So, now I look like an idiot. Again.
The fact is in business - if you are a boss - you will always look like an idiot. This is your job title now. Business idiot.
The more people between you and the customer, the bigger an idiot you will be. Customers will have questions and you won't have answers, because you have hired people down the chain from you to solve those problems.
They all think you are an idiot too.
One of the things I have noticed in the last few years is the idiotification of business. Credit control is one of those areas. Credit control, is actually quite hard and mostly counter to the way we are bred by society to act. You are asking people for money that they owe you. They might not want to pay. Maybe they are buying stuff to sell for profit, and the difference between profit or loss is the length of time they don't pay you.
A lot of companies begin like this - get terms, run up a big bill, sell things, pay bill. The bigger you are, the less you need to pay, because lawyers are cheaper and your suppliers have less of them. That's how many building magnates got rich and then got richer. Borrow, build, don't pay.
That's definitely a thing. Definitely a way to make profit. In fact profit always comes at somebody else's expense. Exploit your credit, exploit your workers, exploit your customers. That's how to make it big. Piss-in-bottle Bezos gets to do all three, which is why he is considerably richer than everyone.
I'm an idiot. I work for a living. That's what my shoplifters think, the gang of three in yesterday attempting to steal products. They know the police can't touch them, the courts won't punish them, and their gangmaster won't beat them if they steal enough stuff. We used to have a guy whose dad was a ticket tout. We used to chat about how big an idiot I was, because I paid tax and rates and shit like that.
Maybe I am an idiot.
Sometimes we have credit control issues. Everyone got squirrelly about credit limits in lockdown, so our infinite credit limits suddenly became finite. Everyone is happy to buy and sell on credit for profit in the happy times, but nobody likes that during the bad times. Credit control used to be an art, but its less and less so. It relies on businesses prioritising their own bills payable instead of their bills receivable, which nobody does.
I need businesses to send invoices and statements to my finance department. Yes, I have a finance department (its my wife). I need solicitations to go to my buyers. This week we have dealt with a company who has sat waiting for buyers to come to them - it really doesn't work like that. You have to sell yourself and your products and your existence, not hide in the basement behind a sign that says beware of the leopard.
But only an idiot puts themselves forwards, stands up, is counted, volunteers. Only an idiot now sends statements. But only an idiot now pays bills when they don't need to. Only an idiot extends credit in a potentially dangerously unstable economy. Only an idiot takes on more debt.
The thing is, society doesn't function if we are not all idiots. My shoplifters can't exist in a world without shops. There's no vacancy for Mad Max style warboys just right now. Without tax there are no schools, no hospitals, no unemployment. And in order to pay tax - and draw a salary - I need to be a idiot, professionally.
In order to do that I need to hire people to do the jobs I can't do. Leaving money on the table isn't being an idiot, maximising your take isn't being smart.
Communication is the key.
Most peoples accounts packages are automated. When businesses hit credit limit or thirty days it should be simple enough to send a friendly reminder to their finance department. I realise that its an extra step. But asking to be paid should not be a hard conversation. Waiting until a business places their next order? Its trickier. The conversation becomes time sensitive, with everyone racing a deadline and some businesses have extra moving parts. We don't buy stock by credit card over the phone from the carpark any more.
We are professional idiots now.
Hey, when you are an employee your boss is always an idiot. When you are a business you are an idiot for not selling all that Pokemon at trade to make scalpers happy. When you are an artist you are an idiot for not working for exposure.
So I guess I am in good company.