Hiring A Collection Agency: Business Debt Collection Made Easy

Hiring A Collection Agency: Business Debt Collection Made Easy
by Michael Gillen

It's a problem as old as business itself: sometimes you have delivered a product or service, but your customer refuses to pay all or part of the cash owed. Short of only accepting cash upfront (hardly an option in this day and age), everybody who runs a business is going to have to deal with this problem on a frequent basis. When you have exhausted all other options and you feel that you're ready to take the next step, your best bet is contacting a professional collections agency that can help you get the cash that you deserve. Here are a few tips on how you can make sure that the debt collection agency that you hire is the best fit for you.

The first step is an oldie but a goodie: look through the yellow pages and search for a collection agency that works in your area. Every area might have different rules for collecting debt, so it is better for you in the long run to hire somebody who is knowledgeable of the rules and regulations governing debt that are in place in your area. When looking for agencies, remember that they can be called a variety of different things: debt recovery agency, credit collection agency, debt collection agency, or a bill collection agency. Each of these does the same thing, so you should not be concerned about what it's called.

Once you have made a list of potential debt collection agencies, fire up your computer (well, it should be on now if you're reading this). The vast majority of companies have a website these days, so you can go on to them in order to learn about rates as well as their individual areas of expertise.

What you have to do next is a bit more complicated, but so is collecting bad dept. By asking friends and local businesses to see if they have worked with any debt collection agencies and if they have any suggestions or horror stories to share with you, you will get a nice list of companies that would be best for you to work with. Your accounts receivable is one of the most critical parts of your business, so it makes sense that you would only want to work with a very reputable company.

Now that you have a list of your top debt collection agencies, you should organize a face-to-face meeting with them so that you can make sure that these are the sort of people with whom you'd want to work. This meeting should focus on things like rates (what percentage of the bad debt that the collection agency will take as their fee), the kind of techniques the debt collection agency will use, and finally that they have experience in the sort of debt collection you are trying to do in the location you're working in.

Once you've finished these steps, you can finally get back to actually making the products or performing the services you sell. Debt collection is important, so hiring a debt collection agency is a great way to stay focused on what you should be: your business.