Prompt Payers

Like all small businesses we can spend a disproportionate amount of time chasing invoices and late payers. Disproportionate because we really shouldn’t have to do it, but it seems like a fact of small business life. Recently, organisations like the Federation of Small Businesses and the Government itself have highlighted the cost to small business of late payments.

However, this post is not about chasing invoices and haranguing late payers. This is about that very rare breed, the prompt payer. Oh yes, they do exist, but not in great numbers. We probably have only one or two clients who make a point of paying any invoice by return. Or even sooner - the quickest we have had an invoice paid is less than 45 minutes after receipt by the client. I don’t intend to name names, but, as you can imagine, we are extremely grateful to them.

But it goes further than simple gratitude;

What do you suppose happens when those clients contact us with a problem? They get swift service. That’s not to say we drop everything or shunt other less prompt paying clients back down the queue, but if we can solve their problem by finding a spare hour sooner rather than later, then we do. Prompt payment begets prompt service.

If we are managing a specific project for a prompt paying client and something crops up that wasn’t in the brief, then more than likely that will just get done without additional charge or hold-up. It’s simply a case of mutual back-scratching.

It’s nice to highlight the fact that in amongst all the tales of woe and difficulty that small businesses face, sometimes there is something positive.