Friday 28th March 2008

I got up at 9am today - I must confess, I am not obsessed with having to start work at 9am each day in view of the fact I always tend to work very late. For example, although I told you yesterday, I finished work at 5.30pm, rather predictably, I got fed up with relaxing and started work again at 7pm. I didn't finish until 1am this morning. I was updating both of my blogs - can you see the changes to the look and feel of the site? Does it look better or worse in your view - COMMENTS WELCOME!

Anyway, it's 9.40am now and I am just having a look at my "TO DO" list and planning my day.

10.00am - Graham Card phoned me with a debt collection referral. Debt Collection referrals are good and are our "bread and butter". Our main market is that of Outsourced credit control and Credit Control Training

10.30am - Just had a call from Pam (one of our credit controllers) to discuss a few issues and have a general catch up. I do not spend a lot of time in the office, it is important therefore for me to keep in daily contact with my staff and managers by telephone. We also have in place 2 managers - A Credit Control Manager (Louise Green) and an Office Manager (Sue Palser). All of the credit control staff report into Louise for credit control matters and to Sue for office related issues. I retain control through both managers and speak with them daily. All of our credit controllers work form a dedicated credit control process that I devise. The processes do vary on a client to client basis.

My roll as MD, is to win new business and develop new ideas - to be honest with you, I am currently spending all of my time dealing with new enquiries and sales conversion. I am thinking of employing some sales staff to help me.

Just completed my booking form for an advert in a book called "Essential Business Finance", published by the Sunday Times through Kogan Page Publishers. I got a fantastic deal from them. A full page colour advert with 2 pages of editorial, for only £2000. The actual advertised price for this package was £6950. Whilst I accept that £2000 is still a lot of money, I think the advert will do our brand a lot of good. It will also drive people to our website and should lead to a few more contracts. The book will be extensively marketed within The Sunday Times. Copies of the book will also be sent to every member of the IOD (Institute of Directors). So guys & gals, from here-on-in; no more buying the Sunday Sport, or The Mail on Sunday with the glossy freebie magazines! The Sunday Times is the way forward.

11.45am - Just had a call from Hamza of Encoded and he has decided to outsource his credit control to us. We are meeting on Monday at his offices at 1pm in order to finalise things. We are looking to start work with him on Wednesday/Thursday of next week. Needless to say I am extremely happy as we have managed to win 2 new contracts this week! Yippeeeeeee - I get very very excited after I have just won some new business. I asked Hamza why he gave the business to us rather than a competitor (that was also in the running) He informed me that he "liked our flexibility and he also liked the fact that we gave him names and telephone numbers of some of our existing customer so that he could speak with them directly about how great we are. Hamza spoke with Hazel from Avante Garde Publishing and she gave us a glowing reference" Hamza admitted to being nervous about the prospect of outsourcing his credit control to us - I told him that this was only natural and that within a few weeks he will be absolutely certain that he has made the right decision.

Encoded seems like a very exciting company to work with - in fact, they sell several products that are  aimed at the Debt Collection industry, so, I am sure we will end up doing business with them too! Go and have a look at their website.

Just made a few follow up calls to:

• SKFF Consultancy Services (This is the other new credit control customer we won earlier in the week - they are getting together the info we need in order to start working with them)
• Stern & Co (We gave them a web demo of our Sage line 50 Service last week and they are currently considering whether to go with us or to buy "all singing, all dancing" Credit Management Software - it's a "NO BRAINER" to me - would you prefer to spend £10K on a piece of software that looks sexy, but doesn't perform well, or would you rather spend a £1,000 or so and get something that works much better?)
• Breeze Magazine - Another new credit control enquiry from a couple of weeks back - still trying to pin them down.

Just had another call from Hamza (Encoded) he has an issues with a particular debt that goes back to October 2006. He went through the County Court Process and obtained a County Court Judgement in December 2007. However, he has still not received payment from the debtor - this is not an untypical scenario (please refer to my article relating to this scenario by clicking here). As a gesture of goodwill on our part (in view of the fact Encoded are a soon to be a new credit control customer) we have offered to deal with this matter for them completely free of charge. Our solution is to simply send the debtor a Statutory Demand for Payment. This will go to the debtors registered office address, with copies being sent to all of the directors home addresses. We will follow up on the phone to make sure the debtor knows what will happen if they choose to ignore the Statutory Demand.

2.30pm - I am off out on the road now - got a couple of people to see in Ashford.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend.

I plan to work all day on Saturday and chill out on Sunday (that's the plan, but then again, I will more than likely get bored and end up working most of the weekend!)

Thanks for reading.

Jamie - Credit Control Solutions Ltd  ---Making your cash flow ---

Comments

[Kieran]

I like the layout of the blog, the new look is great and i especially like the blogbar.

I cant wait to read tomorrows post

Keep on writing

[sally]

Hi babes,
Having a read of your "busy days". Which means of course, I've read every daily diary entry.

Dont keep working you need some time off, you mad bugger.

Lots of love

Your wifie, Sally xxxx

Sally O'Connell - Turkish Branch of Credit Control Solutions