030 - Get Paid with Jan Reeves
Do you struggle to collect payments that you’re owed? In our interview with Jan Reeves, author of “Get Paid!: 5 Steps of Getting Your Invoices Paid Every time, On Time,” we discuss her secret to ensuring your business doesn’t encounter avoidable Cashflow problems. To ensure you’re fully earning what you deserve and to hear what could happen if you keep letting things “slide,” listen now.
Show Notes
Who is Jan? (1:32)
Shocking statistics and common invoice errors (2:27)
Myths around accounts receivable and payments (5:15)
How Jan ensures and monitors outstanding invoices (13:20)
Why we need to celebrate invoices and not just sales (18:20)
What actually happens if an invoice doesn’t get paid (23:00)
Step #1: Creating a Perfect, error-free, invoice (28:41)
Step #2: Keeping in touch with the customer and building relationships (31:31)
Step #3: Feeling Confident About Asking for Payment (38:14)
Step #4: Knowing exactly what to say and being clear (42:38)
Step #5: Red Flags (46:35)
Controlling and managing extenuating circumstances or agreements, not just expecting them to work out (53:00)
What happens if you don’t have time to look at accounts receivable every day (54:00)
How to date and give deadlines on your invoices (1:05:00)
Quotable Moments
“40% of all assets owned by businesses in the U.S are accounts receivable, that’s real estate equipment inventory, 40%” (2:27)
“Companies will typically have 2-3x last year’s annual earnings loaned out at any point in time to customers” (3:05)
“Almost 50% of invoices are sent out from a business with an error (3:54)
“People buy from people that they like, people like to pay people that they like” (17:00)
“If you want to recover the $4,500 invoice that you won’t be paid, you’ve got to sell $45,000 to get the $,500 back” (25:11)
“When talking about profit margins- 10% seemed to be excellent. Most hobble along at 3-4% and then mine was 24% (34:37)
“If I had a customer that suddenly didn’t want to pay those terms, then that was a red flag for me. Because again, they weren’t valuing what we did as a business” (51:40)
“You have to have confidence. You are not the servant of your customer. You’re a partner, you’re a partner with your customer” (53:10)
“Sometimes suppliers send out invoices and think they’re absolved from responsibility and suddenly believe it is their customers' issue. This is our problem- these are our invoices and this is our money that we’ve sort of lent in good faith” (58:30)
“A lot of my clients have more than double their last year’s profit loaned out at any time” (1:07:46)
Resources
For more invoicing and professional development advice from Jan, head here: https://janreeves.com/
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