Elie Kochman on Business and Networking

Most people are well aware of the concept of economy of scale – it’s cheaper to buy the huge box of cereal that could feed a family of 10 for a month than to buy the small box that could feed you and your spouse for two weeks. When you buy a lot, the price per unit is less.

This can apply to business as well. If you have a product that you sell for $10 with a margin of $6, then selling 10 at once would give you a higher margin, since some of your costs would overlap. So your margin might be $65 or $70 in that case.

Unfortunately, it also works in the other direction, and I’ll illustrate with an example (I heard this on a tape of a Jackie Mason show):

My friend bought a new watch, and I asked him how much he paid for it.

“Below cost!” he exclaimed triumphantly.

“Below cost? How does the guy make any money?”

“He sells a lot of watches…”

Sometimes in business this makes sense. A store might offer a product for a price at which they lose money. But the objective there is to get you into the store, where you’ll buy other products at a higher profit.

Sometimes in business this is a sad reality. Take Dale Barker from Hamilton, Ontario, who renovated a building to be a beautiful movie theater. He came on Dragons’ Den last week looking for an investment to add a second screen to his theater. The problem, however, is that he was losing money on the existing theater.

This is a classic case of throwing good money after bad. He had a large debt acquired in order to make the renovations, and was dealing with delinquent tenants. His theater was one of the cheapest in town, despite the extra decor. If he spent more money on adding another screen, he would find himself losing money twice as fast. In other words, his business model was losing him money.

In such cases, where the business is losing money, before acquiring additional investments, you need to take a reality check to see if the model itself is sound. If the model itself is not sound, you need to fix it before giving away part of your business and prolonging the agony.

A while back, I wrote an article about Managing Accounts Receivable, focusing on management from the perspective of growth of a business. In today’s article, I’m going to discuss collections and getting paid for the work you’ve done.

In order to give yourself the best possible chance of being able to collect, you need to ensure that you have a clearly worded contract, in which it is outlined what you are to deliver to the client, the amount to be paid by the client, and how and when that money is due. In case of dispute, such a document will play a crucial role in determining whether or not you can collect your money.

Assuming you have such a document, and the client is not making the proper payments, you should attempt to open communication by asking the client, politely, why the payments have not been made.

It may be an honest error (in one case, the client had assumed an invoice I sent him had been copied to his bookkeeper, when in fact it hadn’t been). In that case, the question regarding payment can be quickly resolved.

It might be an issue of timing – the client was deferring payment for cash flow reasons, and had forgotten to inform me that the payment would be late.

It could be related to cash flow and ability to pay – the client might not have the funds to pay the invoice, and is embarrassed to discuss it. In that case, by opening conversation, you can work out an alternate payment schedule to ensure you get paid.

Last, it could be that the client has no intention of paying. If this is the case, regardless of the reason, you need to look to other options other than merely talking to the client. (You also need to get rid of the client – read my article Firing Customers for more information on that topic.)

First, you can choose to write off the money owed as a loss. While this doesn’t regain any of your money, it does keep you from having to pay taxes on that money, which at least keeps you ahead of any future expenses on that particular account.

Second, you can hand over the funds to a collections agency. The cost here is usually a percentage of the money recouped by the agency, often as high as 50% of the money paid. Going this route is often not worthwhile to small businesses, as it generates very negative views of your business in the eyes of potential clients.

Third, you can sue the client. Here in Ontario, if it’s a relatively small amount (as of this writing, the maximum is $25,000), then you can sue them in Small Claims Court, and you don’t need a lawyer. In this case, you may be given the option of seizing the assets of the client to pay for the amount owed. However, the amount of effort involved is significant, although the direct cost is not, since the client may be ordered to pay the court expenses if you win the case.

Whatever option you choose, and each case needs to be handled on its own, you need to remember to always act professionally, and to assume that every document and e-mail that you handle may end up one day in court. If you treat the client with respect, and give them alternatives to defaulting on payment, you may find it easier to get your invoices paid.

It’s early 2010, about the time that bonuses are paid, and you may be wondering what to do with the extra cash. Hopefully, you weren’t depending on the bonus for your budget, and so you can use it for some of the long-term plans you have.

There are, essentially, three uses you can put the extra cash to:

1. Splurge it on something – it’s extra, you don’t have a long-term plan for the money, so why not enjoy it.
2. Save it – the extra $5,000 might help toward a down payment on a house, or pay for your child’s university.
3. Pay the debt – after all, it costs you to keep that debt around, and if you’re like most people, you don’t like owing other people money.

Now, each person’s situation is unique, and there’s no rule for what to do. However, I’d like to address a reason to save when you might be inclined to pay debt which you may not have thought about.

Assume for the moment that you have a $5,000 balance on a line of credit which you pay 5% interest on, and you just received $5,000. The current rates of return on a GIC are about 2%, which means that by paying off your debt today, you’ll essentially save yourself 3% annually on ridding yourself of that debt today.

However, look at your monthly obligations to that line of credit (and this assumes that you are not continuing to borrow against it). On $5,000 of debt, your minimum monthly payment is probably in the area of $150 to $200. This is already in your budget, and you are already setting aside that money each month.

If you pay off your debt today, you will, in theory, free up that money to invest in a long-term plan. However, saving money is generally not treated as an obligation, while paying a debt is. That means that if you remove this debt from your monthly payments, you are not as likely to put the money into an investment.

For that reason, you may want to consider putting a portion of the bonus into an investment today. Sure, it’s going to cost you 3% to do that, but this way, you’ve managed to save that money, which otherwise might have been spent. If, on the other hand, you can convert your monthly payments for the line of credit into a monthly contribution to an investment, thereby ensuring that you do, in fact, contribute the savings each month, then by all means you should get rid of the balance on your line of credit as quickly as possible.

Cash is king

Of major concern to a significant number of business owners is how to manage their accounts receivable, or, in other words, how to ensure that their clients pay promptly before the accounts payable are due. Before delving into some answers to this question, I’m going to start with a couple examples.

1. Teresa is the owner of a consulting firm that provides custom advice to its clients. She has 9 consultants working for her on various specialty projects. Since Teresa is paying her employees for a standard work-week, she can handle about 400 hours of work per week, less any administrative overhead. If she pays each employee $1000 per week, then she needs $10,000 of revenue coming in each week after her other expenses.
2. James is a sole-proprietor who manufactures clothing. He spends about $5,000 per week in supplies, which he converts into clothes to be sold to various distributors. James has determined that he makes a profit of about $5,000 per week, not including his labor.

In both cases, the issue is that there is a lien on the business owner to satisfy certain fiscal obligations, whether salary or suppliers invoices. Assuming that both Teresa and James planned wisely, they have a small surplus of funds which they use to help with cash flow. However, if either is not careful, they can end up without money in the bank and the debtors calling.

1. Teresa might win a lucrative contract for an additional 40 hours of work per week for 6 months. While this sounds like it’s time to hire another employee, Teresa must remember that the new client is not going to pay until after the work is done (or at least not fully pay until then), meaning that the salary for the new employee is not actually covered by the work they’re doing.
2. James might try to double his volume, but with his distributors paying their invoices 30 days after delivery, James must find a way to balance his suppliers against the delay in the cash flow.

What should be noted, of course, is that in both cases, the problem with cash flow is based on the fact that you owe money today, and are owed money tomorrow. While at the end of the week you’ll have enough money to pay all the bills, what are you going to do today?

Manage Cash Flow Constantly

There are, fortunately, a few options:

• If you plan ahead, then you might be able to build a sufficiently large reserve of funds to allow you to expand at a certain rate. For example, either business owner could set aside 5% of their earnings each week toward expansion, once they’ve paid all their dues. To avoid the temptation to spend it on anything else, place it in a separate account, or, to make it somewhat profitable, put it in a short-term investment such as a 6-month GIC or a Money Market Fund.
• You can get a short-term loan to get you over the initial delay. This will have a cost, but allows you to expand. This may be the best option for someone like James, who has a known debt (the $5,000 in additional supplies) and known accounts receivable ($10,000 from his distributors). Teresa could try this route, but she may have more difficulties with this since a new employee will require a salary for a longer period, and the time until the revenue comes in to pay for the salary is less certain.
• The additional work can be contracted out to a temporary worker. This is specific to service-oriented businesses, in which a temporary employee can come do the work, and issue an invoice when the work is done. While Teresa may end up needing to front money she hasn’t yet received, the length of time she runs at negative cash flow is reduced. Additionally, if Teresa is careful, she can hire someone for a lower fee than her regular employees demand, thus increasing her profit margin in the process.

What both Teresa and James need to be constantly aware of is not only how much revenue is earned over time, but as of this moment, how much is owed, both coming into the business and going out. A well-run business will always try to increase the former while reducing the latter. This knowledge can assist in determining how and when you are able to expand your business to bring it to the next level.