As a freelancer or small business, getting paid on time is essential - being in control of your cash flow sets you up for overall success. Better still, getting paid fast presents even more opportunities to grow your business.
Late payments are a significant issue in the UK for service providers, especially small businesses and freelancers. GOV.UK states that an invoice paid after 30 days is considered late. Since the pandemic, late payments have increased by 22% (Source: Brodmin), with 31% of small businesses in the UK confessing to spending between 21 and 30 hours a month chasing invoices (Source: Natwest).
We understand the challenges of being paid late and the awkwardness of chasing customers for money, particularly whilst maintaining personal client relationships. This is how Payment Bear can help – we offer helpful tools so you can save time and money, improve payment times and grow healthy customer relationships.
Here are our top tips to get paid faster.
Have a simple and straightforward structure
Ensure your invoice is clear to understand and the payment process is easy to use, this will avoid any questions the customer may have. The less back and forth there is between you and your customer, the more likely you will receive payments quickly. Our easy-to-use , customisable digital invoices present your customer with all the information they need and allows them to authorise payment without entering any information themselves.
Invoice straight away
It can be easy to delay creating your invoices, because let’s be honest, it can often be a mundane task, particularly if your current process takes a long time. Send your invoice as soon as the work is completed, whilst at the forefront of the customer’s mind. They’ll be far more likely to pay quickly. Payment Bear offers a user friendly solution enabling you to create and send invoices within minutes. You can also schedule recurring invoices so any repeating invoices can be generated automatically.
Incentivise your customers to pay you quickly
Who doesn’t like a discount? Encourage prompt payments with financial incentives such as discounts for early payments and automated late fees. Payment Bear allows you to apply both to your digital invoice to help speed up customer payments - simply set your terms and we’ll automatically apply them to your invoice totals. You’ll be amazed at how a small cash saving can really help incentivise the invoice being paid fast.
Offer flexible payment options
Being flexible with your payment not only helps get you paid faster but also improves your relationship with your customer. For larger projects across an extended duration, you may want to implement partial payments to allow your customers to pay in instalments. You can set this up in Payment Bear with just a single click.
Additionally, provide a selection of payment methods to cater to a wider range of customers. Invoicing through Payment Bear allows your customer to pay you via Open Banking payments, manual bank transfer or cash.
Send friendly reminders
The reality is sometimes invoices are simply forgotten about. A friendly reminder will often prompt a customer to pay straight away, but it requires you to constantly track your invoices and take time out of your schedule to send a message. Not with Payment Bear! Our automated reminders allow you to pre-set the frequency you would like reminders to be sent, giving you peace of mind that your customers won’t forget to pay you.
Ready to get paid faster? For a simple, hassle-free invoicing experience, sign up to Payment Bear today and see for yourself.
