Small debt collection and petty customers/theives

Hi James (again!), Ian,

Many, many thanks for the replies. Yes it is old debt, and yes it shouldn't have got that way, and yes we have been taken advantage of and yes business is a STEEP learning curve where sometimes lessons learned in other business can be a dis-advantage in others. This is by far the most difficult business we have put together - for many reasons - and the one that has brought us into contact with mainly many small retail trade custlmers, sole traders, etc.

In the past we have worked with larger orgs. and Ltd co. etc. and by and large we have been sheilded from, to be honest, many, many people who should never be allowed to run a business (that's a nice way of saying what I'd like to say but can't!)

I'll drop Lee an email. I want our money, but I also want to set an example (I Guess) that, as a Co., we will not tolerate petty "theft" - which is what this is - and that if these people want to make their fortune, then they don't do it with our help and our money.

Thanks for the URL Ian - I'll look into it later.

The one thing we do intend to do is let as many people know as possible (in our line of business - it's a small world!!) about these low-life and not to do business with them....... or at least get CASH up front in future :-)

Regards

The key here is to run a simple credit check on all new customers prior to giving credit. If they have a history of CCJ's this will show in the report. If they are consistently late payers this will also show. I understand that it can be difficult to turn away business, but if the debt goes bad then the consequences for your cash flow and the future of your business can become serious.

As a matter of policy we tend to issue a 7 day demand for payment on any debt more than 90 days old. If there has been no response from this then we start court proceedings. At this point, we have  managed to get payment. It is worth remembering that the implications of a CCJ can be far reaching, especially if they need to raise finance from the bank or elsewhere.

As James pointed out - costs can start to spiral, especially if you need to enforce the judgement.

Don't give credit - unless their credit score checks out - even that's no guarantee.  

Creditsure.biz is the co we use, however, there are hundreds online - basic report £10 -£15. (just need to know how to interpret it!)

Michael

Ahika Design

Hi Lee,

Thanks for that. Maybe I should post on here more often - one debtor appears to have paid up this weekend!! I obviously need to ensure that the payment actually clears!! but 1 down, 2 to go (maybe they read the startups forum????  .. and if you do, we're coming for OUR money!)

Lee, will mail you later offline thanks to talk about what you can do for us (hopefully!) and what we've done so far (fruitless though it has been!)

Regards,

Martin