You Must Be Rich, Then!
When a client or a prospective client says to me, “I won’t pursue the money I’m owed”, they often go on to explain their reasons. Here are a few examples: “It isn’t a significant sum”, “It doesn’t matter”, “I don’t want to keep making calls”, or, “It’s a lost cause”. I have been known to respond, “You must be rich, then!”

Obviously, there are people and business owners, even in the world of small and medium-sized businesses, who are indeed rich, or at least well enough off to bear considerable bad debts, money they are owed that they can write off. But they are the exception, not the rule. Whereas the “I won’t pursue” attitude is more common. The real reason for not pursuing money you are owed is more often not one of the ones I have mentioned above. No, the real reasons are more often that chasing money you are owed can appear confrontational, painful, dispiriting, and it often seems a fruitless waste of time as well.
None of that needs to be true. Before I get on to why, consider the impact of giving up on chasing money you are owed. The first impact is the most personal. If you have provided goods or services for an agreed price and you are not paid, it devalues what you do. Feelings such as betrayal, frustration, anger, and loss are hard to take. Another impact is the opportunity cost. Depending on the sums involved, the money you are owed could, if realised, be used to reward your team with a meal or day out, or to buy new hardware or to pay for a service that you need.
Finally, by not pursuing what you are owed, you are sending a signal to the perpetrator that this bad behaviour can have a positive outcome. It encourages them to do the same again, perhaps with you, and certainly with someone else.
The Small Business Commissioner states that, “The late payment culture that exists between businesses in the UK means that, a third of payments to small businesses are late; the average value of each payment is £6,142; 20% of small businesses have run into cash flow problems due to late payments; if small businesses were paid on time, this could boost the economy by an estimated £2.5 billion annually.”
Why encourage the late payment culture by giving up on chasing money that you are owed?

However, I said before that chasing money you are owed can appear confrontational, painful, dispiriting, and it often seems a fruitless waste of time as well. I also said that none of that needs to be true. Why? The simplest solution is to outsource the problem to experts, such as myself and my team. We can handle the task for you in a professional and persistent manner that eliminates the stress of chasing debt yourself. We have an optional ‘white label’ service so that we are seen as part of your business, rather than as an outside agency. Sometimes people in debt need to talk. There’s a dialogue. Something can often be arranged, and sometimes we have recovered money for clients that we thought was unlikely to be achieved.
Sometimes, though, not to pursue Debt Recovery beyond a certain point is the right decision. The key is in knowing just what that certain point is. There is no set rule to follow, but with experience (such as ours) it is possible, at least, to take a well-informed, reasonable decision. One reason is that it becomes clear that there is no reasonable likelihood of recovering money, as, for example, the business being chased simply has no cash and no assets to repay from.
Of course, if you don’t do your best to recover what is yours, or to have it done on your behalf, you may not be rich for long. Do get in touch, and we can advise you on what the best solution is for you, whether it is abandoning the pursuit of what you are owed, using us to do it for you, or doing it better yourself. However, do remember, as it says elsewhere on our website, to try to ‘Turn your debits into credits!’ whenever you can.
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