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Further
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Higher earners enjoy modest house price gains reports Moneynet - Moneynet
Higher earners enjoy modest house price gains reports Moneynet. Slight increase in March property values for higher income homeowners, reports Moneynet. •Overall average property value was £205,518 •The average value of a property for a First Time...
Economic Survival in the 21st Century - the Three Key Questions to ask - Henry To CFA
In this “special report”, I want to pose a few important “philosophical questions” to my readers. Firstly -- our Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, addressed the effects and implications of our aging population on things such as Social...
Achieving financial freedom with Network Marketing on The Internet - Part 10 - Tasos Vasilopoulos
Achieving financial freedom with Network Marketing on The Internet By Tasos Vasilopoulos Part 10 - Time for decisions - Choose a web hosting company Introduction This article makes part of a series of 20 articles. The subject of this series is the...
10 Filler Activities for the Summer Business Slowdown - Kit Lum
Summer is a time for the outdoors, for that well-deserved vacation, and with everyone out and about, it’s also a time that you may notice a slowdown in demand for your products and services. So what can you do during this summer slowdown? Well, it’s...
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How To Realistically Set Your Fees - Part 4
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Written By:
Sue and Chuck DeFiore
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Effect Of Bad Debts
So far, we have covered the major factors involved in setting your fee structure. We have set a realistic number of billable hours, calculated the effect of expenses and taken into account the cost of a benefit package.
This has brought us to an hourly rate of $77. By charging $77 per hour, you will have an income of $46,000 per year, plus benefits.
What happens when you have a client that does not pay you for your services? What happens if a customer goes out of business before your invoice is paid? How will these events affect your own planning? Do you want to take a bad debt write off on your taxes? Do you want to try to include for these contingencies in your fee structure? Your answers to these questions will have a direct impact on how you operate your business.
Thankfully, unless you provide very poor service, most clients will eventually pay you. However, it may take you awhile to collect your money and you may have to settle for less than the originally billed amount. You have the option of adding late fees to your invoices, but keep in mind, the more time you spend trying to collect a past due invoice, the less time you have to devote to paying customers. Also, if you need to engage an attorney or collection agency, you will in all likelihood, not see the full amount of your invoice because of their fees.
One way in which you can protect yourself is to build into your fees an allowance for bad or uncollectable debts. If you estimate that 5% of your invoices will be either unpaid or underpaid, then add 5% to your hourly rate. For example, your hypothetical fee is now $77 per hour, 5% of that is $3.50, added together gives you a rate of $80.50 per hour. If we round this off to $80, you would have approximately $3300 per year cushion.
Allowing 5% for bad debts may seem high, however, keep in mind the present state of the economy and remember this figure can be adjusted as the economic conditions change. Today, it is not unusual for businesses to take longer to pay - continued below ...
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continued ...
invoices then they did a couple of years ago. Most businesses expect to pay late fees for overdue invoices, however determining how much to charge and whether or not you are meeting the various legalities involved can be time consuming. It may be easier to add a percentage to your overall fees to offset bad debt. In a sense, you are spreading the economic risk over all your clients. For a small business this may be the safest and less time consuming course of action.
If your client base is large enough, a certain percentage of your customers will go out of business, leaving you with unpaid and uncollectable invoices. There is little chance you will collect any money in a bankruptcy hearing. To protect yourself, you can charge partial fees as your work progresses. This way you are assured of having received at least some of your money. Not all businesses are set up to take advantage of this option.
Remember, you are not in business to give away your services. Your goal is to provide yourself and/or your family with a reasonable income. Uncollected invoices are part of doing business, you owe it to yourself to consider this before you get stuck.
Copyright 2003, DeFiore Enterprises
Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business? Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 17 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to our FREE "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, it's like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com
coaches@homebusinesssolutions.com
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| _Additional Resources ... |
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February Manager Alert - Susan Dunn MA certified Emotional Intelligence Coach
The December holidays are over. But just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water ... here comes February. The emotionally intelligent manager plans ahead and is prepared. Semper paratus! 1. It's the peak of SAD, Seasonal Affective...
Dave Thomas: Tribute to a Truly Great Man - Alvin Apple
Yesterday we lost one of the most important businessmen in the world. Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's fast food chain, died of liver cancer at the age of 69. He has left us with an amazing legacy of making it from nothing, of succeeding in the...
Workathome Mlm Network Tool - Adrian Austin
The workathome mlm network tool can be used to generate cash while working at home. MLM stands for multi-level marketing. A company uses MLM to have participants at home sell products at a discount. In exchange, the participants earn commissions...
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