If "slow to pay" clients have been
an issue for you, I'll tell you that some of the suggestions
I'll make below will take some guts. But then again,
you're a gutsy "dare to start my own business" entrepreneur
anyway so this may be a piece of cake. ;-)
Here they are:1)
Define who you want to work with: When people tell me
that their clients don't want to pay, one of my suspicions is
that they have not clearly defined who they want to work with.
So they end up attracting the wrong crowd.
For example, if you are a virtual
assistant and on your web site, you define your ideal client as
"very successful established solo entrepreneurs" then that's
exactly what you'll get. Visitors to your web site will
self-identify. Struggling entrepreneurs or those with very
limited budgets are unlikely to call you after reading that
description. So my questions for you are: "Where are
you defining who you want to do business? How can you
choose wording so that people (who can afford your
services) can self-identify, and those who cannot don't bother
knocking on your door?
2)
You're the boss: It's your company and your business.
You're the owner. You're the CEO. If you are in
complete control over how you do business, you also get to
decide how you get paid. So here's the new you...
Take a deep breadth. :-)
3) Require payment up
front: Yes, I know, you will probably tell me that no-one in
your industry does that. And to that I would say "Dare to
be different." Then you may tell me that you'll never get
any customers. And I'll say "Not so."
Stay with me on this. You can indeed
require full or partial payment up front. Here's how....
4) Guarantee your work:
Instead of saying, "I'll do the job and if you're happy
with it, I'll send you an invoice." Instead say "Full
payment up front and if you're not happy with the results, you
get all your money back." Takes guts right? But guess what,
the fear is most likely in your own mind. We should be so sure
that we can deliver high value and high quality work that a
money-back guarantee isn't scary. If you're delivering high
value, unless your client profile is of questionable integrity,
you'll rarely (if at all) get money-back requests.
Now for some services (those that
depend on action from the client), such as coaching services,
guaranteeing results may not be appropriate because you cannot
guarantee that the client will take action. However, you can
guarantee what they will discover from working with you,
insights they will gain, new tools they will have for their
businesses or lives, etc. You can guarantee prompt response,
prompt delivery, thorough service, etc.
