{"id":4225,"date":"2018-12-17T11:52:17","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T11:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/?p=4225"},"modified":"2023-08-14T20:32:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T20:32:33","slug":"ebeneezer-scrooge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/ebeneezer-scrooge\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebeneezer Scrooge"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row type=”vc_default” equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]Did you know:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>that Ebeneezer Scrooge had been sorely and wrongfully\u00a0maligned by those around him as a grumpy, mean, miser when in-fact he\u00a0became an unpleasant person as a direct consequence of his customers\u00a0repeated non-payment of invoices which ultimately caused him severe\u00a0financial distress? He was forced to chase each and every shilling\u00a0just so he could buy the slivers of coal he then gingerly rationed so\u00a0everyone had enough to survive the winter.\u00a0 Did anyone ever thank him\u00a0for his thoughtfulness? Of course not! Instead, they all complained about how\u00a0cold THEY were, and they never, ever considering Scrooge’s age.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Bob Cratchets\u2019 of the world could always spin believable and\u00a0convenient excuses as to why they needed more time to pay their bills,\u00a0like the \u2018Tiny Tim\u2019 tale\u2026\u2026oh, how the townspeople showered the\u00a0Cratchets \u00a0with praise and sympathy while further vilifying poor\u00a0Ebeneezer for his \u2018lack of helping the poor\u2019. Only Scrooge knew the\u00a0truth that if things did not change he was destined for the poor house, or debtor\u2019s prison, and that all of\u00a0Cratchet\u2019s stories were simply full of bah-humbug.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”4227″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I ask you: Wouldn’t your customer’s lack of timely payments give you\u00a0heartburn,\u00a0and if the malady was bad enough wouldn’t it cause you to\u00a0hallucinate and see ghoulish figments of your imagination? Well, poor\u00a0Ebeneezer did suffer from horrible indigestion as we learned from\u00a0Dickens’s. He explained Scrooge’s malady as a manifestation of stress,\u00a0complicated by his daily diet of gruel. Yet, as tormented and ill as\u00a0he was, Ebeneezer never complained about ‘HIS’ lot in life. No one knew\u00a0he could ill afford more than his daily dish of mush. He was\u00a0constantly worried that his customer’s poor payment habits were\u00a0destroying the business he and Jacob built. No one cared about\u00a0Ebeneezer, not even his silly simpleton of a nephew.<\/p>\n

Was Scrooge’s worsening financial situation the real cause behind his\u00a0recurring nightmares? Was he haunted and tormented by ghosts who would\u00a0force him to jump from his bedroom window telling him to ‘fly’ due to\u00a0non-paying accounts?\u00a0 They dragged him about London wearing nothing\u00a0but his threadbare underwear to warm him from the frigid December\u00a0night air. These apparitions of stale bread and bad mustard never\u00a0considered Scrooge’s age or frailness. Cold and tired, these ghoulish\u00a0fiends forced Ebeneezer to face and revisit painful memories of what he\u00a0always considered his personal failures. These were the unfortunate\u00a0tragedies that made him a lonely and sad man rather than a mean and\u00a0miserly man. But did his tormentors ever care?!<\/p>\n

The worst nightmare, the one that finally broke poor Scrooge’s flimsy\u00a0hold onto sanity, was the one whereby a Ghost of his future appeared\u00a0by his bedside. This phantom epitomized fear; a mere glimpse could\u00a0make a stable person cringe in horror, Scrooge cowered in fear as this\u00a0malevolent manifestation of his tortured soul forced him to go into a\u00a0fog-enshrouded graveyard. The specter pointed to a freshly dug grave\u00a0marked ‘Hereby lies Ebeneezer Scrooge.’ There were no ‘in loving\u00a0memories’ or flowers or any other niceties. Just a cold and damp\u00a0grave awaited this hardworking man. In a menacing voice, IT told\u00a0Scrooge that this was his future if he did not change. The ghost’s\u00a0declaration validated all of Scrooge’s worst fears. All the ills were\u00a0his fault …….not the fault of all those deadbeats that stiffed him and\u00a0caused him to be misjudged and maligned in the first place……..
\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

DON\u2019T GET SCROOGED!<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Past Habits Must Be Considered Prior To Granting Credit Terms<\/li>\n
  • Ask references for their experience with the customer<\/li>\n
  • Determine how much of a credit line they provided, and<\/li>\n
  • Ask for the \u2018average days\u2019 in which customer paid invoices. Were they within the required terms?<\/li>\n
  • Are there known problems of late payment?<\/li>\n
  • Was the customer previously placed for collection, or sued for non-payment?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Present Trends and Events Can Effect Payments<\/h2>\n
      \n
    • Regional events, such as hurricane Sandy, will cause delays and\u00a0should be budgeted accordingly<\/li>\n
    • Strategically plan with seasonal businesses to protect profits from the \u2018down times\u2019<\/li>\n
    • Newly formed businesses are higher risk,<\/li>\n
    • Terms should be considered based upon known viability & stability<\/li>\n
    • Granting credit is lending money. You should never loan more than\u00a0you can afford<\/li>\n
    • Terms should only be extended based upon your ability, not the customer\u2019s wants or need<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Future Sales Promised Or Anticipated Are Insufficient Cause For Granting Credit<\/strong>
      \nThe past is the best predictor as to what can be expected in the\u00a0future.\u00a0 If the past and present are not part of the \u2018credit equation\u2019\u00a0your future may include nightmarish incarnations of \u2018would of\u2019s,\u00a0should of\u2019s, & could of\u2019s. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2018[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”4234″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      [vc_row type=”vc_default” equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]Did you know:\u00a0that Ebeneezer Scrooge had been sorely and wrongfully\u00a0maligned by those around him as a grumpy, mean, miser when in-fact he\u00a0became an unpleasant person as a direct consequence of his customers\u00a0repeated non-payment of invoices which ultimately caused him severe\u00a0financial distress? He was forced to chase each and every shilling\u00a0just so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4225"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9680,"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions\/9680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picb-us.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}