1. Invoice numbers must be unique, sequential and shown on all invoices. I would always recommend using an accounts package to raise your invoices.
2. Payment terms must be stated clearly on your invoices along with the payment due date so your customer knows when you are expecting to receive payment. 3. Payment options must be stated on your invoice, i.e. how can your customer make payment? You should offer several different methods of payment to make it as easy as possible for your customer to pay you. 4. Once you have sent an invoice to a customer do not delete it if your customer changes their mind, or if there is an error that needs correcting as this will cause confusion later on. Instead raise a credit note to show how the error has been corrected, or to cancel the invoice completely. 5. If your customer sends you a purchase order number you should include it on your invoice to make their job easier when arranging payment to you. 6. If you are offering a discount show the reduction on your invoices, don’t just lower the price. This way your customer knows they are getting a good deal, and when they tell others about your prices they know how much you usually charge. 7. Raise invoices within 3 days of fulfilling the order and send out immediately. Any delay in billing your customer will delay when you receive payment. 8. Invest in an accountancy package that will look after your invoices for you. It may seem like a hassle to set up, but once in place it will save time. An accountancy package will also let you know which invoices have not yet been paid so you can speak with your customers about them. 9. Clearly list what you are charging for so your client understands what they are paying for. A breakdown of your products/services will be understood more readily than a single line item for the complete cost of a job. 10. Invoices must show your contact information; name, address, phone number, email address. You need to make it easy for your customer to contact you if there are any problems.
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But where does this fear and worry come from? Why is it so daunting? Well, mostly it comes down to ignorance! Have you ever had a conversation with an accountant about tax? Have you walked away feeling more confused than ever? Yes? Well that's not surprising. With most subjects in business there is a right or wrong answer. There may be several ways to make a product, but they all end up with the same product at the end of the process, so you choose the one that suits you best. There may be several ways of transporting your product to your customer, but the result is the same, your customer receives your product. In accounting there seems to be a lot of "grey" areas and it depends on the advice you are given as to what the final result will be. Last year I attended two talks, two weeks apart by two different accountants, and there were several areas that they actually contradicted each other on. So how can we, small business owners who aren't accountants, have any confidence in filing our own self assessments when two accountants don't actually agree on what can be claimed as expenses? Surely it is impossible! Well it certainly isn't easy, but there are ways to smooth the road. Firstly, if you use an accounting package to record your finances you will find a lot of answers. Accounts packages usually have a preloaded list of nominal codes. Nominal codes are allocated to your sales, purchases and expenses automatically when you process them through your accounts package, which gives you a head start on knowing what can be included in your self assessment. If, for example, you have an expense and you aren't sure which nominal code it belongs to then you can either search online for suggestions from other people, some of whom may be accountants, or you could call HMRC and ask their opinion. If they tell you it is not allowable as an expense claim then you know that you can't include it, but if it is allowable they may be able to suggest a suitable code. But never accept the first answer you find, always look for two or three sources that confirm the same piece of advice. At the end of the year you can usually pull off a profit and loss report through your accounts package which will give you your annual turnover, annual expenses and your annual profit, all pieces of information needed for your tax return, and all available at the push of a button without spending hours with a calculator! If you don't currently use an accounts package and need to calculate your profit and loss manually then you may want to think about making a change for next year, it will be easier in the long run! Secondly, completing your self assessment as soon as HMRC request it can significantly speed up the process, because if you need to contact them with questions you won't wait long for your call to be answered, and you will have a better memory of anything that is more unusual in your accounts. If you have a larger business with employed staff or are Limited it is advisable to have an accountant do your tax return for you, but if you are a sole trader it is more cost effective to do it yourself. Thirdly, know that although HMRC will issue fines if you file your Tax Return late, if you make mistakes or fail to do it at all, their primary concern is people that are purposely evading tax. They are not a bunch of ogres getting ready to drag you into court for every tiny error – give them a call and speak to them about any concerns or questions, you might be surprised at how nice they can be! To make it easier to prepare why not download my free Self Assessment Checklist below and don't forget to give me any feedback on how it can be improved in the comments below.
Most often late payment is a result of poor cashflow from your customer. If they do not receive payment from their customers, they have no money to pay their suppliers. If your customer is an individual rather than a business, the same principal applies; if they receive an unexpected bill they may not have money to pay you until their next payday.
The most difficult part is staying calm and not getting angry. When you phone up and start yelling for your money your customer is immediately put on the defensive, which can result in them yelling back at you. That's when it really starts to get ugly! Keeping a cool head when chasing payment is the most effective way of achieving your goal. You need to enquire about your payment, and listen to your customer's difficulty. It may just be an oversight and payment will be sent straight away. It may be that payment bounced due to an unexpected bill, but it will be with you within the week, or it could be that your customer has hit a real problem with cashflow. When customers hit a real problem with making payment you will need to make a judgement call. Do you want to discuss spreading the payment over several months, resulting in full payment being received eventually? Do you want the product returned in part or in full to reduce or eliminate the invoice? Do you want to explore more unusual options for retrieving your debt, such as a trade of goods or services with your customer to the value of your unpaid invoice – if they have something you want. If an agreement can't be met you may need to explore more serious options. Taking legal action is a last resort, but sadly it is sometimes necessary. Often receiving a legal letter is enough for customers to make payment without full proceedings commencing, but sometimes you have to go through the whole procedure. Fortunately there are legal companies that specialise in debt recovery and their prices are pretty reasonable, so if you find yourself with no other alternative be sure to contact one of them to guide you through the process. And finally, if you decide it is not worth pursuing, once the debt is six months old you can write it off as a bad debt in your accounts. If you are struggling with chasing your customers for payment please contact jamie@jamiegoodenough.co.uk to discuss how I can help you. Feeling a bit stuck on where to get started? What you include in your newsletter is entirely up to you, and it is important that you find the right style for you. There is no right or wrong answer, no “one size fits all” design. Instead you need to develop a template that suits you and your business, and don’t be afraid to adjust it if needed. There are some ideas below to help you get started on creating YOUR newsletter: Welcome Message
People like to read a personal note from you, it helps to build trust in you and your brand when you share a little bit of info. Latest News Share the latest information from your business or your industry. People like to know what is going on and what is coming up. Upcoming Events Whether it is a timetable of craft fairs you will be attending or an invitation to a trade show people like to know where you are going to be. You could also include dates for upcoming workshops you are hosting. How-To Guides or Tutorials Nothing shouts “expert” more than sharing how to do something. Tutorials establish a line of trust as you are giving your customers knowledge about how to do something. Some will eagerly go away and try it out, while others will decide they can’t do it and will buy from you instead. But don’t worry about those that try it themselves, many will be back to find out more or buy something different. You may not lose them as a customer. Interviews You could conduct an interview with a prominent figure in your industry. Ask questions that you think your customers would find interesting, and remember to keep your questions open (who, what, where, when, why, how) to encourage detailed answers. Contests and Promotions Your newsletter is a place you can add a small advert for your latest time limited offer, but remember to keep to the 80/20 rule – 80% great content, 20% selling Product Reviews You could give information about your latest product range or draw comparisons between products that you use. Don’t be negative about your competition, even if their product isn’t as good as yours! Videos If you are not comfortable writing your newsletter you can always create videos to put in your mailing instead. Just keep them short, maybe just 2-3 minutes each and include clear titles for each one. If you include different articles in your newsletter I would love to hear about them in the comments below. If you would like some assistance with setting up your newsletter please email me at jamie@jamiegoodenough.co.uk We've all sat there pulling our hair out trying to put together a newsletter at the eleventh hour while searching wildly for inspiration on what to write. Searching for images at midnight and trying to remember how to use the mailing software while feeling stressed and tired can bring you to breaking point. But don't despair! There are a few things you can put into place to make this task a little easier on yourself: 1. Be Consistent
Create a template for your newsletter to that it looks the same every time you send one out. Your audience will come to expect your newsletter to look a certain way when it arrives in their inbox, if you change the design every month or two your audience may get confused and delete your mailing without even looking at it, just because they don't recognise it. 2. Writing Articles Some people are very secure in the knowledge that they are an expert in their field, they may have worked hard to qualify to be able to do what they do, and as such may have lots of information to write about in newsletters. But for others, recognising yourself as an expert can be a little more difficult. Put yourself in your ideal customer's shoes, what do they want to read about? What interests them? Knowing why they buy from you, what it is that you give them that your competitors don't can help you identify the best subjects to write about. 3. Schedule It Make a schedule of your newsletters. How often do you want to send them out? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Write down all of the subjects you feel comfortable writing about, and create titles for articles that your ideal customer will be interested in reading. Then organize those titles into a newsletter schedule along with any other content you wish to include in that issue. Then when you sit down to write you won't be searching for ideas. 4. Short and Sweet Everyone is busy, and many people don't have huge amounts of time to read articles, so forget "War and Peace" and focus on sending out your message in a direct and compelling way. Try to draw attention with your opening paragraph which will encourage your audience to continue reading. Asking questions or identifying a problem that your customer experiences can create a need to read more. 5. Write in Advance Try not to leave things to the last minute. As soon as one newsletter has been published prepare the next one, and if you're having a really good day prepare the next two or three! If you have created a schedule of topics to write about then taking the time to write the articles when the words are flowing will help you get ahead of the game. Most mailing systems will allow you to schedule your mailing to be sent out so you would create the entire newsletter and then choose the date and time for it to be sent. Hopefully these tips will make creating newsletters a little easier to manage, but if you've got any other tips I'd love to read them in the comments below.
Remembering to post regularly on Facebook when you are busy can be quite a challenge, but having plenty of work this month doesn't mean you will have plenty of work next month. As small business owners we need to utilise every free advertising resource available to us, and Facebook is a great place to keep in contact with your customers. So what can you do when you are too busy to post on Facebook? Well, it requires planning ahead of time. Think about the statuses that you post, do you have a theme on any particular day? Do you write a blog every week or every month? Everything that you do regularly can be scheduled in advance so if you get too busy to post for a few days your clients will still see your regular bulletins. But don't schedule everything! It is important to keep that immediate interaction with your clients too, so select a few posts to be scheduled every week and then carry on with you usual daily posts. The below video will guide you through the process on how to schedule posts: A big clean up and sort out can be very daunting, and time consuming, so tackle one thing at a time, don’t look at the whole room and panic. Set yourself a target for today, and do it! Then set another target for tomorrow. Here’s an idea of how you could break down the work load:
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AuthorJamie has spent many years working in administrative roles, she has also spent time as a stay at home mum and now loves the flexibility of working from her home office and being available for her family whenever they need her. Archives
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