Are Debtors Costing You Money?

 

A business can have great profitability as traditionally measured, but also have simultaneously great cash flow problems and this is often the prime reason for business failure. We find it interesting that many businesses with cash flow problems devote a lot of energy to increasing sales but pay little attention to the other factors impacting on cash flow such as waste, rostering inefficiencies, stock control and debtor control.

 

Debtors are those customers who owe you money and debtor control is of critical importance in running a business. Greater effort to increase sales often results in more liberal credit arrangements being extended to customers, leading to increased cash flow problems when sales increase. Businesses that achieve increased sales but at the same time increase their overdraft, would be aware of this problem. It seems counter-intuitive but sadly it is often true.

 

While your debtors are an asset, the greater the time these debtors take to pay you, the greater is the likelihood of you having ongoing cash flow problems. The bottom line is that effective debtor control needs to be viewed as fundamental to business success.

 

Many people do not enjoy involvement in debtor control because it has unpleasant connotations. If it is integrated into you regular customer contact program however it can add to the quality of the customer relationship and increase the likelihood of regular prompt payments. If you are not already doing so, you can make a start by:

 

• Ensuring that you have the facility to run and interrogate debtor reports regularly.
• Being disciplined in designating times and responsibilities for debtor control.
• Designing a debtor contact strategy that takes into consideration the amount owed, the period the debt has been outstanding, the value of the client, the form of contact and the person responsible for making contact.
• Designing customer contact scripts to ensure that all issues are covered and that the required message is conveyed.

Try this strategy – You may still have a section of your invoices devoted to notification of outstanding amounts over 30, 60, 90 and even 120+ days. What you are doing is building in an extended credit facility by signalling to your customers that it is OK not to pay immediately because you will tolerate late payment. If they never get a call from you before 90 days then you can be sure that they will be using their available funds to pay those creditors who are more systematic and assertive in ensuring that overdue accounts are addressed appropriately.

 

First insert a ‘due by’ date and remove the 30 day, 60 day etc columns on your invoices. Replace them with a single overdue or outstanding column. Match this strategy with a client notification and contact process when overdue amounts exceed 30 days. You already have an investment in your debtors, you may need to invest more effort into ensuring that your asset is realised within your set terms of trade.

The Recruitment Process

When business owners decide to employ someone, they often pay little attention to the
importance of having as objective a recruitment process as possible.

Commonly, the following happens:

• Advertisement is placed

• Resume’s received and checked

• Those with the best experience invited for in an interview

• Employ the person who has the most experience and you like the most

As an interviewer, you unknowingly filter the candidate to your own subconscious likes,
dislikes & prejudices. And as any top marketing expert will tell you, we make decisions
emotionally and justify them logically.

The fact is, past experience is not a very good indicator of future performance but past
behaviour IS. There are many people in the workforce who are well qualified but do not
actually like what they do. Add to this their personality, which may cause problems with
existing staff.

There is a better way that will dramatically increase your chances of making the right
choice first time.

What you are looking for is evidence of not only qualifications and experience but also
behaviours that will suit the position. Doing this in as objective a way as possible can
make the recruitment process much more predictable and successful.

You might want to call me to find out how The Productivity Coach Recruitment Process can be
applied to your business, it may well save you a fortune.

Hiring Great Staff For More Productivity

Many businesses have huge problems when it comes to hiring quality staff they can trust. The one thing owners don’t realise they need is a comprehensive system that will weed out the potential problem employee BEFORE  the REAL EXPENSE kicks in.

James explains more in this short two and a half minute video.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

The Productivity Coach

Extraordinary Results for Professional and Personal Freedom

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P:      0421 210444

How To Be More Productive

In terms of productivity, there are many contributing factors that help people produce consistent excellent results. James explains some of them in this short video.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

The Productivity Coach

Extraordinary Results for Professional and Personal Freedom

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P:      0421 210444

Maslow and Productivity

I f you spend time wondering why you do what you do and for what purpose, have a good look through this article, it may surprise you.

Many of us are pursuing activities that directly or indirectly we hope will take us to new levels of fulfilment. But how can we set ourselves up to achieve fulfilment in our chosen field, and in our lives generally?

Fulfilment might also be called Self-Actualisation or expressing one’s full potential. According to Abraham Maslow (American psychologist whose theories have been influential in 20th century thought), it is intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what the organism is.

Maslow believed we have a hierarchy of needs, beginning with (a) basic needs for food, shelter, then (b) needs for safety and security, (c) needs for love and belonging, (d) the need for self esteem, and (e) the need for self-actualisation. We cannot meet the higher-order needs until the lower ones are met. A hungry or fearful person will not recognise yet their need for self actualisation.

How do we characterise Self-Actualised (SA) people?

* Generally they are realistically oriented with an efficient perception of reality extending into all areas of their life. SA persons are unthreatened and unfrightened by the unknown. They usually have a superior ability to reason, to see the truth.

* SA people accept themselves, others and the natural world the way they are. They see human nature as is, have rid themselves of crippling guilt or shame, enjoy themselves without regret or apology, and have no unnecessary inhibitions.

* Spontaneous in their inner life, thoughts and impulses, SA people are unhampered by convention. Their ethics is autonomous, they are individuals, and are motivated towards continual improvement.

* Focus on problems outside themselves. SA people tend to have a mission in life requiring much energy, and their mission is their reason for existence. They are usually serene and worry-free as they pursue their mission with unshakeable determination.

* Detachment, the need for privacy. Alone but not lonely, unflappable, retain dignity amid confusion and personal misfortunes, objective. SA people are self starters, responsible for themselves, own their behaviour.

* Autonomous, independent of culture and environment. SA’s rely on inner self for satisfaction. Resilient and stable in the face of hard knocks, they are self contained, independent from love and respect of others.

* Freshness of appreciation. Have a fresh rather than stereotyped appreciation of people and things. Moment to moment living is thrilling, transcending and spiritual. SA’s live the present moment to the fullest.

* Peak experiences. “Feelings of limitless horizons opening up to the vision, the feeling of being simultaneously more powerful and also more helpless than one ever was before, the feeling of ecstasy and wonder and awe, the loss of placement in time and space with, finally, the conviction that something extremely important and valuable had happened, so that the subject was to some extent transformed and strengthened even in his daily life by such experiences.” Abraham Maslow.

Eight Ways To Self Actualize

Work towards meeting and satisfying the lower-order needs (food, shelter, then safety and security, then love and belonging, and then self esteem). Once you have done this, and I acknowledge that it may be difficult and time-consuming, you will be able to make progress with the following:

1. Experience things fully, vividly, selflessly. Throw yourself into the experiencing of something: concentrate on it fully, let it totally absorb you.
 

2. Life is a moment-by-moment choice between safety (out of fear and need for defence) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth): Consciously make the growth choice many times a day.
 

3. Let your true self emerge. Try to go beyond socially-defined modes of thinking and feeling, let your inner experience tell you what you truly feel.
 

4. When in doubt, be honest. It may take some courage, but look honestly at yourself and take responsibility for who you are and what happens to you. Self-delusion is the enemy of self-actualisation.
 

5. Listen to your own tastes. Be prepared to be unpopular if necessary.

6. Use your intelligence, work to do well the things you want to do, no matter how insignificant they seem.

7. Make peak experiencing more likely: get rid of illusions and false notions. Learn what you are good at and conversely what you are not good at.

8. Know thyself. Who are you? What are you? What is good and what is bad for you? Where you are going? What is your mission?

Opening yourself up to yourself in this way means recognising one’s defences–and then finding the courage to give them up.

Good luck,

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

The Productivity Coach

Extraordinary Results for Professional and Personal Freedom

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P:      0421 210 444

Changing The Brain For Better Productivity

Why Is Change Hard To Achieve?

The latest research in neuroscience confirms what we have already learned, that is, our brains are hardwired to resist change.

That’s the bad news…

The good news is that this hardwiring can be changed and there are specific ways to do this.

The brain is very good at making connections, it does it by literally hardwiring itself. When repeated and reinforced over time, these connections become very strong. Most of them support us in living our daily lives in things like walking, talking, driving a car etc.

Limited Memory

Because we only have a very limited amount of working memory, these regular tasks are done by the subconscious. Who hasn’t driven home on occasion when tired and couldn’t remember the drive home?

It is built to detect changes and is constantly dividing, comparing, contrasting and differentiating everything it comes across. Again, most of it done under the surface, subconsciously.

We know that these automatic and programmed actions and thoughts serve us well in most cases but some do not and can cause common problems such as self sabotage, procrastination, relationship issues and many others.

What Can I Do About It?

That’s great to know, but what can you do about unhelpful programmed hardwiring?

Well, as I mentioned earlier the brain is constantly hardwiring everything it can, good or bad, and it usually sees change as a threat, especially as you get older. Trying to remove unhelpful habits, beliefs etc. can be extremely hard work and can take years to achieve.

Making new connections however, is relatively easy to do but it is not so easy by yourself. How many people (maybe even you) have read the books, attended the seminars, know the theory yet still resist taking real action?

Gaining new insights and developing your focus on where you are going rather than what is wrong is best done by working with someone else, like as an experienced coach who is familiar with these principles and has a proven methodology for effective behaviour change.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

The Productivity Coach

Extraordinary Results for Professional and Personal Freedom

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Neural Maps

Neural Maps

In terms of productivity, developing new attitudes, behaviours and habits are not only desirable, they are essential.

They are necessary because without them you won’t be able to function effectively. Most routine things you do are done on “autopilot”, like driving your car, cleaning your teeth, doing your job etc.

As a human being you (along with everyone else) constantly:

•    Make connections in your brain

•    Divide things into pair of opposites (such as good, bad, right wrong)

•    Look for coincidences

•    Compare & contrast

•    Differentiate

•    Make meaning out of the connections you make

What you are doing is making new neural pathways in your brain and strengthening existing ones. These maps show up in areas such as skills, habits, opinions and beliefs.

Sadly, as I see it, most people seem to live their whole lives unconsciously, totally conditioned by family, peers, marketers, advertisers and propaganda. They don’t have an original thought; everything they think is thrown up habitually by their subconscious minds, some of it dysfunctional.

Does Intelligence Matter?

But no matter how much you improve the processing power of your “human computer” there is still the matter of the “data set” with which it views the world.

Put another way, the data on your “human hard drive” determines to a large extent how you interpret “new data.”

Or simpler still: depending on your experience of life up to this point, how you react to new experiences can differ radically.

For example, a man having been rejected by a woman may perceive that moment as humorous or devastating.

A woman may perceive the apparent sexual advances of a man as threatening or flattering.

A speaker may perceive laughter as his audience laughing with him – or at him.

Why?

Same stimuli + different perceptual instruments + unique neural map = different data”

“Neural map” refers to our best understanding of neuroscience to date: neural networking.

The human mind can be viewed as a complex network of data and connections between those data. (Warning: colossal understatement follows.)

In relation to your well-being, the data matters and the connections matter.

These connections are a complex web of different sensations, feelings and beliefs and actions.

Which neural maps may be hindering your productivity?

Why not create new, more empowering ones?

If you liked this article, why not share it via your favourite social media site by clicking on one of the links below?

How to Reduce Stress

What Causes Stress?

We’ve all heard of common solutions to relieving stress. Things like meditation, breathing, diet, exercise and positive thinking all come readily to mind.

Bridging the gap between our western attitude to life focussed on material wealth and an eastern or traditional approach to life centred on our beingness for me is a real key.

Our society today promotes the myth that striving to be more, producing more and having more will ultimately solve our problems and make us happy.

Anything less we are led to believe makes us a failure. Add to that the information overload we all suffer from, it’s no wonder many people suffer from stress, depression, frustration and addictions.

A quick look at health statistics, mental and physical will readily confirm these assertions.

What is Success?

So how do you measure this thing called success? I think before we can measure it we need to define it. It means different things to different people. One of my favourite definitions is:

Progressive Realisation of Worthwhile Pre-Determined Personal Goals.

Coming from this perspective, the enjoyment is in what you do on the way to the achieving of the goal. In a way, the actual goal becomes secondary to the unspoken real goal which is self actualisation.

How do you know when you’ve made it? We are conditioned, it appears, to always view ourselves as somehow inadequate, not quite making the grade, and so we continue to strive to improve ourselves, to work even harder in order to get better results, accumulate wealth, material possessions or even enlightenment.

It’s struggle that we are sure to lose. But every day we repeat the same pattern, unconsciously striving for whatever it is we think will make us complete.

The reality is, you’ll never make it, you ARE it. You just aren’t aware of it yet.

Be Happy Anyway

It’s a big trap most fall into and in this respect we are like Sisyphus who, in ancient Greek mythology, was doomed forever in Hades to push a rock up a hill. He would nearly make it to the top when the effort would overtake him so he and the rock would roll all the way down to the bottom. He’d then have to start the whole futile exercise over again, with inevitably the same result.

It is all too easy to get caught up in and overwhelmed by the demands we put on ourselves that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that “Things” don’t make us happy.

Now, please understand there is absolutely nothing wrong with setting goals for anything. We , as human beings thrive on it. It’s the dysfunctional subconscious patterns, habits and beliefs that distort the whole process.

Why not be fundamentally happy anyway, BEFORE and DURING your quest, rather than putting unrealistic and impossible to meet conditions on yourself and those around you? Your sense of self worth stays with you regardless of what happens.

If you liked this article, why not share it via your favourite social media site by clicking on one of the links below?

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Conditioning and Productivity

I was thinking the other day on the different factors that help people produce consistently good results on a day to day basis so I created the following video to explain in simple terms how this happens and more importantly, what to do about it.

 

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Self Esteem

This is the fourth post (part 1, part 2, part 3) on how success and productivity can be stymied by emotional reactiveness.

“When you become immobilized by what anybody else thinks of you, what you are saying is that someone else’s opinion of you is more important than your own opinion of yourself.” Dr. Wayne Dyer

I remember being at a function and being introduced to somebody who seemed to look down on me. I sensed sarcasm and that this person felt they were superior.

My feelings were a mixture of feeling inferior and being angry.

Looking Through the Mirror

Looking back on the incident using the mirror it is clear that again, I was seeing something in a person that I did not like about myself. That is, I sometimes behaved in the same way towards other people I considered inferior to me.

Dropping the need to judge others has been a wonderful release for me as I am learning to be more accepting of myself.

Because I have given up blaming people, which is a very destructive form of judgement, I no longer feel the need to forgive anybody for anything. That does not mean I cannot hold them accountable for their actions – I can.

What it does mean is that if I don’t assign blame, I accept that what is, IS. There is nothing and nobody TO forgive.

Looking through the eyes of the mirror I can see that their pain is my pain. They are stuck in their own stuff just as I was. If you are like most other people then you are probably much harder and more judgmental on yourself than you could ever be towards anybody else.

Lunacy

Imagine meeting somebody whom you instantly dislike because you consider them arrogant. The other person sees the same in you and an argument starts over something trivial.

Then you have the sight of two people having a go at each other when all they are really doing is having a go at themselves.

It is bizarre and funny looking at it from this angle but that is what happens.

Does something similar happen to you occasionally? If you feel like you need some help why not give me call on 0421 210 444 anytime. It won’t cost you a thing to find out if I can help.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

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