A short coaching video by Katie McManus (business strategist and money-mindset coach) offering three practical tips for small business owners to get paid on time: (1) collect payment upfront, (2) set up auto-billing systems for retainers (examples: Acuity, Stripe/Square), and (3) stop manually creating and sending PDF invoices. The speaker emphasizes convenience for both client and business and frames these systems as time- and relationship-saving.
Chapters
Here are three things that you want to change. If you're a small business owner and you're struggling to get your clients to pay on time and hi, I help ADHD business owners make more money in less time with fewer distractions. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. Number one is you want to collect payment upfront. And I know this feels weird, especially if you're coming from a world in which you were employed and you were paid after the work was done. But there's a difference between your employer not paying you and being a solopreneur and not getting paid by your clients. Because as an employee, you have recourse against your employer with your clients. You a have to manage that relationship and B oftentimes the amount of money that they owe you, it's really difficult to go after. Like in most states, if it's under $10,000, then it's going to be in small claims court, which means that you have to take all the time out of your own schedule to go and chase down that money. And even if it's over $10,000, it's usually not worth you hiring a lawyer to go and chase after them. And no one wants to have those conversations. So it just works out better to insist that you're paid upfro. If you have clients who are on retainer and so they have to make the same payment every single month, then you do realize that making your client pay an invoice manually every single month is actually making more work for them, right? So make it easier for them. Make it easier for you. Set up an auto bill system like an Acuity or a Striper Square. And believe me, this will save you so much time and heartache. And three, just a reminder, it's not the 90s anymore. Stop manually creating invoices in Word and then sending a PDF. It's just so much work. And it's way more work for your client, who then has to figure out how to, like, write a check and send it to you. Or do these like carrier pigeons, I don't know, what did they do back in the day? And if you don't want to do any of this because you feel weird about setting up these systems in your business, you feel like it's too pushy or too insistent, I want you to think about this. And if you feel weird about any of this, if you feel like it's too pushy or too insistent, I just want to remind you that the alternative is that you're going to have to remind this person over and over and over again that they owe you money. That doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun. And it's actually a great way to make a client relationship go south. So it's just easier to do what I say. And believe me, I am very smart. People pay me a lot of money to have me tell them what to do in their businesses, and I swear this works. And if you found this helpful, please like and follow.
