I don't know about you, but there always seems to be so much to do. Navigating the changing world has become a challenge; every time I turn around, we are creating new policies to cope with the next wave of changes being forced upon us.

As frustrating as Covid 19 is, it has caused us to pivot our business and restructure some of the services we offer to provide a better outcome for our clients. We want to see our clients improve their cash flow and workflow.

You are probably not aware that my team and I run three businesses under the umbrella of the Australe Group. Through BCA Debt, we do debt collection; through Southwest Collections, we work on behalf of finance companies doing repossessions; and through Digital Process Servers, we do Process Serving for law firms and the public.

Each business has various projects on the go, so it is hard to stay on top of what is 'important but not urgent.'

We also see this with some of our clients making changes to how they do business and getting bogged down in the to-do list. Some haven't been affected by the past 18 months, and some have. We are finding that when it comes to looking after cash flow and workflow, there is a lack of systems for some.

When it comes to cash flow, we have identified several blind spots that push this into the urgent but not important.

1. Not looking at the numbers because of the fear of what you may see.
2. Failing to track and audit defaulting customers correctly.
3. Not taking immediate action to follow up with customers.
4. Believing staff is following up, but they are not, or you don't have the right people in place who have the resilience for this job.
5. The owner or manager is trying to do everything themselves and has become overwhelmed.
6. By not following up on defaulting customers, you have set a precedent that they can get away with not paying on time or at all.
7. Finally, and most likely the more accurate than you want to believe. You have enough money in the bank; therefore, following up defaulters is not urgent, yet!

Account management systems are essential because they enable you to thrive, not just survive. Many businesses look at the profit margin but don't put enough importance on cash flow.

Blind spots in systems can be debilitating to the owner of a business. I have found that this is the main pain point for my business. Not having systems in place always impacts the time of the owner, this then flows onto customers, who are either disappointed by poor service or failing to solve their problems.

After being in this industry for nearly 18 years I have come to realise we are not really in the business of debt collection, repossessions, or process serving, we are in the business of solving problems for our clients who have money or workflow problems.

We do this by looking at our client’s systems and helping them identify their blind spots and creating customised solutions.

Call us if you want to know more 1300 136 917