Money in your hands is better than money in someone else’s hands, right? Yes, that’s right, and it works on both accounts. It’s better to have your customer’s money in your hands than in theirs, and it is better to keep your money in your hands than give it to your vendors, though both parties would disagree with you if they’re being honest.

If you haven’t delivered the product or performed the work for your customer yet , you need the money to provide the up-front labor or ship the product out. If you have the product already on your shelf, then you may have already paid the vendors and your employees who produced it. Time for the customer to pay up. Don’t be shy about asking for money up front. Anytime you don’t, you are in effect giving the customer an interest-free loan. You can do that if you want. It can be a value-added marketing strategy if you are well-capitalized enough to loan customers money. But if you aren’t, get paid.

Accounts Receivable. Do you have any of those? Those are customers who have taken your product or service but haven’t paid. If you have some of those, get their money as soon as you can. Money in their pocket does nothing for your survival or your ability to pay your accounts payable, the money you owe to someone else. I had a client once who was always robbing Peter to pay Paul to make payroll, while she had more than $25K in accounts receivable in her 30/60/90 days overdue pile!She was afraid to ask for the money she had already earned for work she had already performed because she feared losing these customers. I think losing those customers and replacing them with people who paid on time would only have benefited her. Make the call and recover what is rightfully and legally yours.

Take credit cards. I can’t tell you how many business owners refuse to take credit cards because the bank will take its cut for the transaction. Sure, that 3 to 6 percent can be a little galling, but what expense isn’t galling? However, theses same owners will let a customer owe them money for an already delivered product or service for months! You know how much the credit card company will bill that same customer if they don’t pay for months? A whole lot more than the 6 percent you might need to add to your invoice to cover that customer’s ‘loan’. Let that be the credit card company’s problem, not yours. Raise your prices a tad to account for the ubiquity of credit cards, find a card processer who delivers the best rates, and start getting paid faster. Cash in your pocket is better than cash in your customer’s pocket. The amount of time and heartache you waste in waiting to get paid or dropping checks off to the bank (when you get around to it) is actually silly.

Your vendors want their money, too. You are a customer in their chain, and just like you, they need money. Now, obviously you’d rather have your money in your pocket than theirs just as your customers like to keep hold of their money. So, if you have some vendors who are well capitalized enough to offer 30/60/90 day terms, then by all means, take those terms, but always pay on time, okay? Getting your money on time and paying your bills on time is part of being a professional business owner.