Increase Your Cash Flow A.S.A.P. With One Call

Photo by Lin Mei on Unsplash

In the early 2000s, the company where I was a partner had its largest accounts in Japan. At one point, we licensed eighteen stores spread across the country, mostly in Tokyo. There were men’s stores and women’s stores licensed to two different manufacturers/distributors.

When my children were young, I never went to Japan because I didn’t want to leave them for any length of time. However, as they aged, I started going there for various management duties.

I loved Japan. I always stayed in the Excel Hotel in the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo. At that time, there was only one employee in the hotel who spoke English, a concierge. I spoke little to no Japanese other than the basics of good morning and thank you. That poor concierge must have been ecstatic when I left, because I hounded him every day for everything: how to catch a taxi, could I walk to Harajuku, where could I exchange money at a decent rate, directions to find and to use the subway system (super easy once you figure it out), restaurant recommendations, buying snacks and water, storing my luggage, catching a train to Kyoto … the list went on.

I remember one particularly sweltering Summer day when it felt like my body was melting into the hot pavement amplified by the mass of humanity in Tokyo. Maybe made worse by jet lag, but by mid-afternoon I couldn’t work anymore. My colleague and I decided to blow off the rest of the day and ducked into a bar. I wore a flimsy dress and flip flops — the lightest outfit in my wardrobe, and we sat next to the window drinking cold Asahi’s (beer) and watched thousands of people rushing here and there as we laughed and schemed about strategy for the new women’s brand we were launching there. That is one of my happiest travel memories.

I mentioned to him that there was a store in Harajuku who had purchased a couple thousand dollars’ worth of clothes and accessories from us and hadn’t paid us. It had been about six or seven months, well past the thirty-day terms we had given them.

He enthusiastically said that we should go collect it, so we paid our bill and flagged down a taxi outside. I showed the driver the address which I had in my bag and we were off.

I don’t know if you’ve ever driven in Tokyo, but it is quite an exercise in creativity and stick-to-itiveness. Even taxi drivers often don’t know where they’re going, and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to how the streets are laid out. This was before GPS, of course, so we just kept trying and going down alleys and backing out of dead ends and laughing along with the driver who kindly waited for us when we finally found our destination, a tiny boutique in a residential area.

I looked at my colleague and we went inside. He spoke basic Japanese and the shop owner spoke a bit of English, and we were able to explain why we were there and that he owed us money. This guy looked like a gangster. His boutique was a street wear skateboard shop and I was more than a wee bit nervous. I gave him my business card and a copy of his invoice. I looked into his eyes and with solemnity told him that he had to pay us.

I waited.

He nodded his head, bowed slightly, and it was obvious that he was embarrassed. He said he would pay. We shook his hand and got back into the waiting taxi (whose driver gave us a discount for his botched navigating, although who could blame him).

The shop sent the money via wire transfer to our bank the next day.

I was proud of myself. For those brief few moments I became a shakedown artist in Tokyo no less. Imagine that. I flew all the way to Tokyo, albeit for other things, but he didn’t know that. I collected $2,000 that was owed to our company. It wasn’t much, but it was the principle of the matter as far as I was concerned.

Collect Your Damn Money
When someone owes you money you should make every effort to collect it.

It can be uncomfortable to call and ask someone for the money they owe. I get it. But you have to force yourself to do it. Give yourself a reward for every call you make.

If you are making the products or providing the services, and the person is not paying you, that is not cool. You deserve to be paid.

If I was willing to take time out of my Tokyo trip to go call on a store to collect the money owed to me, then you should be willing to call (or visit, better yet), the people who owe you money and hound them until you get paid. Then don’t sell to them again unless they have an excellent reason as to why they weren’t paying you.

Collect your money. If you dropped $2,000 on the street, would you stop and pick it up?

You know how I write to not be afraid to get out of the building? How I write to learn to sell? How I write that you should never be afraid to ask your vendors for a better deal, or ask your banker for better terms? This falls into that same category. Don’t be afraid to ask for the money that people owe you.

Also, there’s all kinds of reasons why people don’t pay their bills and they are not always nefarious. Maybe they genuinely lost your invoice. Maybe they were on vacation. Maybe they had an unexpected expense and they’ll pay you the following week and make it up to you. You never know … unless you call them.

Your Checklist:
Write down everyone who owes you money and is late paying you.
Call them and remind them that they are late.
Collect the money.