Improving Your Cash Flow by Getting Paid Faster

For Canadian small business owners there's a surefire way to improve your cash flow, reduce your outstanding receivables save trees and mailing costs and overcome the "cheque is in the mail" syndrome.

It's called the e-mail money transfer. This method of payment is reliable, inexpensive and once you've trained your customers to use it, it's an incredibly effective way to get your invoices paid fast.

If you do your banking on-line it's available through all the major banks in Canada and some credit unions. This method of payment is not available internationally. If you don't do your banking on-line then set it up - now! It will be well worth the time for you to do so.

Briefly, here's how it works. You e-mail your invoice to your customer in whichever format you prefer (PDF, Word etc). Your customer receives it, goes to their on-line banking portal and creates an Interac money transfer for the amount of the invoice and e-mails the funds to your e-mail address. No money actually gets e-mailed, this step is more of a notification that funds are pending deposit into your account.

Usually, you receive the notification within 30 minutes or so of it being sent. You simply click on a link within the e-mail and then click on the logo of the financial institution and account that you want the funds deposited to and the money is now in your account.

Wouldn't it be an ideal world if you could collect all your receivables this way? The reality of course is that this is unlikely to happen any time soon but if just half your customers paid you this way, then imagine the improvement in your cash flow!

A word of advice, if you have kids living away from home don't let them know that you know how to e-mail money, otherwise you have no excuse when you get the "I need money" call. Be smart of work. Act dumb at home!

Martin Povey owns buildingyourbusiness.ca and is a business and marketing coach who helps entrepreneurs and small businesses who need focus direction and creative solutions to build their business and achieve their goals. He can be contacted at: martin@buildingyourbusiness.ca or 403-529-9259 or visit http://www.buildingyourbusiness.ca/

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Improving Your Cash Flow by Getting Paid Faster