Category Archive: Cashflow

When should I raise my invoice? Why does it matter?

A question I sometimes get asked by my clients is “when is the best time to raise an invoice” and it can vary from client to client, depending on the type of business and the terms in their contract. Ideally, an invoice should be raised as soon as your customer wants your product or service […]

How long does an average company take to pay an invoice?

Even though you could send the same invoice for the same product or service to two different companies you’ll probably find one of the companies pays you quicker than the other. You might find one company pays up front and extracting money from the other company is like squeezing water from a stone. Overall there […]

What you can do instead of offering a free trial

What do you do when you’ve got a new customer and they want to try your product or service before paying? Do you offer them free samples or a free trial? You might want to let them try your product or service for a 7 day trial, or a 30 day trial and make sure […]

What is a Written Word Agreement?

A written word agreement is exactly what it sounds like, it’s writing down things you have agreed verbally between yourself and your client. There’s the saying, “the pen is mightier than the sword” and this is especially true in business where things that have been agreed and written down will stand up if ever there […]

Why should you have terms and conditions in place?

Why do I need T’s and C’s? Every company needs some form of agreement to provide a product or service to a customer. These are usually called Terms and Conditions however you may see them called Terms of Use, Terms of Reference or Terms of Acceptance, which generally mean the same thing. They’re all documents […]

Can I update my existing terms?

As a business owner or employee, from time to time you might need to change your terms of business and/or the contract your clients agree to when they are using your products and services. This might be because: You want to change your payment terms, e.g. from a one-off payment to monthly billing. You want […]

Is your contract delaying your ability to raise an invoice?

This is an interesting question to answer as it doesn’t apply to all businesses and obviously doesn’t apply when payment is taken up front. However, there are some cases where you’ll provide a product or service to a client but for various reasons, you can’t invoice them straight away, this is normally because there’s something […]

DIY Terms: 6 Things to check before writing your own terms

Having Terms is a key part of your business and while I’d always recommend you get them professionally written, I know there are a lot of businesses, often start-ups, who copy and paste their Terms from other companies. It’s absolutely fine to write your own Terms, but here are 6 things to be aware of: […]

How Much Does A Contract Cost?

The cost of a contract can vary from company to company. It depends what clauses you want to include, what laws apply to your company, what you want your contract to cover and how you intend to use it. What are you paying for? When pricing a contract, you’re paying for consultation time, knowledge and […]

Are you getting a percent of money up front? If not, why not?

They say “Cashflow is King” and it can really help to get some, or all, of your money up front from your customers. This means you can run your own company smoothly, without worrying where the next penny is coming from. It’ll make life less stressful and allow you to focus on what you do […]