One of the things I do for my email list is to send them income reports and updates from my business. I do this to show them what’s working in my business and what’s not.
In a recent one, I sent out an email detailing how my business brought in over $11,000 in revenue in December 2017. In response to this, one email subscriber replied by stating she was owed about that much in unpaid invoices. She then proceeded to ask how she could decrease late payments from clients.
It’s taken me a long time to get into a groove in my business where I’m seeing consistent five-figure months. It’s also taken a long time for me to get to a place where late payments from clients is rare. In this article, I’m going to detail what I’ve done to get my business to this level.
Create better payment systems and policies.
By far the number one thing that has helped me decrease late payments from clients was to implement better payment systems. This looked like offering different options for payment and creating automatic payment plans for coaching clients.
These two things single-handedly changed my business. I can now make projections based on automatic payments I know I will be receiving. It also helps me budget better – both for business and my personal life..
Create a solid follow-up system.
Another way to decrease late payments – or at least decrease the time it takes to get paid – is to have a solid follow-up system. This could look like delegating payment follow-ups to a team member or using a invoicing service that sends automatic follow-ups for you.
Have your money coming from different places.
While having your money coming from different places doesn’t necessarily decrease late payments from clients, it does give you more peace of mind. In my business, I have money coming from about five different sources. This has significantly reduced the stress that comes with the occasional late payments from clients.
Make it easy for people to pay you.
Sometimes when I’m consulting business owners about their sales processes I realize how complicated they make it for people to pay them. Some business owners don’t accept credit card because they don’t want to deal with fees and others don’t use certain payment systems even though clients keep requesting them out of some personal vendetta.
I’m personally of the belief that you need to make it easy for people to pay you. You may also need to occasionally think on your feet and figure some stuff out on the fly for them.
I once went way out of my way to figure out a payment plan for a student so they could join my group coaching program. And you know what? They paid me. I also now know how to do it for next time and offer it as one of my standard payment options.
Final Thoughts
There are several techniques you can use to decrease late payments from clients. While this list is by no means exhaustive, it is a really good place to start. By implementing just these few strategies (and especially the first one) you will have less issues with late payments.
