Category: News & Trends

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Reed and Reed Debt Collection Services

It is a sad state of affairs when we have to review a collection agency and a terrible indictment of today’s business climate. We have recently selected Reed and Reed to act as our collection agency. If you are looking for a proactive professional service to handle collecting on your late accounts, we recommend that you take a look at Reed and Reed.

Collections are a sensitive matter, but one that nearly all businesses will use at some time or another. Stephen Smith of Reed and Reed tells me that in today’s business climate, they recommend to their clients to turn accounts over for collections at 60 days. The longer that you wait to start collection the less you may actually recover.

Not only are we following Stephen’s advice, but are tightening up on the way we allow credit to new customers. So if you are in a similar position – trying to be patient with client’s who simply will not pay, now’s the time to get proactive and check out this resource which was recommended to us by one of our own clients and who we have very positive dealings with so far.

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I’m a Social Networking Convert

If you are not networking via LinkedIn or Facebook with clients and prospects you are really missing out on an enriching experience.

People in this day and age really put a high value on personal interaction, but not by face to face meeting, rather interaction in “safe places” like LinkedIn and Facebook. I personally find the interaction refreshing and participation is opening up a wider global marketplace in which to provide my services. But, I have to say that my interaction in these social networking sites is not all about selling, it is about connecting on a personal level one person at a time.

When was the last time you saw pictures of a client’s 8 month old baby and were able to interact and then find out that your client had four kids? What about the time were you knew in advance a prospect or client’s birthday the day before so you could send a personal email and digital gift? These social networking sites cement relationships that you have and help to build new ones that you would like to have.

I will be testing out a new “Facebook-like” site in India for a new connection which I found through LinkedIn Answers. The review will be interesting for me and of value to him to have experienced feedback. No pay involved, just good will and an opportunity to be exposed to the growing market in India. Who knows were that business relationship will go.

Social networking is fun, doesn’t take much time, and I find the business opportunities endless for the savvy entrepreneur. The important thing to remember on these platforms is that it is all about being “real” and seeing what happens when you give a little bit of yourself. Once you really buy into the concept, you’ll be an advocate too, just like me!

What has your experience been with Facebook or LinkedIn? Do you like the applications and do you use them? Click “Leave a Comment” to tell me your experience.

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How Has The Economy Affected Your Business?

Has the blow-back from the US economic crisis affected your business yet?

If so what pull-back approach are you taking?

Are you cutting advertising as a result of efforts to trim costs?

Have your client account payments been affected?

These are just a few of the questions that small business owner such as myself and my clients are discussing. I had one client tell me that his own client base had just simply stopped paying on time. We have experienced several client situations where we have had to turn client accounts over for collection for the first time in eight years.

In a tough economy, such as ours, it is important to keep a cool head and focus on your business longevity. Many of us will be able to weather this storm and come out stronger, unlike some industries such as the real estate and the mortgage industry, where the crisis is so deep that some firms are being driven out of business.

So what do you do when times are tough for your business? One quick comment, it is not the US alone, but a global issue. I have chatted with several contemporaries in Spain and the United Kingdom who are experiencing many of the same issues that we are in the US in regards to draw-down and pull-back.

This is what my firm is doing:

1. Getting very proactive with slow payers to bring them into line with our payment terms.

2. Working with a collection agency for the first time in eight years to collect accounts over 90 days old.

3. Reviewing carefully our spending history. This is not necessarily a time to just routinely upgrade software. I have purchased some upgrades but made very careful selections, but others, I will defer to later or indefinitely.

4. Carefully reviewed my business profitability. If I cannot offer a service profitably, I have dropped it or realigned it to be profitable; factoring in the cost of credit card processing and overhead has been extremely important in some of my most recent decisions in regards to pricing models.

5. Stopped doing business with clients that simply will not pay on time and sap my available time with collection efforts.

What have you done to keep you business afloat in these trying times? Click add your comment below and leave me a note. I would be most interested in hearing what you are doing to move your business forward.

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AdWords Escalating Costs Force Advertisers to Yahoo

With the cost of Google AdWords for some markets and business escalating since the AdWords September 15th update, Yahoo is looking better all the time.

Here’s just one example of the many changes that we have seen happen this week since the September 15th AdWords update:

1. For bed bug extermination and bed bug related keywords in 2006 we paid around $1.25 per click, now to be competitive in the New York City market we are over $4.00 a click. Yahoo is still serving quality converting clicks for this account at about $1.65.

2. Here’s another example of the competition on AdWords since the update. For a dentist in the Washington DC metro area, Google states their account control panel that to appear in the firs page of search results they should now pay $57 per click for the phrase family dental care. Mind you, this is not to be in position one, but rather in position 11. What I don’t understand is that this same client has been getting clicks with Google showing the average ad position to be over 6 in the data and he is paying around $7 or so per click – so why the $57 note in the control panel?

3. Some accounts that we manage are totally being hammered with the update. One client who typically gets 70 to 80 conversions from Google each month is down to 20 so far month to date and we upped his cost per click twice since September 15th! Yahoo has brought in 16 conversions for him so far this month and at a significantly lower cost.

Yahoo is looking better all the time. In fact if you are not seriously contemplating advertising in Yahoo and trimming back your advertising in Google AdWords while this shakedown is occurring, it may be a good time to give it very serious consideration. I think that Google may have gotten too greedy in this last change and will be chasing out advertisers with these new cost per click figures to retain their desired average ad position.