Entrepreneur Diaries

Friday, 16th May 2008

I started work at 9am today.

I have been working on & off in the last few days, although I have not updated my daily diary. I have spent the majority of my time with my wife & daughter, who have sadly now gone back to Turkey.

I am now focused 100% back on the business. I've got loads to do today. As explained in 12/05/2008 diary entry, we are soon to start working with Venture Finance in a number of different ways. It looks as though we will be starting work together on a new invoice discounting client within the next 2 weeks. I am also very busy preparing for the start of our consultancy project with a large firm of Barristers called "Hardwicke Building"

We started a temporary 1 month outsourced credit control job with "The Icebox" on 17th April 2008. We have now reached the end of this project and I am currently in discussions with them as to whether or not they wish to extend the project.

I also received an e-mail (see below) from Hamza of Encoded (one of our newest customers). So impressed is he with the quality of our service, he is already looking to give us more work! What better testimonial could you possibly have from a customer?

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From: Hamza Whitmore [mailto:h.whitmore@encoded.co.uk]
Sent: 15 May 2008 11:14
To: 'JAMIE O CONNELL'
Subject: Sales Ledger

Hi Jamie,

Hope you are well and that you had a good time in Turkey last month.  I need to discuss with you handing more of our sales ledger management over to you guys; primarily I’m thinking of handling cheques and BACS payments (I’m getting the invoicing automated as much as possible) but there may be other ways you can help.

Kind regards,

Hamza Whitmore. Managing Director

Encoded - the interactive voice experts

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On our Credit Control blog, I have started up a Bad Payers Blacklist - if you have any bad payers that you wish to notify us about, please take a look at the blog and post details.

I have had a very busy day today - most of it has been spent preparing for the consultancy job on Wednesday.

Thanks for reading.

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

Monday, 12th May 2008

I got up at 7 am today. I had a meeting with Venture Finance at 10am in London today.

The meeting with Venture went very very well indeed and it looks as though we are going to be working together on some of their Invoice Discounting Clients. Venture are one of the biggest invoice Discounters in the UK with over 1300 customers. Venture are also interested in launching a new factoring product with ourselves on a joint venture basis. I can't go into details about the new product at this stage, but, needless to say; if, between us we pull it off, the contract will be worth in excess of £1,000,000 to CCS! Our website is performing miracles at the moment - we are receiving lots of good quality enquiries from medium & large companies. It just goes to show you that investing a relatively modest sum of money in a decent website that has been optimised so that you rank highly in Google is money well spent. Our web company are absolutely fantastic and I recommend them whole heartedly and without any reservation - if you are interested in having a good website that is found by all of the major search engines you can do no better than go to world wide creative (please mention Credit Control Solutions and you may even get a discount). As well as designing fantastic looking web sites they are also specialists at web marketing and optimisation.

I also received another enquiry today from a large firm of Barristers based in Lincolns Inn, London called "Hardwicke Building"  They have around 100 barristers working for them and deal with 7,000 cases a year. They have issues in getting paid on time like all companies do. Traditionally, solicitors, barristers and accountants (in fact most professional service providers) are not very good at chasing customers for payment. With barristers firms there is a particular issue in so far as, many of their cases are paid for through insurance claims. These claims can often take years before they are paid out. "Hardwicke Building" have appointed us to help them out on a consultancy basis to improve their "debt turn" (time taken from raising an invoice to receiving payment). We are starting work with them on 21st May.

Today has been a fantastic day for us - the future is looking very Rosy indeed.

Oh well it is 7.30pm now and I am absolutely shattered - today has been very exciting, but very draining.

I will not be working tomorrow, I am going to spend some time with my wife & daughter before they go back to Turkey on Thursday. I am taking them shopping - roughly translated, this means they will be shopping & I will be spending most of the day in various coffee shops on my mobile phone talking business!

Thanks for reading.

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

Friday, 9th May 2008

I got up at at 11am today and before you say what a lazy sod, I went to the airport at 2am this morning to pick up my wife and daughter. The flight was slightly delayed and we never got home until around 6am!

I arrived at the office at 12.30pm to catch up on paperwork etc. I have not been to the office for about a month. Surprisingly there was not much paperwork to do. I keyed in a few supplier invoices. Telephoned the publisher of Essential Business, as they are trying to renege on their deal. I received an invoice from them today asking for payment within 30 days. The arrangement I had with them was payment was due after publication in August 2008.

I will be finishing work very shortly to spend time with my wife & daughter.

Thanks for reading.

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

Thursday, 8th May 2008

I got up at 8.30am today.

Got loads of bits and pieces to do today - another annoying day really.

I followed up a couple of new consultancy leads and have a meeting fixed for 14th May @ 9.30am to give them a demo of our "Sage Line 50 Service"

I followed up our banking consultant for news on our "Small Firm Loan Guarantee" application. For those of you that don't already know; the small firm loan guarantee is a government backed scheme that allows you to borrow monies from a bank without the need to provide a personal guarantee. The Small Firm loan guarantee is ideal for new start ups that do not have any capital, or for existing businesses with little or no capital that wish to expand etc. If you are interested in discussing this with the consultant that we are using, please e-mail me.

My advert for Essential Business Finance has now been finalised and has been sent off to the publishers.

I spoke to Graham Card today from Corporate Liquidity. I met Graham through BNI about 6 years ago. He is a great guy. He is a Factoring/Invoice discounting broker and we are looking to do lots of work together in the future. I have a meeting fixed with Graham on 30th may to discuss opportunities. I also got the low down from him on Venture Finance. We have a meeting with Venture Finance on Monday 12th May. They are looking to outsource their credit control to us. If we can pull this one off it will launch my company into Orbit. Venture Finance are one of the largest Invoice Discounters within the UK, with circa 1,000 clients.

Thanks for reading.

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

Wednesday, 7th May 2008

I got up at 5.20am today to go to BNI. I have been a member of BNI for 6 years now. It has had a very positive impact on turnover & profitability. In fact, I would go as far to say that without my being a member of BNI we would have gone bust long ago. Outsourced Credit Control as a service is still very niche. Niche ideas are very hard to market. The structured approach to networking at BNI is very good and allows you to build long term relationships and trust with members. Once you have built the trust and demonstrated that you are good at what you do, external referrals soon follow. BNI is by no means a "get rich quick scheme". It took around 3 years before BNI started to work for me. After all the word "Networking" is effectively 2 words in one. There is the "NET" part being the members and the "WORKING" part meaning that referrals will not fall into your lap you have to put in lots of work and effort.

In my view if you run a business and are not a member of BNI you are mad! You are missing out on a huge opportunity to market and "brand familiarise" your business. There are hundreds of BNI chapters in the UK and thousands worldwide. Please visit The BNI website for further info on the chapter nearest to you.

I have finally finished my bank reconciliation and am about to start my VAT return.

I received another nice e-mail today from Danny @ Printing.com - Ashford. Danny has been an outsourced credit control customer of ours for just over a year. It is always great to hear from satisfied customers.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ashford [mailto:ashford@printing.com]
Sent: 07 May 2008 10:04
To: 'Louise Green'
Subject: RE: Bad Debtor

You little beauty! Very well done, thank you for all the work on them, the moneys in the bank!

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Just finished my VAT return - surely I can't owe them so much money! Oh well I suppose I will have to do a cash flow forecast now.

I've done my cash flow forecast and things are looking fine (Phew). Hopefully, tomorrow I can get back on with selling.

Thanks for reading.

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

Tuesday 6th May 2008

Hi folks - I'm back in the UK!

I got up at 8.30am today - very busy and loads to do today

For the last hour or so, I have been speaking with Danny @ printing.com and Alice @ Windmill Communications in relation to our advert and editorial within The Sunday Times publication entitled "Essential Business Finance". Danny is designing the advert for me and Alice is putting together the editorial. The copy deadline is 10th May, so this is a bit too "last minute" for my liking (completely my fault, I should have sorted this out weeks ago). Danny is great though - he has promised to have a proof over to me by close of play today. Alice is also a star the copy that she put together for me is superb!

I am doing all of my sales/prospect follow up calls at the moment - I have about 40 calls to make, so, I expect I will be doing this for the rest of the day. I must confess that selling is a job that I love doing - it is tangible and "results driven".

I am also having to do my bank reconciliation (something I hate doing). I haven't done it for 3 months. I normally do my bank reconciliation just before my VAT return is due. Talking of VAT returns - I hate doing them too!

3 hours later and I'm still doing my bank rec (aargh!). I have also spent some of the afternoon liaising with Alice (Windmill Communications) and Danny (Printing .com - Ashford) re my advert. We are nearly there. Both Alice and Danny are wonderful people, they have both really helped me out no end.

We got a fantastic testimonial from one of our newest customers - Hamza Whitmore from Encoded. They have only been a customer for 4 weeks and we have already had a significant impact on his cash flow.

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From: Hamza Whitmore [mailto:h.whitmore@encoded.co.uk]
Sent: 06 May 2008 17:29
To: 'Pam Nye'
Cc: 'Jamie O'Connell'
Subject: RE: Monthly Management Report

Many thanks Pam,

A £20,000 drop in overdue balances is a wonderful testament to the work you have done in the last 4 weeks.  Thank you ever so much,  I am very impressed!

Kind regards,

Hamza

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It is 7pm now and I am whacked - enough for today.

Thanks for reading.

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

Tuesday 22nd April to Tuesday 29th April 2008

I am away at the moment - partly on holiday and partly business, which is why I have not updated my diary every day.

Within the above period, I have had a couple of meetings with our Credit Control manager: Louise Green to go through some issues on our newest contracts.

I have received and dealt with 2 x new enquiries - One from ABN Amro Bank! This will be a huge chunk of business for us if we can pull it off. I have an initial meeting with them on 12th May. The other enquiry was from a small firm of accountants based in London.

I was up at 7am today (Tuesday 29th April), I have been setting up some standard letters for our newest client and dealing with my e-mails.

That's it for today folks.

Thanks for reading.

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

Monday 21st April 2008

I got up at 9.30am today.

I have a meeting fixed with Louise (Our Credit Control Manager) today at 10.30am to go through a new import process that I devised a while ago and to make sure that she is up to speed with all of the latest developments within the company and to discuss issues.

The meeting went very well with Louise - she is doing a sterling job and is undertaking her roll within the company very passionately. Louise is my rock, without her, I wouldn't be able to grow the business. I would be spending most of my time working "IN" rather than "ON" my business.

That's it for today folks.

Thanks for reading.

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

Saturday 19th April 2008

I got up at 9am today.

Our phone line is now working, so I spent a couple of hours finishing off the set-up process for our latest customer - The Ice Box

I also e-mailed Clive Gawler from Red Alert giving him a break down of the approximate timings and likely costings for the consultancy work that we will be doing for them.

I spent the rest of the day doing "holiday" type stuff.

That's it for today folks.

Thanks for reading.

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

Friday 18th April 2008

I got up at 9am today in sunny & warm Turkey!

I had intended to start work early today as we have a new outsourced credit control contract to start for The Ice Box, but, our phone line was down all day, meaning of course no Internet access! I ended up speaking with one of our staff and having them do most of the set-up work for me.

In view of the fact I couldn't work I was forced to take it easy - I ended up sitting on our balcony and chilling with a couple of vodkas!

That's it for today folks.

Thanks for reading.

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

Thursday 17th April 2008

I got up at 9am today.

Just tying up a few lose ends at work before I fly out to Turkey this afternoon.

Just won another new contract outsourced credit control contract with The Icebox. I will be setting everything up tomorrow and starting work with them tomorrow.

I will be leaving for Gatwick at 1.30pm.

That's it for today folks.

Thanks for Reading,

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

Wednesday 16th April 2008

I got up at 5.15am today - As usual I arrived at my BNI meeting at around 6.15am. I am normally one of the first to arrive. The formal part of the meeting doesn't kick off until 7am, but, I like to arrive early, as that is prime "networking" time.

I gave one referral today and received 2 back.

I have spent most of the day tying up bits and pieces really. I went to the office at around 12pm and took the staff out for lunch.

I followed up a couple of prospects and that is is really. In the grand scheme of things today was actually quite boring and mundane.

Thanks for Reading,

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

Tuesday 15th April 2008

I got up at 8.30am today - feeling really tired, ratty and somewhat stressed. I've got loads to do and not enough time to do it!

I'm just planning my day as usual:

I must follow up Clive Gawler from Red Alert. - before they confirm that they wish to go ahead and use our Sage Line 50 service, they need to discuss timescales and costs. 10am: Phone Clive and he is not available, so, I will discuss it with him tomorrow at BNI

I need to phone Richard Elmer from The Ice Box to check that they are happy with our quote. Assuming they are I need to confirm a start date with them. 10am: I spoke with Richard Elmer and he has not received my e-mailed quotation, so, I re-sent it to another e-mail address.

I need to follow up Graduate Fasttrack to establish when they wish us to start working with them.

I must follow up with Southwark News again today - they are an ex-customer of ours who are looking to come back to us! 10.10am: I spoke with Chris and he is busy and will call me back at 1.30pm today. message

Finally, I must e-mail George Stern from Stern & Co - Chartered Accountants

I had an absolutely awful day to day - lots of little annoying jobs to do, but with no energy to get on and do them. To be honest with you I was not in the right frame of mind today. I ended up finishing work at around 1.30pm and trying to relax for a while. I failed dismally. Things just kept going round in my head. I can't complain really, this is the first "off-day" I've had for several weeks. I must confess I find it very hard to relax knowing that I have so much work to do. Having said this, it is important that you recognise the need within you to "get away from it all" for a while and take stock. I know this through bitter experience, so, no matter how guilty I feel by taking time out to chill, it is the best thing you can do.

I started work again at around 5pm and things started to come together for me again. I am feeling a lot more positive and looking forward to tomorrow - I've got my weekly visit to BNI, which, I always look forward to. It does mean getting up at 5.15am though!

Thanks for Reading,

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

Monday 14th April 2008

I got up at 5.45am today. it is my first day of consultancy work for Stern & Co and I need to be at their office in London by 9.30am.

I arrived @ Stern & Co's offices at 9.30am.

I sat with George Stern for a couple of hours going through what he wanted out of our session. I then sat with their credit controller for a couple of hours to determine how they currently undertook their credit control. Finally, I sat with George again to let him know my initial thoughts. There is certainly scope for improvement.

The plan now is for me to put together a complete Credit Policy and process document for them. I anticipate that this should take around 2-3 days to write. 1 day to discuss further changes with George and a further day on-site to implement.

Come on guys - I know from my Website traffic stats that there are over 500 readers (on average) of this blog on a daily basis. Please start posting some comments.

Thanks for Reading,

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

Friday 11th April 2008

I got up at 7.45am today. Feeling great and raring to go.

Just looking at my Daily Plan:

• I must e-mail Clive Gawler & Dee Bateman from Red Alert. as summary of our meeting yesterday along with a quotation. - DONE
• I need to phone Richard Elmer from The Ice Box to check that they are happy with our quote. Assuming they are I need to confirm a start date with them - 9.30am: Left message. 10am: left message. 1.30pm: left message. 3pm: left message
• I need to follow up Graduate Fasttrack to establish when they wish us to start working with them. 9.40am - email sent asking them to confirm they want us to start working with them
• I must follow up with Southwark News again today - they are an ex-customer of ours who are looking to come back to us! 9.30am: left message. 10am: left message. 1.30pm: left message. 3pm: left message
• I must do our bank reconciliation today - on the back burner for today (when I'm on the hunt for new business, nothing else matters)
• I need to process payroll journal for this month - All Done.
• I need to do a few more mail shots - sent out another e-mailshot to around 500 people re our Free Credit Control Offer and our Buy One Get One Free Debt Collection offer - see our website for further information 
• Finally, I must start preparing for the consultancy job that we won for Stern & Co - Chartered Accountants - Started - I will finish this over the weekend

I am just following up "hot" prospects at the moment - I am determined to close at least 1 more sale this week. 2 would be even better; as this would mean we have won 5 new contracts this week. I'm not having a lot of luck though - all 3 of my prospects are busy and will call me back later (in reality, I doubt they will call me back) I will keep chasing them throughout the day.

I am off to Turkey again on 17th April. I am therefore making sure that everything is up to date before I leave. My wife & Daughter live in Turkey. We also have a "satellite office" in Turkey currently with 2 staff (my wife is one of them) - I am looking to increase staff numbers in the months to come. There are lots of ex-pats in Turkey who leave the UK thinking they are going to "semi-retire". In reality they get bored after a few months.

Before I can increase staff numbers in Turkey, there are legal issues to overcome - you are not allowed to work in Turkey unless you have a work permit. Brits cannot get a work permit in Turkey for love nor money. My thought process is this: strictly speaking we will not actually be employing people "In Turkey" as such. They will be paid from The UK, as if they were working in The UK. They will have a remote link to our server in The UK. Therefore, all of the "actual work" will be done from computers based from within The UK. This being the case I believe that they are not actually working in Turkey? Having said this, what I believe really doesn't count. being a simple soul, I thought that by going to see a solicitor in Turkey, I would get a definitive answer - No No No, Turkish solicitors don't do "definitive". Apparently, Turkish law is one massive "Grey Area" and solicitors will merely give you their personal take on a particular issue. That way, if the advice turns out to be wrong you can't sue them!

I have just spent the last hour cleaning up my mailing database. If you do regular mail shots (as I do), it is important that your data is "cleansed" on a regular basis.

Arghhhhh - I've had an annoying day in terms of following up "Hot" prospects. I've made lots of calls, but not spoken to anyone - it looks as though closing a new sale today is all but slipping away from me.

Come on guys - I know from my Website traffic stats that there are over 500 readers (on average) of this blog on a daily basis. Please start posting some comments (Hamza, that means you!)

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Thanks for Reading,

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

Thursday 10th April 2008

I got up at 8.30am today.

Just looking at my Daily Plan:

• I must finish preparing for my meeting at 4pm today with Clive Gawler (BNI Colleague) from Red Alert. They are looking to use our Sage Line 50 Service
• I need to phone Richard Elmer from The Ice Box to check that they are happy with our quote. Assuming they are I need to confirm a start date with them.
• I need to follow up Graduate Fasttrack to establish when they wish us to start working with them
• I must follow up with Southwark News again today - they are an ex-customer of ours who are looking to come back to us!
• I need to finish off our cash flow forecast - DONE and bank rec - NOT STARTED YET
• I need to process payroll for this month
• I need to do a few more mail shots
• Finally, I must start preparing for the consultancy job that we won for Stern & Co - Chartered Accountants - STARTED

We started work with "Student Aid" today. I have therefore been very busy most of the day setting up processes and raising the first batch of invoices.

I had a great meeting with Dee @ Red Alert today. They have decided to go ahead and use our Sage Line 50 Service - that is 3 new contracts this week! Red Alert are a rapidly expanding business and rather than simply employing more and more staff, they are looking at clever ways of coping with their growth. Our Sage Line 50 service is part of the "Clever Way" of dealing with their ever expanding client base and the credit control issues that will result from this. Clive Gawler - Managing Director of Red Alert was considering employing another credit controller. We have saved him the expense of doing this due to the time savings and efficiency improvements we will make through implementation of the very simple and easy to follow changes we will make. The changes that we make will involve a relatively small "one-off" cost to his business. This compares very favourably with the ongoing costs of employing another member of staff!

I have just finished off the Sales Ledger & Credit Control process for Student Aid Ltd and e-mailed it to one of our staff to manage the contract from here-on-in.

Well it's 8.30pm now and I am going to sign off.

Please come back and read some more tomorrow. Why not make a comment on one of my posts - it's really easy to do!

Many Thanks,

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

Wednesday 9th April 2008

I got up at 5.15am today as, I had to go to my weekly BNI meeting in Ashford. I absolutely love BNI - business by referral is the best and smartest way of winning business. I gave out 2 referrals today and received 1 in return. I gave a referral to Alice Spink of Windmill Communications - she is putting together an editorial for me for my advert in "Essential Business Fiance". I also gave a referral to Danny Clements of Printing.com - Ashford, to help me with the layout of my advert. Printing.com - Ashford also happen to be an outsourced credit control customer of ours.

I received a referral from Nick Osborne of The Power Service. Nick is interested in our on-line postage solution - you know, the one that saves you an absolute fortune on your postage costs.

Just looking at my Daily Plan:

• I need to raise a Credit Note for one of our largest customers - Allied Drinks Services - DONE(interestingly, we won this client off of the back of a credit control call we made to them for another of our clients - Brighton Pearl Ltd
• I need to follow up Student Aid Ltd - we are looking to start working with them today - DONE
• I need to follow up Richard Elmer from "The Ice Box" - they are looking to use our "ledger clean up service" They need us to collect as much money as possible from their ledger during the next  month or so. - DONE
• I need to follow up Graduate Fasttrack to establish when they wish us to start working with them
• I must follow up with Southwark News today - they are an ex-customer of ours who are looking to come back to us! - DONE
• I need to finish off our cash flow forecast and bank rec
• I need to process payroll for this month
• I need to do a few more mail shots
• Finally, I must start preparing for the consultancy job that we won for Stern & Co - Chartered Accountants - STARTED

I suppose I had better get on and do some work - I think I will be working very late tonight!

10.15am - I just spoke with Andy @ Student Aid and he is signing the contract, SLA & DD Mandate and faxing to me today - yippee! We should start work with them later today. I am having yet another great week - with 2 new contracts already in the bag.

10.18 - I have just spoken with the accountants for Student Aid (Kirk Rice) - they are doing all of the other book keeping/accountancy stuff. We obviously need to work with them to ensure all of the information that we generate is available to them in order they can do VAT Returns, month end, management accounts etc. We are simply going to generate monthly export reports for them so that they can import the information at their end.

11.30 - I spoke to Chris of Southwark News regarding us chasing their debtors for debts < £150.00. he is going to discuss with his co-directors and call me tomorrow.

11.40 - I did a quick reccie on costings for Southwark News.

Just had to go through an import process with Pam (one of our credit controllers) to make sure that she is up to speed with how it works etc. As most of you probably know already (from previous posts of mine) when we take on an outsourced credit control client, we have to set-up export routines with them to ensure that our data is as up to date as their data. We effectively need to "mirror" their data. As well as setting up export routines with our clients, I need to set up import routines with our staff. The import process for Encoded is slightly different to our usual import process, hence the phone call to Pam to provide some impromptu training. Pam will go through the import process herself tomorrow and if she needs some help, Kieran (another member of staff) will provide her with support.  Failing that, Pam will turn to our Credit Control Manager (Louise).

Please come back and read some more tomorrow. Why not make a comment on one of my posts - it's really easy to do!

Many Thanks,

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

Tuesday 8th April 2008

I got up at 8am today.

I have a meeting at 11am with Simon Webster from Facts & Figures Financial Planners- a fellow BNI Ashford Member. Simon is a great guy and makes financial advice very easy to understand. His company strap line is "financial advice everyone can follow". If you are interested in talking to Simon, please click the Link to his website above, or e-mail me & I will put you in contact with him. If you do make contact with him directly, please mention that you got his details from my blog

We Will be starting a new contract today for a company called Student Aid Ltd. They are outsourcing their sales ledger and credit control to us.

Just planning my day at the moment.

I had a great meeting with Simon Webster today.

We won another new contract today from Stern & Co Chartered Accountants. They are using our Consultancy Services. We will start work with them on Monday.

That is it for today folks.

Please come back and read some more tomorrow. Why not make a comment on one of my posts - it's really easy to do!

Many Thanks,

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

Monday 7th April 2008

Hello everyone.

I got up at 8.30am today - feeling great, well rested and raring to go.

I had a great (and relaxing weekend), my parents came over and stayed for the weekend. Due to the bad weather, we spent most of our time, looking back at old video footage of when my brothers and I were kids - great times!

Anyway, back on with today. I had a meeting with Alice from Windmill Communications - they are a Public Relations Company based in Harrietsham, near Ashford. Like us, Alice is a member of BNI and I have known her for several years. I am happy to personally recommend their services to you. Alice is helping me to put together some editorial for our advert in the upcoming Sunday Times publication "Essential Business Finance". I am also discussing using them for general PR purposes. It is about time, we started getting articles within finance related publications/press. I do not expect miracles from PR, it is a very "slow burn" approach, but, it will help us to get our brand out into the wider market place. If you are interested in talking to Windmill Communications about how they can help you please e-mail me and I will give you their contact details.

I will be following up new & existing prospects for the rest of today.

I also need to:

Prepare a mailshot for Pirtek Franchises.

Prepare a mailshot to existing debt collection customers to let them know about or "BOGOF" offer

Do a Cash Flow Forecast (whilst doing cash flow forecasts is boring, it is important that you do them on a regular basis)

I am having a very peculiar day - whilst my body is awake and refreshed, my brain is still asleep. I tried doing my cash flow forecast, but it just wasn't happening, so, I've left it for now and Will come back to it later.

On a much more positive note, I had a call from an existing prospect (Graduate Fasttrack Recruitment) and they informed me that they have another company called Student Aid Ltd. Student Aid provides the official welcome pack to Universities across the UK. Their packs are placed direct into every single student bedroom at 23 leading UK Universities. The boxes are branded to each of the Universities they work with so products / vouchers within the box are effectively endorsed by the University.  This is a phenomenal idea. If you are interested in advertising within the welcome pack, please e-mail me and I will put you in contact.

Student Aid want to go ahead and start using our Credit Control & Sales Ledger services immediately. I have spent most of the afternoon setting everything up so that we are ready to start work tomorrow. I think I have mentioned before, speed is everything, it is important that your customers perceive that you are a person that gets the job done quickly.

This means of course some of the stuff on my to do list has been put back until tomorrow.

That is it for today folks. Please come back and read some more tomorrow. Why not make a comment on one of my posts - it's really easy to do!

Many Thanks,

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

Friday 4th April 2008

I got up at 7.30am today.

I am actually going into the office today for a couple of reasons:

• To be on hand and give support to the credit controllers managing our new contracts with Encoded & SKFF.
• To catch up on paperwork that has been piling up on my desk for the last 2 weeks.
• To raise invoices to our customers (I like doing this, but not as much as like receiving payment from them though!)

Just going through and dealing with all of my paperwork (I hate paperwork).

• Dealing with purchase ledger stuff - keying in new invoices and "advance paying" Direct Debit invoices and arranging some BACS payments. If you want to know what "Advance Paying" means, please e-mail  me and I will let you know (it will save you lots of time and money)
• Also had to fill in a Corporation Tax return for another of our companies (incredibly boring)

I also plan to do the following today:

• Update our website and blogs with our "buy one get one free" debt collection promotion
• Prepare a mailshot for Pirtek Franchises.
• Prepare a mailshot to existing debt collection customers to let them know about or "BOGOF" offer

Right, I've done the invoicing. I'm just about to update my website and Blogs with our "BOGOF" Debt Collection promo.

Just had an e-mail from a guy called Richard Elmer from a company called "The Icebox". I met with him in March 2007 to discuss outsourcing their credit control to us. He has just come back to me asking if we are still interested - "STILL INTERESTED"? - you bet we are! I e-mailed him back to ask when he would like us to start.

Oh well it is 4pm and I'm off home now.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Thanks for reading.

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

Thursday 3rd April 2008

I was up at 7.15am today (unusually early for me!).

I promised Hamza of Encoded I would make sure that we were ready to start work with him first thing today and I wanted to make sure that I fulfilled this promise. (if you make a promise to someone you must make sure that you fulfil that promise on time - if you fail to deliver on a promise, you are then perceived as unreliable)

Today, I will be spending most of my time:

• Finishing off the credit control and sales ledger processes for Encoded & SKFF
• Sending out the first batch of chaser letters for Encoded
• Raising the first batch of invoices for SKFF
• Ensuring the staff allocated to the new contracts are up to speed with processes and requirements etc

I spent all morning putting "processes" together for Encoded & SKFF. SKFF is now up and running and the first batch of invoices were raised and posted by me. I will often get "hands-on" involved at the beginning of a new contract. This is a good way for me to check that the processes I devise actually work. Once I am satisfied that the process works, I then hand it over to a staff member. They then use this process to manage the contract.

Encoded are making a few changes to our standard letter wordings. We will incorporate the changes within our standard letter templates and then do an initial letter run. We will start chasing Encoded's customers by telephone later today/tomorrow.

We received and incorporated the changes to our standard letter text from Hamza of Encoded and the initial letter has been generated and posted today. Our Credit Controllers have also commenced chasing by phone. We do not hang around and pride ourselves on being very efficient and very quick to respond to customers needs. Please find below a short excerpt from Hamza's e-mail to me thanking us for getting things up and running for him very quickly!

----------------------------------------

From: Hamza Whitmore
Sent: 03 April 2008 15:02
To: 'Jamie O'Connell'
Subject: RE: Aged debt detailed report

Many thanks Jamie,

I’m really pleased with how quickly you’ve managed to get things going.  Here’s to a long and mutually profitable relationship!
----------------------------------------

Do you remember in my diary entry of 20th March I shared the following with you:

"Still at the back of my mind though were the 2 customers we had lost 3 weeks prior (one of the losses was due to something very stupid that I did and the other was due to a change of circumstances). We have never lost a client due to poor service"

Well; we got some great news today. The client that we lost is looking to use our services again, albeit in a smaller capacity than before! They are looking for us to chase all of their debts under £150.00.

I need to start getting ready for my meeting at 4.30pm in Ashford with an ex-BNI colleague - Andrew Frisby.

That's all for today folks.

Thanks for reading.

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

Wednesday 2nd April 2008

Got up at 5.20am today for my weekly visit to BNI. To learn more about BNI click the BNI link. I gave 2 referrals to a couple of business colleagues and received 3 referrals in return. Business by referral is the best way to obtain new business. If you are interested in joining our chapter in Ashford, please enquire here.

To be honest with you, I am absolutely shattered today. Once again, I had a terrible nights sleep. I find it very hard to relax, particularly when there is so much going on within my business at the moment. Never mind it will all be worth it in the end.

Just planning my day at the moment. I have a few key things to do today:

• Need to finalise data import process for Encoded so we can start work with them later today/tomorrow.
• Need to start work with SKFF Consultancy today
• Need to follow up Graduate Fasttrack Recruitment - I met with them a few days ago and e-mailed a quote to them over the weekend. I need to try and pin down when they want us to start working with them.
• I also need to send out a few more mail shots to generate some new enquiries.
• later today, I am going to put a "Buy One get One Free" debt collection promotion on our website today and update our "FREE CREDIT CONTROL PROMOTION"

We are Making very good progress with Encoded re data import. Encoded are also interested in investigating the possibility of CCS taking over the invoicing process. We have an invoicing solution that sits ion the back of Sage that enables us to import data directly into a Sage invoice template, thus fully automating the invoicing process. This means, we can offer an invoicing process to all of our clients at a very low price. The invoice templates will be fully branded with client logo etc. Hamza is going to think things through. From Hamza's perspective, so long as we are able to extract the billing information from Encoded's Accounts System automatically, It will save him an immense amount of time and money.

Hamza also showed a big interest in our Digital Post Room solution, where you can save an absolute fortune on Postage. If you are interested in saving up to £0.60p on each item that you post, please enquire here

Swapped a couple of e-mails with Hamza re data import - I think we are almost there now!

I spoke with Andy @ Graduate Fasttrack and he is very interested in going ahead and using our services. I have put him in contact with my contact @ Bibby Financial Services to discuss Invoice Discounting. We have some great contacts within The Invoice Discounting Market. If you are interested in an invoice Discounting facility, please enquire here

That's all for today folks.

Thanks for reading.

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

Tuesday 1st April 2008

I got up at 9am today - went to be very late and didn't sleep very well at all. Lots of stuff on my mind.

Just planning my day as usual.

Very busy so far today I've:

Been in e-mail communication with Hamza form Encoded. He has sent me some customer sales ledger data to see if we are able to import it into our Software. I am pleased to say that after some minor changes, we imported the information successfully.

When we start working with a new customer, we need to set up daily export routines with them, in order to make sure that our ledgers agree with their ledgers on a daily basis. This is a very important part of the set-up process. If we get this wrong, it means that we could potentially be chasing customers for payment that have already paid - this reflects badly on our customer and us too. Getting this part of the process wrong is a big "NO NO".  I therefore make sure that this part of the process is fully tested before we go live.

Swapped e-mails with SKFF Consultancy (another credit control and sales ledger client that is due to go live tomorrow). I've sent her copies of:

• The invoice e-mail template that she needs to complete every time she wants us to raise an invoice
• The Standard Credit Control letters we propose to send to her customers along with a timetable for her to approve.
• The Sage invoice template bearing her logo and branding that will be used to invoice her clients for her to approve.

I've done a couple of boring things too - paid 2 key suppliers (before the due date I might add!)

Also managed to follow up a couple of prospects. It is important to follow up potential sales every day. You should also never stop marketing - I market my business every day without fail.

Another of our customers called us today to discuss making a few changes to the way we do things and to give us more work. We are always happy to take on more work from existing customer. The fact they want to give us more work means they are obviously very happy with our service. Anyway, I have implemented all of the changes within the credit control process and we will start using the new process tomorrow. That is the good thing about doing business with us - we are able to make very quick decisions and implement changes very quickly.

That's all for today folks.

Thanks for reading.

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

Monday 31st March 2008

I got up at 8.30am today.

I am preparing for my meeting with Hamza of Encoded @ 1pm in Crawley. I did most of the preparation over the weekend, but, I am just making sure I haven't forgotten anything.

I have a couple of sales follow-ups to do, which I will do en-route to Encoded.

It's almost 11am now, so I am off to Crawley.

Had a great meeting with Hamza today - Encoded are definitely a company that are going places. They have a very impressive client list which includes: Disney, T-Mobile & The Bertram Group.

I got back from Crawley at 3pm and immediately set to work on gearing up to start work with Encoded on Thursday.

SKFF have also provided me with the information we required in order to start work with them on Thursday too.

Made a few sales follow up calls today - The Publishing Company (who shall remain nameless for now) are still interested in using our Outsourced Credit Control Service and we will talk again soon.

I have followed up all of the leads received within the last 2 weeks. I now need more leads to follow up - Hmmm, I feel another mail shot coming on.

That's all today folks - thanks for reading.

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

Sunday 30th March 2008

I got up at around 9am today.

2 goals for today:

1. Go through my personal post which I have left unopened for the last 3 weeks.
2. Update my blog with new widgets and content.

I finished the above at 2.10pm. I am now off to Tesco's to buy some beers for this afternoons football

• Chelsea -v- Middlesborough
• Liverpool -v- Everton

As a Chelsea supporter, I hope that Liverpool either lose or draw, so that there is no chance of them catching Chelsea in the league.

Thanks for reading,

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

Saturday 29th March 2008

I got up at 10am today - how naughty is that? Mind you, I didn't go to bed until 3am this morning, so I am not going to beat myself up too much! Having said that I didn't do any work last night - I vegged in front of the telly all night and whats more I actually enjoyed doing "NOTHING" To be honest, I think the extremely busy week had taken it's toll on me.

Anyway, woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning and am raring to crack on.

As always, I am looking at my "TO DO" list and planning my day. There are 3 things for me to complete today:

1) Prepare a Quotation & Close document for the recruitment company that I met with on Wednesday:

2) Gear up to start work with our new customers on Wednesday / Thursday next week

• Encoded
• SKFF Consultancy Services

Item 2 will take me the best part of 5 hours to complete, as, I will need to set-up the credit control processes, set them up in our software, put together standard letter templates etc.

I managed to do all of the above today and spent several hours updating my Blogs with new widgets etc. Mike from World Wide Creative (Our Web Designer and Web Marketing guru) very kindly changed our "header image" so that is is very similar to our website and Credit Control Blog branding.

I finished work at around 9pm.

Thanks for reading.

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

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 ---

Thursday 27th March 2008

Got up at 9am today - feeling very tired and finding it hard to get going.

Got lots to do today though. Just looking at my "To Do List" and planning my day.

10.00am - I chased up our newest customer to supply the info required in order for us to set them up on our system and start working with them.

10.05am - I emailed my contact from the recruitment company in order to ask them for the information required in order for us to provide them with a quote.

10.10am - The recruitment company asked me if I had any contacts from HSBC that I could refer them to to discuss Invoice Discounting. We hey - HSBC bank is a member of my chapter of BNI - a nice easy referral for me! I also put them in contact with a Factoring Broker (who happens to be another old BNI contact of mine)

10.15am - I spoke with my Factoring Broker contact (Graham Card) and we had a great catch up chat. It turns out that he may also have a referral for me! As well as referrals, we also had a chat about about mutual referral opportunities going forward and we are going to meet up in early April to discuss things further. I have known Graham for around 6 years now and have given him around 3 referrals, which, turned into actual business for him - BNI does work!

12.00PM - Hamza telephone me (another potential customer) to inform me that he had researched the outsourced credit control market place and he has found another possible company to outsource his credit control to! He is trying to decide between us and them. We had a great chat and he asked me lots of questions. I think I answered his questions and re-assured him that we were the company he needed. He also mentioned that our price was good, not the cheapest, but he is not looking for a cheap and cheerful service, so he discounted those straight away. Hamza is looking for a quality service and this is precisely what he will get with us. As a way of adding credibility to our offer, I provided Hamza with the names of some of our clients along with their telephone numbers in order that he can make direct contact with them to satisfy himself that we are a quality company providing an excellent service. Hamza is going to think things through and will call me later today.

1.00pm - Trying to do battle with my Internet banking with Nationwide - my god it is annoyingly slow and rubbish. Nationwide market themselves as  "Proud to be different" It should be: Nationwide - "Proud to be rubbish". I got there in the end, but, it took me almost half an hour!

1.30pm to 2.30pm - Had to deal with some boring stuff for a while. Checking my purchase ledger and paying suppliers. In this sense we do practice what we preach. I am very keen to ensure that we pay our suppliers on time. In most cases, we pay them before the due date (aren't we good!). I could hardly run a credit control company and then not pay our own suppliers on time could I! It is important to have "great" relationships with all of your key suppliers - if you are good to them, they will be good to you too in return.

I also received a call from our largest customer to thank us for modifying and improving our service to them - it is always good to get feedback from your customers. We didn't do much really, we just made life a little easier for them. It was nice of them to phone and thank us.

Made a couple of sales follow up calls to a

• Publishing company, who are interested in outsourcing their credit control to us
• Chartered Accountancy practice based in The City of London who are interested in our Sage Line 50 Service. This will be a "big win" for us. Most firms of accountant's think they know everything about finance. It is refreshing to see that a large firm are willing to accept that they need help with their credit control. In addition to this, they will also have clients that may be having issues with their credit control and they will be in a position to recommend our services to them.

Had a couple of minor issues with our VOIP telephone system - I am able to access each handsets call data through a web portal - I couldn't logon on as the supplier had re-set the password and hadn't let me know. Anyway, all sorted now. We installed our "all singing, all dancing" VOIP telephone system around 3 months ago. The reasons we switched over to VOIP are quite simple:

• It is cheaper
• The call quality is better than a normal land line
• It allows us to link our Satellite office in Turkey into one integrated telephone system. When you call out Turkish office, it also means that you dial an Ashford Number beginning "01233"
• Call costs from Turkey to The UK are free of charge
• It has saved me an absolute fortune on "Call Centre Charges" Due to the advanced functionality of the VOIP system, it means we can handle more direct calls, thus saving on call centre charges (we were spending around £1,000 per month on our call centre, these have reduced to around £150.00 per month)

To summarise, we have a much better integrated telephone system, with the sort of functionality you would expect from advanced switchboards that would ordinarily cost you tens of thousands of pounds. In addition to this it has also saved me money - a great combination.

I am also able to monitor the number of calls that each of our credit controllers makes each day. I will shortly be introducing an incentive scheme based on the monthly number of calls each credit controller makes. In simple terms, the more calls we make the quicker our client will get paid. This will result in further improvements to their cash flow. This will ultimately encourage client loyalty and more client referrals. A sign of a good business, is the number of referrals you get from customers - needless to say we get lots of referrals from our customers.

If you are interested in looking at how a VOIP system could save you money and make life a lot easier, please enquire here

4.00pm - just put in another call to the firm of chartered accountants and ended up leaving another message.

4.30pm - We have been invited to advertise and have 2 pages of editorial within a Sunday Times Publication called "Essential Business Finance". This is very exciting for us and will no doubt raise our profile and get our Brand "out there".

5.30pm - Finished for today.

Another great and exciting day for me.

I will no doubt get bored watching telly later and my mind will drift back on to work and I will no doubt end up working away until the early hours...............

Thanks for reading.

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

Wednesday 26th March 2008

I ended up working until around 4am this morning! I didn't therefore relish the prospect of getting up at 5.30am this morning to go to BNI.

I Got up at around 10am. I am preparing for my meeting with the Recruitment Company in London at 3.30pm today. I will need to leave home at around 12.30pm, If I am to arrive at the meeting on time. As well as having a face to face meeting, I will be demonstrating what we can do via a web demo. I think this is a very powerful way of getting the prospect excited about what we can do for them. You know what they say, most people relate more to pictures than words! (A picture paints a thousand words), Besides which if you happen to be selling a product or service that is not sexy or tangible, you need all the help you can get when it comes to closing a sale.

I have just amended my to do list for today and will make sales follow up calls whilst travelling to London this afternoon.

The meeting with the Recruitment Co went very well, They have been in business for just over a year and like most recruitment they currently factor their debts. The reason most recruitment Co's factor their debts is due to the fact the have to pay their temps on a weekly basis and will typically have to wait around 45 days (or more) to get paid by their customer. They are less than happy with their factoring company in the sense they do not undertake their credit control effectively. This means that a lot of their outstanding debt is over 90 days old. This will have a negative effect in 2 ways:

• Firstly, it will reduce the amount of finance they are able to draw down for their factoring facility, as factoring companies will exclude debts over 90 days old
• Secondly, it means that the recruitment company has to spend a lot of time doing their own credit control

Factoring companies are well known for not undertaking credit control properly. They are really specialists at providing invoice finance and that is what they should stick to, leaving Credit Control to specialist companies like ourselves.

The Recruitment co still needs a finance facility to help their cash flow, but, they want us to undertake their credit control.

We have suggested that they consider Invoice Discounting rather than factoring. This means they will still have in place a "factoring type" finance facility, although,

• We will effectively run their sales ledger for them and be responsible for providing the Invoice Discounting Company with the monthly reconciliation
• We will also undertake their credit control on an outsourced basis

This will:

• Save them money
• Save them time
• Improve level of credit control collections
• Maximise the amount they are able to draw down from their finance facility.

I got home at around 8pm and just chilled out and watched The England -v- France match. England's performance was encouraging but disappointing all the same.

Thanks for reading.

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

Tuesday 25th March 2008

Got up at 8am today - raring to go and feeling good and positive, although, I didn't sleep very well last night - lots of things on my mind.

I will be working from home today.

I have sorted the issue with our Import Plus Software (see diaries Monday 24th March 2008). It was just a licensing issue. The supplier is very quick at getting back to me if there are any issues - it is all well and good when things are going well, but, a test of a good supplier is how quickly they deal with issues. I am pleased to say that this particular supplier is excellent.

Once of my staff (living in Turkey) has just advised me that they are unable to remotely logon to their computer in the office - must be network problems. Kieran (my son) should arrive in the office at 9.30 and he will sort this issue.

The "network" issue was sorted at 9.30am

Having a great day so far:

Closed my first sale at 10am - a new outsourced credit control customer (yippeeee !). This customer has a consultancy business that operates within the care sector

Almost closed another sale at 10.30am. We are at the negotiating stage - they are going to get an alternative quote. I've just e-mailed them to let them know why they should come to us rather than seek an alternative quote (this is a very powerful e-mail and will I am sure, swing it for us). This potential customer is a member of BNI (as are we) and this will also go a long way to making sure that we win his business (I will update you as soon as I know)

Closed another sale at 11am - a Debt Collection Client who wants to go ahead and use our Statutory Demand Service

My goal, is to close at least 3 sales today (I will update you on my progress later in the day)

11.30am - Just followed up another potential credit control customer and he has decided to keep it "in-house" for now. He has basically given his staff a good talking to and told them that if the credit control situation does not improve within the next 2 months, they will outsource it to us. I have made a note in my CRM package (Sage - ACT) to follow up on 29th April. The business owner is firmly of the opinion that his in-house solution will not work and he has admitted that he will more than likely outsource it to us. As a decent boss, he is giving his staff a chance to prove him wrong - I will keep you informed of developments.

13.15pm - I just e-mailed a contract & Service level Agreement to our newly closed sale along with information required in order to commence working with them later this week. That is the good thing about us. Due to the way in which we are organised, we are able to start working with new customers almost instantaneously. Our customers report to us that this one of the many reasons they choose us over our competition.

13.57 pm - Ever hungry for new business, I am now researching Franchised businesses on the web. I will not mention names, but, I have come across a very well known Design & Printing franchise with over 150 branches in the UK. I have a very nifty bit of kit called "Cardscan" it allows me to drag and drop all contact data from a website directly into my Cardscan Database. My Cardscan database is basically a local database of all of my contacts. This data is also backed up on a web based database. the on-line database will also periodically -mail all of my contacts asking them to update their contact data. if they wish to opt our of future mailings they can do so. This way, you are only mail mailshoting people that want to hear from you, thus increasing the likelihood of making a sale. The other great thing about Cardscan is it can be easily synchronised with Outlook or other popular CRM packages.

If I had to manually type this information into my database, I anticipate that it would have taken me at least a whole day (if not longer). It would then take me another few hours to prepare and e-mail a mailshot by mail merging data etc. Using Cardscan, it will only take me around 2 hours to copy the data from the franchised prospects website and send the mail shot! Not only does this save me time, it allows me even more time to follow up prospects by telephone and this of course is where the real sales are made.

15.18PM - Just finished scanning 168 names, addresses, telephone numbers & e-mail addresses from the large print & design franchise from their website into my database. It took me around 1hour & 20 minutes. Just about to synchronise them with my CRM package and mail shot them all.

16.04pm - Just finished and e-mail shoted the large print & design franchise - not bad for just 2 hours work!

16.10pm - Followed up 3 x new prospects - 1 is away until tomorrow, the other wants me to to call them tomorrow and I left a message for the last to call me back.

Just starting to work on my BNI 60 Second script for tomorrow. I belong to a Business by referral group called BNI. My chapter is the Ashford Chapter. If you own your own business and are looking for more business (why wouldn't you be) you should come along to BNI. I have been a a member for around 6 years now. networking is a wonderful way to grow your business. BNI accounts for around 60% of our turnover each year. Not being a member of BNI for me would be like committing commercial suicide.

Anyway, back to my 60 second script, at BNI each week each member gets a "60 second slot" to tell other members about their business and about the referrals they are looking for. For example, if you knew somebody that had problems collecting money from their customers, you would refer them to us, or, if they just wanted help in collecting an old outstanding debt, we could help them with our debt collection service. I am currently making brief notes about the points I wish to raise tomorrow in my 60 second slot.

17.08pm - Just got a call back from another hot prospect (A recruitment company who are currently factoring their debts and whom incidentally are less than happy with the factoring company's credit control performance - no surprise there then!) [factoring companies should stick to what they are good at - advancing monies on sales and leave specialist credit control companies like us to undertake the credit control]. Anyway, I have a meeting with the recruitment company tomorrow at 3.30pm in West London. I absolutely love face to face selling - it is one of my biggest strengths.

I am going to sign off for today - I've had a fantastic day and am already looking forward to tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

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

Monday 24th March 2008

Had a very late night last night - watching DVD movies in bed.

I got up at around 10am and went shopping to Tesco's in Park Farm - it was open this time.

Life for me is quite difficult at the moment, My gorgeous wife, Sally and my equally wonderful daughter, Kayleigh moved to Turkey in November 2006. This means that as well as running a business, I also have a house to run too. My sons - Kieran & Liam live with me in Ashford, Kent and they do help me out, although life can be quite tough at times. There always seems to be lots to do, but no time etc.

As you can imagine, I miss my wife and daughter so much. I go to Turkey every 6 to 8 weeks and spend time with them. I am fortunate in the sense that my business functions without my being involved in the day-to-day running of it. I am a proper Managing Director, in the sense that I spend all of my time growing the business, looking at new technology, researching our competition etc.

Sally has been very supportive to me since starting the business. Although, she lives in Turkey she still works in the business doing Credit Control for one of our largest clients.

Anyway, back to my day. Sue, another of our Credit Controllers, is on holiday for 2 days, so, I need to make sure that the rest of the staff pick up on her work in her absence i.e deal with incoming phone calls and chase our clients debtors for payment. You cannot afford to "not chase" customers debtors for payment. It is important to ensure that debtors are followed up diligently. Were we to simply not chase the ledger for a couple of days, it would have a negative effect on our clients cash flow and we can't have this.

I also had an annoying issue with a piece of Software (Import Plus) that sits on the back of Sage Line 50. For some reason it is not working? I think the temporary licence has run out. I therefore had to e-mail the supplier and ask them to advise. I hope the issue is easily resolvable, as, without this software, we are not able to function properly. For more information on how we can show you how to get the best out of Sage Line 50 from a credit control perspective, please visit our website. The methods that we use to undertake credit control in Sage Line 50 will save you  lots of money and lots of time

The rest of the day was spent dealing with e-mails and updating and re-organising my "To DO" List.

This week is going to be a very busy week for me (no change there then). It looks as though, we will be starting work on 2 new credit control contracts. This means I will be spending lots of time setting up the new customers and devising new credit control processes etc. I also have around 20 sales prospects to follow up from my pipeline.

We really are growing at a rapid pace now - 7 years of very hard and intense work is beginning to finally pay off.

Many Thanks for reading.

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

Sunday 23rd March 2008

Got up at 10am today - a well deserved lay in.

Did virtually no work today.

Tried to go shopping at Tesco's in Park Farm, but it was closed.

Came home and watched a DVD until about 1pm and then turned over to Sky Sports 1 to watch the Man United -v- Liverpool game. I was hoping that this match would end in a draw. I am an avid supporter of Chelsea and this would have been the ideal result. It would have meant that Chelsea would have been in shouting distance of the top of The Premier League. It also would have meant that Liverpool who were in 4th place would not have made much progress towards toppling Chelsea from 3rd place. Alas, it wasn't to be - Man United thrashed Liverpool 3 - 0.

At 3.30pm, Chelsea were playing Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. I am pleased to say that Chelsea won 3 - 0! Man United remain in top spot and Chelsea move up to 2nd. It looks a as though Man United will win the league, although mathematically, there is a chance Chelsea could still pull through.

I had rather too many beers whilst watching the match, so I slept off my excesses after the match and simply watched telly for the rest of the evening.

Many Thanks,

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

Saturday 22nd March 2008

I got up at around 11am today (very unlike me to lay in so late)

I was very eager to crack on with my new venture - creating a new blog entitled "Entrepreneur Diaries" to keep track of my daily progress towards my goal of success and happiness. Notice I say "happiness" as opposed to "wealth"

The first thing I did was to purchase the Domain name - www.entrepreneurdiaries.co.uk

I then logged onto my computer at work to check my e-mails.

I composed a new e-mailshot to tell everyone in my contact list (circa 2,000 business contacts) about a new "FREE CREDIT CONTROL" offer that had just been put on our website (see copy of mailshot below)

------------------------------------------------------------

Dear ............

In order to improve our position within the outsourced credit control market place and to capitalise on our current growth, we are making you an unbelievable offer!

For customers that sign up for our outsourced credit control service, we are giving the first month of credit control completely free of charge.

I know what you're thinking:

• What's the catch? (THERE ISN'T ONE)
• Where's the asterisk? (THERE ISN'T ONE)
• Where is the "unable to read small print that is impossible to read without a 1000 times magnification magnifying glass"? (THERE IS NO SMALL PRINT)

This is a genuine offer.

For further information on all of our services, please visit our website

------------------------------------------------------------

It is very important to send out regular mail shots/e-mailshots. I probably send out around 2 per month. On average, I pick up around 6 new contracts per year off of the back of our e-mailshot campaigns. Putting this in perspective - it adds around £40-£100K to our turnover each year.

Incidentally, if you do send out a lot of mailshots by post, we can show you a way to save an absolute fortune on your fulfilment & postage costs. If you currently do all of your own mailshots, the true cost of the exercise will be around £1.00 per item, when you factor in

• Cost of paper
• Cost of ink
• Cost of envelope
• Cost of your time to sign, fold & stuff the envelope & to take to the post office
• Cost of stamp

I pay no more than 40P for each item of post and that includes all of the above costs. If you are interested in saving in excess of 60p for each item of post that you generate, please enquire here

I spent the rest of the day (until around 1pm) updating my website, my business blog & my new entrepreneur diaries blog

I am off out into the "Real World" at 3pm today. I am off to my brothers house for dinner with the family!

Many Thanks,

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

Thursday 20th March 2008

I got up at around 8am and decided to actually go into the office (in New Romney) rather than working from home.

As usual, before leaving for the office, I switched on my PC at home to look at what was on my list of things to do that day.

Kieran (my son, who worked for me) and I arrived at the office at around 9.20am. On arrival at the office I was greeted by Sue (one of our credit controllers).

I sat at my desk and decided that I needed to look through all of the paperwork on my desk that I had not dealt with since coming back from Turkey 3 weeks earlier. There was nothing urgent to deal with. I posted a few invoices onto our purchase ledger, dealt with a VAT return for another of the companies I had set-up but not yet stated trading through.

Pam (another of our credit controllers) arrived at around 9.30am and made me a welcoming cup of coffee (always good).

Sue then announced to me that we had received another enquiry through our website from a potential new credit control customer. I tried phoning them, but there was no answer. I made a note to give them another call at 11am.

In view of the fact today is the day before Good Friday; I announced to the staff that I was going to take them all out for lunch @ The Ship Hotel, in New Romney High Street (I can be very nice sometimes).

Today was actually a very exciting day for me, as in the previous 2 weeks we had received an unprecedented 10 new credit control enquiries through our website. I was on a high. Still at the back of my mind though were the 2 customers we had lost 3 weeks prior (one of the losses was due to something very stupid that I did and the other was due to a change of circumstances). We have never lost a client due to poor service.

2 weeks ago, I was concerned that we were going to have to make a member of staff redundant - I mean losing £40K's worth of turnover is a very big loss to sustain. Cutting staff numbers seemed to be the only way out! I did not relish this prospect at all. I was honest with the staff and told them than unless things improved, we would have to consider redundancies

I telephoned our newest enquirer (Hamza) and explained how we could help him, discussed benefits, costs, process etc. I promised to e-mail him further details and a quotation by the end of the day.

I took the staff for lunch at 12.30pm and then went home to work on my quote for Hamza. I finished and e-mailed the quote to Hamza at 4pm.

At 5pm, Hamza phoned me to say that he had received the quote but had a few more questions for me. I answered his questions and I know that he will become another customer of ours. He is going to think about it over the weekend and will call me on Tuesday to inform me that the contract is ours (yippee). I will meet with Hamza at some stage next week to close the deal. I think he wants us to start work with him on Monday 31st March.

I am now absolutely knackered. The last 2 weeks have been manic and have taken their toll on me. I finished work and had every intention of lying on the settee all night relaxing in front of the Telly, but, in typical Jamie Style, my relaxation was constantly interrupted. This meant, I was constantly getting up from the settee to make a note of ideas and things I needed to do within the coming weeks.

I seem to live my life around "Lists of things to do"

Ah well - that is business for you.

Many Thanks,

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