Credit Matters Newsletters

There are a few more developments nearly ready to go in the coming months. Hopefully they will become available in the near future.

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. However Credit Matters offers one of the few opportunities to reach a broad marketplace of customers with financial risk management requirements.

This month, we introduce The Bank Doctor, which is an independent Not For Profit online resource centre offering free banking and finance advice. You will find them listed in the Finance Providers category of the Better Business Club.

Credit Applications and Terms of Trade are contracts designed to give the seller and the buyer an understanding of one another's trading relationship expectations. As such, apart from giving both parties a level of comfort, these documents are legally binding contracts.

It goes without saying; signing a contract with no intention of honouring that contract is fraught with danger. 

Therefore it is surprising to see how many signatories now appear to have no intention of honouring these contracts and commence trading with the other party. If you are one of those people who sign contracts with no intention of honouring the terms of the contract, perhaps reviewing the questions below may be of value.

1  Why sign a contract if you do not intend to honour your word or expect the other the other party to honour theirs?

2  If one party deliberately breaks the contract and the aggrieved party does not respond to protect their rights, does the aggrieved party understand they are now stuck with trading terms which may impact negatively against their business?

3  If you deliberately break the terms of the contract, are you aware of the possible negative ramifications?

Completing and signing Terms of Trade or an Application for Credit are contracts which should always be completed with care. Failing to understand the full legal and financial implications of these contracts may be a costly and cause professional embarrassment. 

All business enterprises, irrespective of size, are now part of the global community whether the owners and managers like it or not. Consequently there is nowhere to hide from those who want to cause you harm, steal your assets or expose your indiscretions. From a more positive aspect, there is also nowhere in the world you cannot reach in attempt to sell your products and services.

You may think your well-run business is immune from the outside world because you only trade locally with trusted customers and suppliers. Furthermore you have loyal and well trained employees using well-tried business processes. However without regularly testing your business systems, such thinking is largely delusional and the minute you become complacent, problems occur.

In today's business environment, we can never really relax and take time off for any length of time thinking we have solved all our problems. The truth is; having a business is a bit like having children. No sooner do we learn to learn to live with children of a certain age, than we find they change as they enter a new age group. So again, we have to change to meet the expectations of this new age group.

In regards to your business, there are no better examples of changing issues as when Legislation was introduced regarding the Privacy Act.  Another example was when Google advised your website must be tablet and smartphone "friendly" to be readily found when using their search services.

Other situations which demand a constant review include the following.

1  Cybercrime and hacking is on the increase. With due respect to your business size and financial means (commonsense applies), are your IT systems as up to date as they could be?

2  Customers and suppliers are likewise subject to all the issues of your business. Have you completed due diligence on who you are trading with lately?

3  Compliance is the latest business distraction. Are you compliant as you could be in such matters of IT, certification of your employees, to Legislative requirements, to Directors responsibilities etc.?

4  Efficiency and profitability are ongoing issues. When did you last stress test your operational procedures or evaluate your business model, or plans etc. 

Increasingly we are seeing business of all sizes being exposed to global, legislative and social issues. The biggest corporations and banks can get away with a degree of sloppiness on these matters. They have the financial strength and can on most occasions, buy their way out of any problems.

Smaller business enterprises generally do not have the funds to buy their way out of trouble. However, smaller enterprises do have one advantage the larger corporations when it comes to spending on compliance and best practice. Their advantage is; any such spending can also be justified from a marketing perspective. Demonstrating you are compliant and operate to best practice guidelines is a marketing advantage and a point of difference over your competitors which do not spend likewise.

Spending on building a solid business which can prepare itself against any negative issues of operating in global world is not just another expense. It is an investment in the survival and growth of your primary asset - the business.