Do you like money to regularly come into your bank account?

Posted on 27. Jan, 2012 by Leonie Alaimo in Business Tools, Cool Stuff, Handy Tools, Productivity, Sales

Just think if you could have many (or most) of your customers on direct debit, so that each week/month you have a steady stream of predictable income.

Many now will be thinking, “I can’t do that, my product isn’t right”. Well some products may not be right, but here is where we have to think outside the box.

The predictable businesses for this type of income are those who’s customers pay the same amount each week/month, such as personal trainers, web hosting companies, etc.

But if we do think outside the box you might find that you are able to do it in your business and at the same time, generate extra income for your business. For instance my dentist phones me every six months to remind me that it’s time for a checkup. Now, I’m sure you’ll understand that going to the dentist isn’t my favourite pastime. So do I call them straight back to make that appointment? No, you bet I don’t! It does cross my mind every now and then because I know that it’s something that I need to do. But if the dentist was charging me up front for that checkup do you think I might have returned that call to make the appointment. Most probably!  Do you think the dentist might have been doing me a favour to have me on direct debit. Most probably, because by now I would have had the checkup!

There are many companies who telemarket their previous customers every so often to see if they require their services again. A few that I can think of are carpet cleaners and pest control companies. They tend to call on a regular basis, but think of how much easier it would be for them if they set the client up on direct debit when they did the previous service so that every six months the customer was automatically paying for the service. It’s like automatic sales, and that’s cool!

Some of the business categories that could use direct debit include

• childcare
• clubs
• gyms
• music teachers
• gardeners
• home maintenance
• web designers
• pure water suppliers
• martial arts studio
• storage
• security
• dental procedures
• property management
• telecommunication
• dance studios
• internet service provider

In our business we have a number of customers on direct debit from those who pay for monthly webhosting, we have customers who are members of our membership site, The Ask Natalie Academy, plus we have customers who we coach in social media who are on regular payments. It’s easy. You just have to set it up once, then it’s done.

We’ve found it to be a more efficient way to manage our income, it improves our productivity and alleviates the need to chase unpaid invoices.

We use paymenthub.com.au and have found them to be excellent.

We’d love to know your thoughts on this and how you collect money in your business.