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Who Can Help With The Collection of Business Sales Debt?

Last modified: January 29, 2024

Who Can Help With The Collection of Business Sales Debt?

Small businesses, freelancers and those that are self-employed rely on their customers paying them.

Without a steady flow of funding, any business would be at risk of closure.

Every business owner has the burden of expenses hanging over them.

This is true regardless of the size or success of the company.

If a customer does not pay, it could hurt a smaller business more than a larger one.

For self-employed people, having a non-paying customer can be very problematic.

As well as this, smaller organisations do not have the same luxuries larger companies might have.

For instance, a big company may have their credit control team based in-house.

This will give them the ability to chase payments themselves.

The owners of smaller businesses need to perform the tasks of many job roles at the same time.

They fill the shoes of a director, sales, customer service, accounts and marketing roles alone.

If a customer does not pay, the business owner will need to do the chasing too.

Quite often, small business owners do not have the time or means to be able to chase a late payer.

If this happens, these non-payers put the business at risk.

With this in mind, it is clear that small business owners need an effective debt recovery solution.

In this article, we explain who small business owners and those that are self-employed can turn to…

…for help with the collection of business sales debt.

Who Can Help With The Collection of Business Sales Debt?

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Collection of Business Sales Debt – What to do if a Customer Does Not Pay

If you are the owner of a small business, then you will know how frustrating it is when a customer chooses not to pay.

Every case like this is different and you can solve most with a simple conversation.

For example, the customer may have not understood when they needed to pay.

It is common for people to misunderstand payment obligations, and so they miss a payment.

In other cases, they wish to dispute an invoice that you have sent them.

If this happens, it is important to remain calm and have a friendly and polite conversation with the customer.

If all goes well, you will reach a conclusion that is satisfactory to everyone.

As well as this, you can look forward to dealing with that customer again in the future.

You can solve the majority of cases involving the collection of business sales debt like this.

Despite this, there are always those customers that will go to any length to avoid paying what they owe.

When this happens, there are a few quick steps that you can take to reduce the impact this has on your business.

Stay Calm

The most important thing to do when you are facing the collection of business sales debt is to remain calm, polite and composed.

This may sound simple, but it can sometimes be harder for small business owners and those that are self-employed.

The work that this group of people do is a lot more personal than that of a larger organisation.

For example, a freelance website designer might have spent a lot of their time making sure that a project for a customer was perfect before launch.

If you are the owner of a small business you have put your heart and soul into, it does hurt when a customer does not pay

Personal feelings and emotions can be more prominent in cases like this.

With this in mind, you mustn’t let your emotions get the better of you.

Remember – the goal is to recover any money that your customer owes you whilst preserving a business relationship.

Many bad payers count on you getting angry or upset during a conversation.

This is a tactic designed to provoke you into giving them grounds to refuse payment.

You should not fall into this trap – you are the victim in this scenario and deserve to get paid.

Remaining calm and communicating in a professional manner is the best way for you to tackle the collection of business sales debt.

Who Can Help With The Collection of Business Sales Debt? Frontline Collections

Make Sure the Customer Understands What They Need to do

The best way any small business owner can minimise the amount of time they need to spend on the collection of business sales debt…

…is to make sure that they do not happen in the first place.

Before the beginning of any sale with a customer, you should take time to make sure that they understand what their payment obligations are.

You should prepare documents like payment terms that have details such as payment dates and amounts.

This is a great measure to help prevent debt from occurring.

For example, some insurances companies provide a full breakdown of payment dates for customers.

This is for those who pay every month for their policy.

This gives the date when a payment is due along with the amount that they need to pay.

As well as this, you can also make your invoices as clear as possible, highlighting the sections that are pertinent to the customer.

These are the value that is due and the payment due date.

Prepare Documentation

If a customer has not paid and you are now facing the task of the collection of business sales debt…

…you must spend time preparing all documentation you have that will aid in the recovery of your money.

If you have communicated with your customer via email, you should already have a record of what you have said.

You should also gather any invoices, receipts or bank statements that relate to this case.

This will help to make things clear for both you and the customer when you later speak with them.

Make it Easy for the Customer to Pay

This might sound like a simple point, but if you provide the customer with an easy way to pay it is more likely that they will do so.

For example, many people may have difficulty paying a large lump sum all at once.

Things may have changed since they agreed to pay you, and they may have fallen on challenging times since then.

Arranging to set up a payment plan is a good way to help them pay, and can ensure that you get paid too.

Send the Customer a Polite Reminder

The first step you should take when working on chasing the collection of business sales debt is to reach out to the customer.

You must remember that at this point the reason for the non-payment may still be innocent.

If you approach them too strongly (i.e. with authoritative language), you may make the situation worse.

Sending a polite and friendly reminder is the best course of action at this stage.

If you gently remind the customer that they were due to pay you whilst offering an easy way for them to settle the matter now…

…you stand a good chance of getting your money back right away.

If the customer is avoiding you, giving you poor excuses or becomes aggressive it may be a sign that they did not intend to pay at all.

Escalate the Matter

If you know that the collection of business sales debt is going round in circles and your customer still refuses to pay…

…it is time to seek professional help.

Many people will use every trick in the book to avoid paying, and you will reach a point where it will cost too much to recover the debt yourself.

This is especially true for small business owners and those that are self-employed, as their time is already too precious.

Instructing a debt collection agency is the best course of action when you need to make this decision.

Instruct a Professional Agency for the Collection of Business Sales Debt

If you need help with the collection of business sales debt, you need the best recovery agency possible.

Frontline Collections is one such agency.

We have provided the UK’s leading debt collection service for small businesses since 2005.

We help people who non-paying customers owe money to every day.

As such, we recover thousands of pounds of debt every week on their behalf.

We have an average debt recovery rate of 90% on all undisputed debts…

…and have low commission rates starting from just 8%.

If you need help with the collection of business sales debt, speak to one of our experts today.

We will provide a free, no-obligation pre-action assessment, helping you to know what your best options are right away.

Who Can Help With The Collection of Business Sales Debt?

Get Expert Help From A Private Debt Collection Agency Now

Our friendly team of Debt Collection Experts is happy to help you today

SPEAK TO A DEBT COLLECTION EXPERT