YEA OR NAY?
Granting Credit is not rocket science, it is the art of determining Risks vs. Reward by using common sense to determine who should be trusted with credit and who should pay cash. I liken it to gambling: Would anyone ever go into a casino blindfolded, carrying a wallet full of exposed cash, and NOT expect to be robbed blind? Of course not! There will always be someone who wants easy pickings. Here are some winning strategies to help protect your pockets from being picked!
Use a credit agreement that contains the following information: |
- Legal business name (the name which the company has incorporated under)
- DBA or ‘Doing Business as’ assumed names and trade names
- Affiliated companies
- Physical address where the business is operating
- Mailing address if different from the physical address
- Additional locations
- Principal’s names and titles
- Email addresses
- Phone number
- Cell Phone
- Website
- Federal Tax ID # or FEIN
- References, including trade and bank references
Remember if you are not verifying the facts then you have walked into that casino, blindfolded, hoping not to be a victim. If you verify the details your chances to win the jackpot increase!
Granting credit is a privilege, not a right, so all customers should be required to complete your application. Business people who become lax in this aspect are the ones who routinely gamble on losing hands and then wonder why they left the game broke. Here are some clues to a losing hand!
- Giving credit with a smile and a handshake (verbal agreements)
- Customers who won’t provide information FOR ANY REASON
- Information on the application is not verifiable
- References provided but then you are told you cannot contact them
- Addresses that are either mail drops like a UPS store, and it was stated as a ‘physical address rather than a ‘mail address’
- Addresses that contain high flow of transient tenants or provide ‘virtual space’
- Customers who have been late payers in the past, left to go elsewhere and suddenly come back
- History of prior civil suits, tax liens, or other legal issues
- Newly formed companies with limited assets
- Over encumbered by secured liens (UCC Filings)
Like Kenny Rodger’s famous song the Gambler, you have to know when to fold em’ and know when to hold em’ in order to win the game. Printing Industry Credit Bureau helps Printers stack the deck!