3 Effective Ways to Beat Zoom Fatigue

Any business that sends out invoices knows the frustration of waiting to get paid. This is especially true when you’re dependent on those payments to make payroll or fund necessary business expenses. How can you keep running your business when your clients drag their feet about paying you? Is there anything more frustrating than the endless cycle of hassling customers about their bills? If you’re facing this challenge, what you need are ideas for motivating your clients to pay on time. With that in mind, here are seven tips for how to collect receivables faster. 1. Use customer-friendly accounts receivable practices. To be certain you’re not the reason payments get delayed, make sure you are following your clients’ accounts payable procedures. It’s well worth the extra effort to make sure your invoices are not missing information that will delay processing. Likewise, bill promptly — immediately upon delivery or completion of the service, not weeks later. Also, a few days before an invoice is due, contact the client to make sure it has everything needed to pay you. 2. Meticulously track your outstanding A/R balances. One key step in reducing Average Days to Pay is tracking. Create an accounts receivable (A/R) aging report to track and measure the payment status of all your customers. Typically, an aging report breaks down accounts into length of time since invoices were issued: 0-30 days, 31-60 days, 61-90 days and past 90 days. Each account will list the business name and how much is owed in each applicable timeframe. Creating and using a report like this will enable you to quickly, seamlessly check for potential problems so you immediately know when someone’s slow to pay — and then determine your best course of action. 3. Be proactive about getting payments. Believe it or not, your clients are less likely to pay you the longer their invoices are outstanding. In other words, the longer they go without paying, the less likely they are to ever pay. Don’t wait until payments are far past due to contact your clients. A week before the due date, send clients a friendly alert. Soon after the bill is due, start contacting them with gentle reminders that payment needs to be made. 4. Encourage advance payments. Whether you require a retainer on projects or request an advance, finding ways to get clients to pay something upfront can make a huge difference in your business cash flow. Advance payments greatly improve cash flow, as well as reduce your exposure to late or uncollectable receivables — giving you peace of mind as well as a more solid financial foundation. 5. Provide an early payment discount. While you may not want to discount your invoices, consider this: If a two percent discount gets you payment, that’s 98 percent more than you’d have gotten while you were waiting for a client to pay its bill. Try giving clients a small discount if they pay within 10 days, for example. In exchange for the small decrease, you might boost your overall cash flow. 6. Accept multiple payment options. Make it easier for your clients to pay you by accepting a variety of payment options, including checks, credit cards, PayPal and other online payment solutions. You may even want to suggest automatic payments for recurring clients to simplify and automate the billing process — something that may be very appealing to your clients. 7. Know when to enlist collection agencies. Most companies don’t want to resort to unleashing collection agencies on their clients, especially when they’re trying to maintain good relationships with them. In situations where accounts are severely delinquent, however, you may have no other choice. Research several options, look for a company that will deal professionally with you and your clients, and move forward confidently, knowing how important it is to get paid. Nobody enjoys the hassle of chasing down payments — yet knowing how to collect accounts receivable in a timely manner is essential to successful business. If you’re struggling with getting clients to pay on time, start implementing the tips above. It could make all the difference in your cash flow month to month. Author bio: Shanna Mallon is a copywriter for Straight North, a Chicago-based Internet marketing agency that specializes in B2B SEO, PPC, email marketing and web design. A freelance writer, Shanna has been creating online content professionally since 2007.

An entrepreneur is a very busy person. There’s always so much to do and so little time. It’s an old, familiar complaint. But, there are probably ways you’re wasting time here and there. And, these can add up to a lot, over the course of a week or month. The problem is often identifying what actually wastes time and what’s really worthwhile. So, let’s take a look at the top entrepreneur time-wasters to make you a more productive leader. Yes, Time is Money First, let’s revisit an old cliché — “time is money.” Now, it’s undoubtedly true. We all know that it’s an inescapable conclusion. However, we too often let time get away from us in a number of ways. It’s not that we don’t necessarily stick to a schedule. It’s more about what we don’t commit our time to. In other words, the biggest time-wasters are things we don’t expressly plan for. We all wish that we could be more productive. But, how is that possible when assignments keep piling up, the latest season of Orange is the New Black just appeared on Netflix, and you have a flurry of emails, texts, and social media notifications distracting you? —Inc.com Just let that sink in for a moment. If you aren’t dutifully working on this or that, and don’t have a commitment at-hand, you’re quite likely to waste time meandering about. Of course, it’s not possible to plan every minute of every day. But, it does mean it’s worth the effort to fill in those gaps, when possible. Use some of that time to take a break. Also, use some more of that time to just reflect or think about the next step. Then, try to make the rest of that “free time” productive. 5 Biggest Entrepreneur Time-Wasters So, what are the biggest entrepreneur time-wasters? Well, a few just might surprise you. Let’s just get the most obvious out-of-the-way to start — social media. It’s easy to lose track of time on social media. Since most entrepreneurs know this, they try to avoid it. But, there are still other huge time-waters: Unplanned mornings. Take a few moments at the end of the day to plan the next. If you don’t, you’ll probably fall prey to disorganization or at worst, chaos. Make a prioritized list to follow with the largest challenges at the top. Redundant work. There’s probably more than one way you’re duplicating your efforts or essentially doing unnecessary work more than once. Try to automate as much as possible. It’s surprising just how much more time you can squeeze out of a day when you’re not as redundant. Business travel. With all the available technology, in-person meetings are easy to accomplish, even if you’re physically hundreds or thousands of miles away. Sure, there are times when it’s absolutely necessary but delegate what you can and telecommute when possible. Multitasking. You might have heard that women are better than men at multitasking. While this is marginally true, it’s also now known humans aren’t good at multitasking. Even if you are able to multitask, you’re still dividing your attention. And, that’s a sure-fire way to make mistakes. What other time-wasters would you add to the list? Please share your thoughts by commenting! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

Microsoft just undermined its launch of its newly released Edge browser by hard selling it. You may not know about this because it’s niche-worthy news. But, it’s a lesson that the company should have learned many years ago. Instead, it continues to make the same mistake over and over again. Here’s what it is, what it means, and why it proves the hard sell doesn’t work. Why the Hard Sell doesn’t Work Microsoft recently introduced a new version of its Edge browser. In order to promote it, the company shamelessly inserted a conspicuous ad in its Windows 10 menu. The advertisement “suggests” that users switch from their current browser of choice over to Edge. Of course, people don’t like this assertive tactic and are taking to social media to complain about it. Small-business owners successful at sales know the best way to sell something is not to sell it. You listen to potential customers about what they want or need, and then you introduce your product as the answer. You want people to think buying your services was their idea. —American Express Turns out that Microsoft is not willing to learn from its many repeated mistakes of the past. That is, the corporation’s insistence on pushing its customers into buying or using proprietary products and services that are promoted through the company’s various platforms. This is not only annoying, it’s obnoxious. Plus, it demonstrates the many problems with hard selling. There is no empathy, no relationship, no trust, and so it goes against human nature. Trying to badger people into becoming loyal customers is simply not a winning strategy. 3 Proven Ways to Sell without Being Pushy (or Obnoxious) So, how do you promote your products and/or services without hard selling? It’s actually easier than one would think. Better yet, it works and works very well. Here are three effective ways to sell without being pushy or obnoxious: Take your time. Rushing will only backfire. When you sell at a hurried pace, you don’t give your customer enough time to process what you’re offering. It’s confusing and overwhelming and unsurprisingly, it typically won’t work. Let potential customers do all the talking. Well, maybe not all the talking, but most definitely, the majority of it. This way, you’ll learn quite a bit about him or her and gain a better understanding of his or her needs. You’ll be regarded as empathetic and trustworthy and those two key elements are important to building any relationship. Focus on their problem, not your product or service. This goes hand-in-hand with the second point. You need to understand precisely what their problem is in order to offer an effective solution. You won’t be forcing a sale, but rather giving them answers they need. What other strategies do you use in-place of hard selling techniques? Please comment and share your thoughts and experiences! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.