If someone on the street stopped you and asked you, “what’s the difference between 35 and 55?” what would you say?
Current events might impact your answer.
For example. Are you thinking about the weather?
Today, the temps are far, far below 35 degrees in most areas of the country – in the northern, central and eastern areas – and in the rest of the country, it is below 55, too. If someone actually tried stopping you on the street, you would probably ignore them, and keep on walking.
Weather can have a huge impact on businesses. People want to stay in their cars, they don’t stroll along Main Street and window shop. They don’t want to go out to dinner. They don’t even want to go grocery shopping for “milk, bread and eggs.”
Then, when schools are closed, or delayed, people stop their other normal routines – they have to adjust and maybe they grab a quick meal or coffee at home rather than taking extra time on their way to work. Perhaps they have to stay home, which means they may choose between Leave With Out Pay (LWOP) and taking a vacation day.
Even if this doesn’t affect you, it may affect your staff or your clients and customers – which in turn can impact your business negatively.
Or, maybe you are thinking of the rising expenses impacting your business?
In this case, you may be thinking of the recent increase in the first class postal rate. If you issue paper invoices, but not enough to utilize pre-sort discount rates, you are paying more now that the postage rate went up to 55 cents.
It’s not a lot per piece, but over the course of the year, it can add up and take away from your bottom line.
Perhaps you are thinking of the recent government shut down.
If you are a business who is dependent on SBA lending, the IRS for tax filings, or serve non-essential government personnel – you are thinking that 35 days is a long time. How much more will you be impacted, if it happens again next month?
Numbers like 35 and 55 may not mean a lot at first thought, but diving deeper, they may have more impact that you think.
We can’t help with all of these issues, but we can help…and 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. (Continue reading below for a few ways we can help you reduce expenses and improve revenue flow.)
1. Sorry, but no… We can’t make it warmer; we wish we could.
2. While we can’t lower the cost of postage, we can help you set up a free online portal for your clients to pay an electronic invoice – e-mailed or texted. This can eliminate the need to mail an invoice as well as their need to mail a check, plus the extra time to go to the bank to make deposits once you receive their checks.
And…
3. No, we can’t make the government make it easier for business owners to do business… But we can help you set up budget friendly, automated payment processes. This allows you to help any one of your clients (even if they are not impacted by the recent shut down) with pay over time solutions giving you confidence the revenues will be coming in, on a set schedule.
No need to call to ask for payment, no need to mail a payment plan invoice, and no way to let them forget to pay on time.
Lots of savings there. Right?
Finally. If you ask us what we think of the difference between 35 and 55…well, there are a lot of other answers, too. Call or e-mail us and we can help you work through the questions you have about this topic.