What sets you apart from the herd and gives your business that special something? What is going to make your business the shining example instead of the cautionary tale? Every small business owner and freelancer wants to know! But we all know that putting your finger on that quality and identifying it is never easy, and once identified even more difficult to foster and put into practice. Don’t be fooled, a lot stands in the way of you and your businesses success.

One of these obstacles can be inefficient and ineffective management of your businesses billing and payment collections. Controlling how you invoice, collect payment and manage client accounts is a vitally important part of any business, but a shockingly often neglected one too. All too often I have come across businesses that neglect or entirely overlook the importance of effective billing policy and management.

Making your business more successful though effective billing policy:

Don’t spend too much

Keeping the cost of operation low is a key concern for anyone wishing to make their small business successful. This is extremely important when it comes to controlling the cost of your invoicing and collection of funds.

The chief way to keep costs to a minimum is to implement tools that facilitate systems automation. There are thousands of creative online and software solution out there that for a minimal cost streamline billing and allow you to keep a smaller staff on the payroll to handle your businesses billing.

It is important to remember that you have choice. Always shop around for payment gateways with the lowest fees. To keep your options open look for a payment facilitator to act as middle man between your business and the payment gateway. Some payment gateways do not allow you to easily export client data and for businesses using more than one gateway centralized management is crucial. A payment facilitator will store client billing data securely on your and the gateways behalf and allow easy switching between gateways.  

Create a positive image

How many times have you received a poorly formatted invoice rife with spelling mistakes, missing fields or incorrect details? What does that make you think of the business issuing the invoice? Poorly formatted, unprofessional invoices reflect negatively on the products and services you deliver. This way of creating a negative impression of your level of service is just as easy to prevent as it is perpetrate.

Switching out those unprofessional do-it-yourself Microsoft Word or Excel format invoices for professionally generated ones is probably one of the best investments you can make in your businesses success. Invest in software or an online service designed to issue professionally formatted invoices. And even then remember to always ensure the clients details are correct and check spelling. If you are issuing tax invoices insure all the legally required fields appear correctly on any invoices you issue. Appearing professional inspires trust in your clients.

Payment collection

The more the merrier! Now that you have issued your professionally formatted invoices you need to give your clients the opportunity to pay you. Collecting payment for the products or services you render becomes infinitely easier if you make it simple and easy for your clients to pay. Have as many convenient, functional payment options available to them as possible. To maximize you payment collection ability I recommend having a minimum of three basic methods of payment available to your clients:

- Facilities to process and capture direct or bank deposits as well as electronic funds or wire transfers

- The option for clients to pay via an automated recurring debit order from credit card or bank account

- The ability to accept instant secure payments via credit card

Keep it liquid

In any business it is important to not only monitor paying client accounts, but to control past due and non-paying clients. Controlling bad debit will ensure that your cash flow stays strong and constant. Prevention is better than cure. One of the best ways of handling bad debit is working hard to prevent it in the first place. And you would be surprised how simple this actually is.

The trick is ready access to information and clear, direct communication. Keep your clients informed every step of the way. Issue reminders, payment warning, past due warning and suspension notices. Do so via email and text messages (SMS) in a clear scheduled manner over the course of the client’s repayment. Allow you client the greatest degree of access to their billing information, account balances and required repayment amounts. To help you do this, ensure you have software in place to help you automate and schedule communication with clients.

Be exceptional

What makes you different from your competitors? How you got something to make you stand out from the crowd? Don’t look for the answer in gimmicks or throw away thousands on marketing and promotions. No, providing and quality service or product reliably is the only way to genuinely set yourself apart from the herd.

Limited success can be achieved through gimmicks and aggressive marketing, but this more than often does more damage in the long run than good. Providing a consistent, exception service and quality products are the true way to make vocal positive advocates for your brand. Strive to ensure your level of service meets for clients expectations and then if possible give that little bit extra not only meet their needs, but exceed their expectations.

And there you have it! The tools for making your small business more successful are now in your hands. No time to waste, get focused and start putting these tools to good use!