Creating an alliance. (Entrepreneur's Notebook).When you put yourself in the underdog position and make a plea to the person preparing the checks, they will usually be more than happy to assist. At the same time, be sympathetic to their position and find out what you can do to help them get the checks processed quicker. Once they have all the information they need to process the check, find out how long it will take to send. Approval of an invoice does not mean the check will be immediately forthcoming. The signature process can sometimes be as arduous ar·du·ous adj. 1. Demanding great effort or labor; difficult: "the arduous work of preparing a Dictionary of the English Language" Thomas Macaulay. 2. as the approval process. Many times more than one signature is required. If that is the case, get the names of the people who are signatories and keep them for future reference. If one of the signers is out of town, find out if there is someone else who may be authorized au·thor·ize tr.v. au·thor·ized, au·thor·iz·ing, au·thor·iz·es 1. To grant authority or power to. 2. To give permission for; sanction: to sign your check. If it is an extremely large check, offer to send a messenger to pick it up. If the customer is out of town, offer to pay the charges if they will send it by Federal Express. This will create a sense of urgency that getting paid is important to you. Once the check is in your hands, take the time to call the person(s) who assisted you and thank them. Better yet, write them a hand-written note or send an e-mail expressing your gratitude. These employees are taking calls all day long from creditors who want something from them. It is always nice to hear the words "thank you" and know that their efforts were appreciated. Remember that you are one of thousands of vendors these people are paying. What makes payment of your invoices different than everyone else's? In most cases, the answer is "you." Take the time to work within their system and think in terms of how you can make their job easier. You will be amazed a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. at the results. Carol Frischer is a member of Holthouse Carlin car·line or car·lin n. Scots A woman, especially an old one. [Middle English kerling, from Old Norse, from karl, man.] & Van Trigt in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. and author of "Collections Made Easy." She can be reached at carolf@hcvt.com. Entrepreneur's Notebook is a regular column contributed by EC2, The Annenberg Incubator incubator, apparatus for the maintenance of controlled conditions in which eggs can be hatched artificially. Incubator houses with double walls of mud, a fireroom, and several compartments each holding about 6,000 hens' eggs were developed in ancient times; the Project, a center for multimedia and electronic communications at the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission . Contact James Klein at (213) 743-1759 with feedback and topic suggestions. |
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