5 Ways To Ensure Your Consulting Cash Flow Stays Positive

Many of our Brand24 community are Social Media Consultants or agencies. The space is extremely competitive, so landing that new client is a huge step forward.

However, more and more our users have informed us that working out the financials with those clients is ever more painful, and sometimes invoices are never sent or paid at all.

When you are using solutions like Brand24 to give your clients great services, it’s important to keep those payments coming in so your profits stay healthy. Many of our community have looked to sighted.com for help, so we reach them and asked what is the key to having a smooth invoicing process that keeps both parties happy.

Here are five tips that thay they recommend to inspire customers to pay their bills by the due date or earlier:

1. Request An Upfront Payment Or Deposit

This is probably the most appropriate for bigger projects; however, a consent to pay a large portion of the bill at the onset of the venture and the other half after culmination is an indication of good confidence and a sign that you’ll likely get paid toward the finish of a vocation. This won’t just help by enhancing income; it will also “prepare” the customer to pay before the work is completed.

2. Stick To A Regular Payment Schedule

If the customer expects a receipt from you on the first and fifteenth of every month, then you have to convey your bill on those dates. Having a customary timetable could be the distinction between getting paid and not getting paid.

3. Negotiate Clear Payment Terms Upfront

It’s good business practice to have a written agreement with your customer that plainly plots terms, due dates, charges, and different fundamentals. This permits you and the customer to get in sync about when solicitations are sent and to what extent they need to pay. You can underscore these installment terms on every receipt, for example, “Due upon receipt” or “Total invoice amount due within 10 business days.”

4. Provide A Small Discount For Early Payment

This works best with smaller customers. It can be a as rate of the total invoice amount, which regularly includes customers as a cost advantage. For instance, a 2% discount on early payment may allure a customer to pay the receipt prior to the start of the project.

To support prior payments, you might need to include a rate expense for late installments (e.g., a 2% charge to solicitations not paid within 15 days). These extra expenses can have a sufficiently extensive effect on your customer’s main concern to propel an expedient turnaround.

5. Offer An Online Invoicing Payment Option

One of the greatest obstructions to fast invoice payment is really psychological. Before, when a customer got a receipt, they needed to find their checkbook, get an envelope, find a stamp, address the envelope, and drop the envelope off at the post office. Even though this procedure is not truly that troublesome, it may seem like a bother. As a result, invoices are often left unattended until a payment deadline or penalty serves as an incentive to pay.

In any case, new web-based invoicing choices evacuate that barrier. All customers need to enter this information their invoice data and snap a catch to pay; it is very simple. Some invoicing services even have time-tracker alternatives, so you can track your time spent on particular projects, and have that data imported into a customer’s invoice. At the end of the day, internet invoicing will spare both you and your customer time and cash

In fact, the regular seller can set aside 80 percent on invoicing costs with the execution of an e-based or programmed invoicing system, when contrasted with a paper one. All the more significant is the comfort and evacuation of the mental obstruction to installment (also the time conventional solicitations spend via the post office) implies faster installment for your business.

Conclusion

These 5 simple tips should instantly improve the relationship you have with your clients, and free up more vital time for you to create and manage your amazing, kick ass social media campaigns. Thanks again to the people at Sighted.com for those great tips.

If you have any horror stories regarding gettings paid for your consulting work, please share them in the comments, and i’m sure our community will comfort you.