At today’s Inner Circle Conference Call on BootStrapping, one topic that came up was cash flow.  One of our members reported the results of some advice I’d given her a couple of weeks ago.  It seems that she has been billing her clients at the end of the month, after all service had been performed and she was amazed to learn that most companies bill at the beginning of the month.

What Will my Client’s Say? 
I explained that she needed to grab the bull by the horns and just let them know that advance billing is the industry standard.  On top of that, I said, I recommend that she send bills on the 25th of the prior month to get ahead start on cash flow.  I could feel her hesitancy over the phone.

The Results
Well, she reported that she had done as I had suggested and, lo and behold, not one client objected!  It was a real revelation. to her.

Spend Quarters to get Dollars
As my friend Curt often says, "Who wouldn’t spend quarters to get dollars?"  By changing her billing timing she has increased her cash flow and, after looking at how she was printing her bills on her stationery instead of a less expensive printout,  she realized that she could save $2.75 on each statement.  Now follow my math please.  Let’s say she is sending out 100 bills per month. 

That’s a savings of $275.00 per month, twelve times per year, or $3,300 per year.  Far less than Inner Circle dues. 

Yep, quarters for dollars.  Not a bad deal.  Check out what the Inner Circle can do for you.