Credit Matters Newsletters

There are no new features appearing on our website or in the newsletter this month. We continue to review possibilities however in order to make your future visits to Credit Matters even more beneficial. These developments will become evident in the coming months.

Word of The Month and Inconvenient Business Truth segments continue to offer valuable business insights.

Advertising via Credit Matters

If you are interested in reaching a wider group of business prospects, contact Kim to see what we can do for you. There are many different opportunities to advertise your business. The benefit of advertising with Credit Matters is we offer one of the few opportunities to reach a broad marketplace of customers with financial risk management issues.

This month you will find a new listing in our Overseas Category - Remit Corporation.

Nothing in business is simple. Too often as this month's quote suggests, a business person or manager has to make a decision between two opposite and often conflicting issues.

One of the main areas which causes business owners and professionals the greatest problems is managing the risk verses sales scenario. The question which may not be discussed adequately is, "Do we sell to this customer, a known credit risk, and face the danger of not getting paid?"

The reasons why this question is rarely asked is because of the conflict between selling, getting paid and risk management. Salespeople are employed to sell. However as we all know, a sale is not a sale until the invoice is paid. Sometimes the salesperson believes the credit department is working against them when a credit facility is denied to their customer.

This scenario is not strictly true. The problem is that salespeople too often "demand" the credit department authorise the sale, rather than take the time to "sell the deal." The role of the credit department is to evaluate whether the business will be paid and a profit made.

One of the rules of credit management is that credit managers have a key responsibility to increase sales. It is not their role to deny opportunities of making a profitable sale because a customer may be a slow payer or the sale in question may not be as profitable as other sales. Again, this principle of credit managers working to increase sales is rarely properly expressed or understood by poor managers and salespeople.

The credit manager is also working under the old mantra that "... if you don't have customers, you don't have a business". Again, it is no value selling to customers and running out of cash because they didn't pay. As an old statement reiterates "A business without cash is not a business."

Another issue faced by all business owners and professionals and constantly expressed is that "... we need to operate cheaper." What is all too often forgotten in this statement; the very concept that you get quality for a cheaper price is a contradiction in reality. When focusing all your attention on "working cheaper", it is also all too easy to forget about operating efficiently or having the capability to take up any business opportunities as they occur.

On occasions you may be unable to pay your bills in a timely fashion. When this happens on the odd occasion and you advise your supplier, there are usually few problems. In the long-term however, if your slow-paying becomes an ongoing habit, the risks and negative consequences are many.

Employing people is another important factor. Yes, they may one of your greatest costs, however the right employees are also amongst your business's greatest assets.

To work short staffed or with employees who have limited training occasionally may not damage your business in the short-term. In the long term however, good employees, in sufficient numbers to get the work done in a timely fashion, are essential. Employees are the glue which keeps all your business processes, technology systems, and stakeholders working together efficiently and at a minimum cost.

Business owners or professionals soon learn, managing complexity is just one factor in running the business. If business was ever simple, then it is not in today's environment.

Today, wise business owners and professionals are seeking more assistance from a support team to help manage the complexities of business. It is a tough job managing complex issues for just one person. This is especially the case when the business owner or manager is either a glass half full or a glass half empty type of person. The pay-off for managing complexity, comes about when changes to the business are required, the changes lead to the productivity improvements sought.