleaned one customer's windows late afternoon/early evening and got a cheque in the post the following morning.  I was a bit puzzled until I realised he worked at the Royal Mail sorting office.  Must have taken his envelope into work that night and put it nto the sort - or maybe even straight into the right pigeon hole.

[oasisdweeb]

i am thinking of trying this method.have any of u found customers dont have cheque books.i know i never use mine as its easier 2 use switch or visa.

[Highrise]

When I started working for myself the first thing I did to get payment in quick was pre paid envolope with a stamp on it.

I did this for about 3/4 mth and worked really really well, I then only left pre paid envolopes their after, and yes I have seen a difference with the amount of envolopes that come through the door now.  We have a large customer base so over the mth we get a steady flow of chq's in the post...

One thing I will say is, Their must be 2-3000 pounds oweing on my accounts .

[sjm]

I have nearly all my custys sendeing me sae ( with stamp ) but there are a few , who I collect because they dont have chequbook or internet banking . I just collect them at the end of the day , so I am not going back home . . . . .easy peasy lemon squeezy