[monkeyman]

hi folks at the mo i use the "i will call back at so and so for payment "method but am thinking it would be easier and less time consuming if i switched to using sae instead.but do you get many who forget to send payment and what about custies who dont have cheque books.if after leaving a sae you still havent recieved it through post after say seven days do you then ring the custie to ask for payment to be sent ?

[reflection]

i used to only collect at night then got fed up with it big time so i started to leave the sae and didnt collect worked great for a while then started to get very little in from them to cut a long story short i mow collect as im doing the work leave a sae at all the houses where nobody is in then call back round at night to collect the ones i dont collect mostly send the cheque i now get over 90% of my money in every week

[paulscotney]

Some pay straight away and all periods onwards. I have a few that pay every three months.  You do have cashflow problems to start with though, although it evens out in the end.  Most take about 2 weeks to pay.  Quite a few pay when they realise you are about due again. I have paypal on my website as well. I only collect at the time. Never go back later unless it is 3 months owed and it is coming up to the fourth unpaid clean (which I never do), which is very rare. To be honest in last 14 months. not one bad debtor. I did have one from Oct for £10 and I had written it off,  when last week out of the blue it arrived by Paypal.

[reflection]

im going to try and get a website set up so they can pay online then  hopefully not have to collect at night

[chris@c.m.s]

You do get a few that forget or just don't get around to posting them, but my customers very rarely let it go more than 2 cleans without paying and if it did they would be reminded, it has only happened to me once and that was a new customer who was struggling at the time.

I'm very relaxed about payments and they all trickle in eventually you may be short on cash flow when you  start like that, but after a month or two your daily takings with cheques through the post will soon level things up.

I will say though 90% of my customers are reasonably well off and that maybe why it works well for me, where it may not in other areas.  

[LWC]

Ive done it for years, but gone back to collecting now on a Thursday evening, hardly anyone was sending the money, and when youve got 50+ customers owing, it can be a lot of money to carry

If collecting is working, carry on, if it aint broken dont fix it mate.

[colley614]

or if its something that you want to try then when pricing up new work start using this method so then you can get a taste for it.

[reflection]

if i only had 50 customers owed me money id be laughing i have nearly 2000 customers but prices in northern ireland are nowhere near wot they are across the water if they were id be a rich man

[prestigeclean]

i started 2 years ago and i,ve always left envelopes , and never had a problem , can,t believe anyone collects regards alan

[Tosh]

I collect from two estate areas I clean; all compact work where I can park up and walk around collecting.

But for my rural work - which is mostly better paid - I leave a SAE for them to send me a cheque.

This mix of collecting and SAE keeps my cash flow to a level which usually stops me from stressing about getting the bills paid.

[paulscotney]

Once you have been going for 3 or 4 months the payments even out. I personally find it belittling to go collecting,  unless it is a large outstanding amount and also I feel the same if I  work weekends. Unless it is a large commercial job, but houses not for me for weekends. I don't mind going HGV1 driving at  the weekends as I get weekend rates,  but having said that I haven't been driving since last June.

[windowwashers]

Ive done it for years, but gone back to collecting now on a Thursday evening, hardly anyone was sending the money, and when youve got 50+ customers owing, it can be a lot of money to carry

If collecting is working, carry on, if it aint broken dont fix it mate.

50 people owing would be nice, its friday the 13th so I will not say anymore

[LWC]

50 PLUS 50 PLUS

[Chameleon]

i started 2 years ago and i,ve always left envelopes , and never had a problem , can,t believe anyone collects regards alan

Yes I agree, life's too short and after work I hate to eat into time with the family!

I only leave addressed envelopes... Free Stamps, pure madness!
(I may well be a descendant of the scot's, however the Northumbrian blood coursing through my veins may well disagree profoundly!) :

[STEVE-UK]

i havent done a days collecting since i started residential and dont intend to.

i leave a note with please send payment to .... , paypal or just wait till next time im there, the odd couple i knock early saturday mornings when im in the area if they owe me a few cleans

[Feen]

I don't do collecting ( I send the wife ). Seriously though, I don't as a rule. A couple of local jobs being the exception. I don't like doing and I view it as working time. Why spend time working to get paid for a job you've already spent time doing? When I agree to clean someone's windows, this is the deal. It's my responsibility to clean the windows and theirs to pay me. I try to make payment as easy as possible for them by leaving SAE if that's what they want or bank details if they want to pay online. Some ask me to phone (which I don't really like) and they leave money under the mat or whatever. The bottom line is surely to make it as easy as possible for yourself and what suits the customer. I don't really have a problem with bad payment. Some slip a bit, but get there in the end.