Unclaimed Children’s Tax Allowance for 2002/3 (Not Too Late!)

Further to my previous post at the end of last year, about the little known but genuine “unclaimed children’s tax allowance for 2002/3″, I wanted to let you know that it’s not too late to claim yours…..you could be entitled to £520 per child. This is different to and seperate from your child benefit payments.

The deadline is 31st January 2009 and all you need to do to get the info is click this link >>>To find out how you can claim YOUR unclaimed children’s tax allowance for 2002/3.

It’s free money, you are entitled to it, and boy, will that come in handy for this month after the Christmas expenses eh?

Get all the info you need to claim yours here >>>

30 Days To Neverland (Cheque In The Post)

One of the biggest challenges facing smaller and start up businesses is the issue of when and how to ask for payment after the sale has been made.

And when and how to chase an invoice when it’s overdue is another awful dilemma to be faced with.  Most companies are started by entrepreneurs and they usually have more sales or techie skills than admin or finance chops.

Judith always says that an accountancy business was the worst for this; you do all the work, and present your invoice, which often arrives just after the bad news that the company is not doing as well as it could, or the tax bill is higher than expected or planned for.

One of my favourite bank managers once told me, when I asked him what one thing did he think I needed to know that possibly I didn’t know, that he had seen many highly profitable businesses fail due to bad cashflow management and defaulting creditors.  So I went on a hunt to find the best way to manage cashflow and that turned out to be a simple excel spreadsheet, given to me by Greg Ballard.

The Money Gym got around this issue in the very early days by making the decision to only accept customers if they pay up front (and offering an incentive for them to do so) and then we made that conversation very easy for us and our customers by putting all our payment conditions on our website – unusual for a coaching company in those days – and by only taking payment online.

But we know, from talking to our business orientated Money Gym Gold clients that sometimes that is so far outside the industry “norm” that it’s unfeasible.  Also, I’ve just been taken on by Pampers as their official wealth coach, and their PR company will not consider payment in advance of my fulfilling my new duties.  But you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be all over my invoices like a rash especially in the early days!  I value my time too much.

One option that is often recommended is to consider a factoring or invoicing discounting company, but this is often seen as a last resort, and is not ideal, as many organisations will now not deal with them.

A different approach was brought to my attention by the excellent ezine sent out by Mike Southon, The Beermat Entrepreneur, which mentioned Cashflow Protector from the Cashew Group. Marketing Director Alan Smith says that the problem is that most sole traders and small businesses do not have the patience or skill set to chase their unpaid invoices in an organised way.

Cashflow Protector offers a web-based service enabling you to register your unpaid invoices on-line, and then for a low monthly subscription rather than a percentage of the invoice value, they will chase your invoices for you. Smith claims a 97% success rate for their customers. Cashew Group also offers legal cover to protect against the very bad payers.

You can find out more at http://www.cashewgroup.com – this is not a recommendation as we haven’t had personal experience ourselves, but it looks like a great resource for business people.  Do come back and use the comments box on this blog posting to let us know what you think, if you use them.

Freelance & Taking PayPal Payments?

If you are supplying a service such as coaching or website design, you urgently need to read this article! Cara Williams sounds a note of caution…..she says:

“I’m a freelance web designer and I recently had an experience with a client using PayPal as a payment method which I think more freelancers need to be aware of.

Mistake #1: I didn’t research my client.

In February last year, a potential client emailed me and said he’d seen my site in a CSS design showcase and asked me to quote for a project he had. I spent a lot of time helping him through the jargon and helping him lay a good foundation for a successful web project by defining his ideas of what he wanted the site to achieve. After lots of the usual emails back and forth, he then abruptly emailed and said “This is on hold sorry”. He disappeared for a couple of months and then made contact again only after he said he’d “wasted 4 weeks with the last designer”. Now I know obviously this should have sent a few alarm bells ringing, and with hindsight being 20/20, I should have questioned and done a bit of research on this client before I made the decision to accept the job.

Mistake #2: I accepted credit card payments via PayPal.

As the client was in New York and I was in Brisbane, Australia, I thought I’d better be cautious let him know up front that I’ll require payment at regular intervals. First, a small deposit up-front, then only at key stages when work has been completed and approved. I chose PayPal as the payment method for as an easy and secure way of transferring the funds internationally…..

READ MORE HERE >>>