Business billing and collection can be an area where new network consultants get themselves in trouble.  To ensure you get paid, you have to start very early setting up good practices for business billing and collection.  

Here are some basic issues you need to understand when setting up your business billing and collection policy.

The most important issue in new network consultants’ minds regarding business billing and collection is, "What software package should I use for time and billing?"

If you’re just focusing on that, you’re missing the bigger issues related to business billing and collection.  Of course you should use a piece of software that makes it a little easier to carry out business billing and collection, but the software is not going to fix any underlying problems you have with actually getting paid.

Business Billing and Collection Premises
First, you need to know that steady clients perceive your company as an insurance policy. What does this have to do with business billing and collection?  Everything. This insurance policy mentality is what motivates clients to pay your company on time.  They fear that if they forget to pay invoices on time, you will not help them (cover them) in the case of a network emergency.  If you bill them regularly, steady clients will pay.

On the flip side are the one-shot deal, cherry picking customers.  These people view your company and services as a commodity.  Here you need excellent and very tight business billing and collection practices if you hope to get paid.

The cherry picking clients don’t value your relationship. They view you as one of hundreds who offer the same service.  There’s no fear motivating them and they have an entirely different mind set. They have no qualms whatsoever about paying you late or not paying you at all.

They’re not interested in building a relationship with your company. They’re just after what they perceive to be the absolute, rock-bottom, lowest price. If they get a late notice from you, they’ll probably laugh at it and throw it out or put it through the shredder.

Bottom Line on Business Billing and Collection
It’s very important from a business billing and collection standpoint that you understand your steady clients come from an entirely different place than one-shot deal clients.  Knowing and understanding this difference will make an enormous difference on your business billing and collection practices.  Think about how you will handle these two distinct situations when you are developing your business billing and collection policy.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to Business Billing and Collection. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about Business Billing and Collection, just click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.