Business Innovators Radio - Collect the Cash: Dee Bowden Shares Her Proven Approach to Mastering Invoice Collection and Boosting Cash Flow

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

Dee Bowden Shares Her Proven Framework for Collecting Outstanding InvoicesIn this episode, Dr. Tami Patzer talks with Dee Bowden, the author of Collect the Cash. Dee has an impressive track record, including collecting $6 million in outstanding invoices in just 60 days – all while working part-time. She has also been featured in Forbes, solidifying her expertise in this crucial area of business success.Dee Bowden is a seasoned contract administrator with over 10 years of experience. Early in her career, she was tasked with collecting $8 million in unpaid invoices for an IT company. Through this experience, Dee developed a unique framework for efficiently collecting outstanding cash – one that revolves around problem-solving, customer service, gratitude, and relationship building.During the interview, Dee shares real-life examples that illustrate the power of her Collect the Cash approach. She discusses how simple oversights, like incorrect data entry or changes in a client’s billing system, can lead to thousands of dollars going uncollected. Dee emphasizes the importance of proactively communicating with clients, asking the right questions, and documenting everything to ensure invoices are paid promptly.This episode is a must-listen for any business owner or professional who struggles with getting paid on time. Dee’s strategies can help you plug the leaks in your cash flow and ensure the “transaction is not complete until the money is in the bank.” Whether you’re dealing with a government agency, a large corporation, or a small client, Dee’s advice can be applied across industries and business sizes.To learn more about Dee Bowden and her Collect the Cash framework, visit www.collectthecash.biz/book. There, you can schedule a call with Dee to discuss your specific invoicing challenges and how her approach can help you get paid faster. Don’t let unpaid invoices hold your business back – tune in and let Dee show you how to take control of your cash flow.Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/collect-the-cash-dee-bowden-shares-her-proven-approach-to-mastering-invoice-collection-and-boosting-cash-flow

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Hi, everyone. This is Dr. Tammy Patser, and today we have a very special guest, Dee Bowden. She is the author of Collect the Cash. And I've talked to Dee before, but she's been on this big adventure sharing. all of this information about collect the cash. And she has this impressive track record, including collecting $6 million in outstanding invoices in just 60 days. Imagine that. Collecting outstanding cash in 60 days, $6 million.

And she did that all while only working part-time. And she was also featured in Forbes. So today we're going to talk about her book, Collect the Cash and her unique framework for collecting outstanding invoices and why it's so crucial for business success because the transaction is not done until you... The money is in the bank.

So D, tell us a little bit more about your background and how you got into the field of cash collection. Sure thing. Well, first of all, Dr. Tammy, thank you so very much for this. So here's how I can say it. So I'm Deboating. I'm originally from Boston and I live in a great state of Maryland. My fun facts are I love smooth jazz, great wines, both red and white, Ferris wheels, and hard-air balloon rides.

How I got into this is funny. It's like, it's one of those things. So I've had a, I've been a contract administrator for over 10 years. And when you deal with contracts, you're always dealing with vendors, payments, issues, money. And so how I got started was I used to be a, I worked for an engineering, I worked for an engineering consulting for many, many years ago. I met my first contract administrator. And I was like, so what is that?

And he, both of them explaining me that said, every business, if they do, if they deal in contracts, they have a contract and then they have deliverables, things that you promise to get from your client, then you've got invoices. And they said, when invoices don't get processed properly and they don't get paid, it impacts a business's cash flow. And I just thought that was fascinating. And then I happened to love problem solving. So I've always been this inquisitive kid.

I always asked too many questions. So because I have too many questions, that's how I solve problems because I'm always asking the what had happened was and the why behind the what. So fast forward, and as you said in my introduction, so about 18 years ago, I used to work for a small IT company outside of Boston where I'm from. You've worked in corporate. You know how it is. Usually it's like, welcome aboard.

Here's your cubicle or your office. I jokingly say, here's your plant. And in my case, it was, hey, Dee, welcome aboard. We've got a team of people that collect money. We've got $8 million in IT services that we've sold to companies, corporations, government agencies, all the things. We can't seem to get collected. Your resume says you know how to collect money.

Here's your cubicle. Here's your list to get to work. So I literally, I'm a believer. So I had a short conversation with God. And when I finished, I discovered that collecting the cash for businesses, corporations, and government agencies, four things. It's problem solving. is to what had happened was when they don't pay you, you got to ask the question,

what had happened was what went left or right. Second thing is customer service. You're in business, so am I. Customer service is everything. When people have a great experience, they love it. They will shout you to the rooftops. If they have a horrible experience, you're like, listen, I'm going live. This experience was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And you and I both know that in 30 seconds or less, everything you have built can be destroyed because if somebody said they had a bad experience. So my framework is problem solving customer service. is the soft skill is gratitude. I'm old school. I believe that when people help you to solve your problem, you need to say thank you. It's really not that deep, but it's that important to me. So gratitude is the person who takes my phone call, helps me solve the problem, but where's the invoice? Is it, was there a data entry error? Was it sitting on somebody's desk and they forgot about it? Did we send it to the wrong department? Whoever helps me solve that problem,

do you get to collect the money? I'm always saying thank you. And then the last thing is you and I both notes relationship building. I had to build, in order to collect that $6 million, I had to get on the phone and talk to the person who could help me figure out where is the money. And then help, you know, if we lost things, if we misplaced things, whatever, build the relationship with them so they would say, okay, Dee, we want to help you get this money. So I'll give you another quick story. Of the $8, six million that I collected, one phone call, I called and said, okay, hi, I'm Dian calling behalf of this company. Can you tell me how come you have a penis? Yes, Dee. We, we changed our billing system. So Dr. Tammy, it would be like if you use Microsoft, say, Word or Excel,

and you went to say QuickBooks. Well, this company changed their billing system, so all their vendors to change to upload your invoices into the new system. My former employer never got the email. So $2 million sat uncollected because nobody did the problem solving part, which was, how come you haven't paid us. So one phone call collects $2 million. And then shortly after that, what happened was after I collect $6 million, The CEO says, listen, thank you so very much for everything you've done across all the departments. We've made an executive decision. We're closing the company today and letting 100 people go two months before Christmas.

That's what happened to me. So after that experience, I'm sure like you and like our like your listeners, everybody who's lived past a 25 has probably had something in life, something in life that said, that didn't feel good. I got jarred or I got, I got impacted. but usually what we don't, we don't always do is after we get jarred or impacted or hurt, we usually kind of sit in that stuff. We never decide, okay, how can I use this to do something different? So I decided to use, you know, working for a company, collecting that money, being let go,

to say, okay, how can I take this? Basically, it may take in lemons and making lemonade, which is now collected cash, and say, okay, how can I start this conversation, also write a book, and get on podcasts and say, listen, if you're a business owner, please do me a favor. Track your payments. Set up a system so you know how many clients do you have? How much money is owed to you? Do you have people that are late paying you?

What's your system to get paid? And so that's what started this was that I worked for this company. I collected this money and then we lost our jobs. And I was like, this, this wasn't fair. But, you know, sometimes life isn't fair. But it's like, what do you do after life isn't fair? Are you going to sit there? Are you going to get up and do something?

So I chose to get up and do something and not create, collect the cat. And that's part of my story. So I think what's interesting about that is that you took that experience. It was the negative experience, obviously turned it around. But you obviously had that skill level to ask the right questions and to find out because I thought it's interesting how, you know, they're sitting there, two million dollars sounds like an awful lot of money to me to not want to find out, well, come you didn't pay us.

And I wouldn't be waiting very long to find out why didn't you pay us. It seems like, you know, they were just kind of like nonchalant about that because it just seems like you'd want to do that rapidly. So you have created the Collect the Cash framework. What are the components of that framework? So Collect the Cash Form basically has four keys. The first key or first part of the framework is problem solving. Problem solving is answering the question of what had happened was.

And I kind of do it tongue in cheek because everybody loves the, when people hear what had happened was, you already know that's the story. in order to solve problems, whether it's in business or in life, usually when somebody says, let me, girl, let me tell you what had happened was. You already know there's a story. But usually when I asked you what had happened was, I'm looking for this. I'm looking for the story. I'm looking for what were the things that went right or went wrong that impacted why we didn't get paid. So for example, and that, and the story I shared of the $2 million, that, that we, the people that I worked with on the team, the problem solving that they could have done was that, just

like I did, they could have called that company and said, I'm calling on behalf of XX company, could you tell us, please, how come we didn't get paid? Why they didn't go and ask the question? I don't know. I just happen to have that instinct to go, I'm a problem solver by nature. So, of course, my first question is, what happened? Start me the story. And then once I get the story, I'm looking for the dots to explain so what went wrong. And I'm going from what had happened to what, how do we win? That's my, that's my framework. So that's the first one. So that's problem solving. The second one is customer service. customer service is most of us know it basically you know for example if you go to a restaurant you have

great experience or you know a great customer service you know the waiter brings you everything on time the meal is prepared properly there's no issues also all of us all of us have also ordered something from whoever and you say for example you ordered 10 sets of sneakers you only got eight you want to know how come where are your other two sets of sneakers you're going to call into the ex company you want to get on the phone with customer service and which you're going to get on the phone with customer service and what you want them to do is to listen to your story, tell you how come your short sneakers, and whether, is there a credit coming for the sneakers, or are they going to shift the sneakers later? You want somebody, basically, with customer service, you want somebody to hear your story

and help you solve it. My goal with customer service with collecting the cash is, how do I, on behalf of the companies that I support and work for, how do I make sure that I'm interacting, you know, to the best of my ability with the person who's going to help me get the money? Third key is gratitude. you. You probably have received, I'm sure in your business, you've probably have received a holiday card that says, thank you, Dr. Tammy, for your business. Thank you for being one of our customers. That company that sent you that holiday card or Christmas card is saying, we know you have a choice

with who you spend your dollars with. So we want to recognize you as a valuable customer and do this little thing, which is thank you for your business. So that's the third key. Then the last key is relationship building. How are we here today? You and I have had a relationship. We've been building the relationship for several years. Relationship building even in business is, number one, before you get your first contract, you've got to do a sales presentation. You have to explain how working with you is going to be of benefit. You're going to show that you're able to solve the problem, improve, you know, whatever the

thing is. And the relationship that you build, number one, says, hey, I value you as a customer. I want to make sure that I take great care of you. And you're going to let all your friends know you had a great experience with me or whoever it is. And then B, hopefully I'm going to get repeat business from you or repeat opportunities. And so those are my keys. All of people say, well, D, what happened to, you know, a tracking system or day sale outstanding and all the things? I know the financial term, Dr. Tammy, and it's important. But I realize

that how I've been successful is these four keys is when I took, I think I said earlier in my story, I said, I got quiet and I figured out like what, what's been the thing that's made me successful? I've always been a problem solve. I've always asked questions. I've always I've always believed in customer service. It's just something that I learned. I guess it's an old school value. I've also learned to express gratitude. That's just before we started.

The first thing I said was, hey, thank you for this opportunity. That's just part of who I am. And then relationship building is just that I just learned that when people help you solve your problem, that's important. And then hopefully you create a good experience with people that they want to do, want to either do work with you again, have you on the podcast again, refer you to other friends again, whatever the thing is. And that's basically those are my keys.

They're what I call the soft skills to collect the cash, but it's what I've used successfully in my career and in business. I think it's so interesting because, again, it seems so simple that the basic tenets are be curious and be a problem solver. That makes perfect sense. You've been featured in Forbes. I wanted to ask you if that recognition has influenced your career and your business?

It has in this sense. So now, well, first of all, I mean, imagine, you know, deciding that you want to do this. And so how that happened was I have a buddy that's a chief financial officer. And so I basically asked her, have you ever written a story about accounts of civil? And so what happened was I told her my story, the one about the collecting $6 million. And she said, you know what, Dee, we don't normally talk about this. And she said, that's a really good angle because that's the part of business that most people don't talk about. When you think about business, especially when you look online, everything is marketing, it's sales, it's social media.

Nobody really talks about if you're old money or if you get ghosted by somebody. Like nobody can talk about that because that's not the sexy part of business. But on our side of the street, it's very sexy because, number one, she and I both are concerned about small businesses and medium-sized businesses, you know, invoicing correctly, getting paid, collecting their cash, not going to. out of business, not having, not having to file bankruptcy, all the things. And so what it did in terms of, you know, being featured in force was one, it confirms that I really do do what I said I do. And it also solidifies that as I'm now considered an expert in this, in this lane of collecting unpaid invoices and teaching business owners how to do it better. So it's interesting because, as you know, media is what I, I absolutely. What I'm into is.

Absolutely. And all of that authority that it helps you to gain. So I'm glad that I asked you that question. So if somebody's struggling and it's interesting that you say that nobody likes to talk about the fact that, hey, I did all this work and I didn't get paid and I don't know what to do. So if somebody is struggling, what steps should they take? What is the first thing? you know, what is that process besides, you know, doing the framework that you said. But let's say I need to collect some money today from somebody who owes me and I did work.

What can I do? Well, first thing is, number one, do you, your first step is do you have a copy of your agreement or your contract? That's your first, that's your first step. Because inside, okay, I come from corporate and government, so I'm always going to talk about it from that standpoint. So even if you don't have an agreement, but you can probably follow the steps. Do you have a copy of your agreement? Number one. Number two, what were the payment terms? Inside of your contract, does it say you're supposed to get paid in 30 days or 60 days or 90 days? Number three, again, coming from my background, does it tell you how to submit your invoice?

So the first thing you're going to do is you're going to go back through and basically do the backdrop work is basically figure out, okay, copy my contract, payment term, payment description. Did you follow the steps and submit a proper invoice? meaning, you know, you filled out the name of your company, the name of your client. What did you buy from them? Did you total up to do you have the right amount? And then once you do all that, the next step you're going to do is you're going to get on the phone. I'm old school. You've got to get on the phone.

You've got to talk to people because here's the thing, Dr. Tammy. Everybody thinks they can collect the cash with 144 characters, meaning sending a text. And nobody likes to talk on the phone. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. They wanted to send them a text to tell you that you're going to call them. Right. Exactly. And so the first thing I would do was basically, I would review my contract. If you have one, I would confirm that my invoice was prepared properly. And then I would get on the, I'm old school. I'm going to get on the phone. I'm going to call you. Hi, Dr. Tammy, this is Dee. How are you today? Good. How are you? I'm going to have a conversation with you. And I'm going to, we're going to, you know, do the pleasantries. And I'm going to ask you, I'm following up about this past through invoice. And I would like to know.

know, is there, is there, is there an issue with the invoice? Because you don't want to, what you don't want to do is go right into and ask them to, hey, how come you have paid me? You want to make sure you, number one, confirm that they received your invoice. Number two, you want to ask them, is there an issue with it? And pause and let them tell you. It's like, oh, you know, I'm sorry, let me look over the system. You know what? We never got it. Oh, no. Can I confirm with you the email address I suppose to send it to you? Okay. Do you mind if I resubmit it to you and I'm going to put an R at the end for like revised and I'm going to resubmit it and I need to do me a favor. Can you confirm that you received it? Okay, great.

And then let them do that and then basically then you want to, the next question you want to ask me is, okay, you know, you want to apologize that they didn't receive, they didn't get the copy. Number two, you want to ask them, okay, once I should resubmit this to you, how long will it take for it to get paid and let them tell you. They may tell you, okay, as soon as you just resubmit it, you know, yeah, you know, our next check run is blah, blah, blah, we're going to submit. we can pay you this. Okay, great. Can I confirm that with an email? Part of what people don't like to do is old school, but you need to get confirmation. You need to get confirmation. That all makes sense. And again, I like the fact that you're

old school when it really just is good business. If you're expecting a payment and it doesn't come, you need to find out, you know, did it get lost, you know, in the mail? Or in the system. In the system. Oh, you changed your system, like you said on that one where you collected the $2 million. Correct. And a lot of times it isn't even about that there was a problem like they weren't happy or something.

It is just like some clerical error or a failure of the system. Like in the last year, I think what we've had a few times where the literal internet went out or the systems have gone out or sometimes things go into the spam folder and people don't as a habit go look in their spam looking for it's real unless they're told to. So that's a lot of sense. So have you beyond your $6 million? on that company. So are you still collecting the cash with the business that you have? Yes. I still collect for the business that I have. And I also in my career, I still have a career. So I'm what to call a dupreneur. So I still have a career and I'm also, you know, I do this on a on a whole time basis. So yeah. So I support a government agency. So I collect the cash every month.

Okay. So you're collecting the cash. Do you have any examples of some really difficult cases that you've done? recently? Sure. So yeah, so in the government space, so one of the things I do in the government case, I do what's called contract close out. So I close out contracts and that basically, so the you know, every government agency has a, has a contract division and they're contracts that are awarded to, for example. So let's say, I'll give you a live example. So if you, if a government agency hired, you hired your company to do media for them. So you would be a vendor. You would get a contract. They would say we want you to produce, say, you know, 10, 10 interviews or 10 workshops or whatever. So you would do the workshops and you would build them, build the government, and then

go through the process and then you'd be looking to get paid basically collect your cash. So issues that I've had have been, for example, contracts that have been awarded years ago, somebody forgot to enter the information into the system correctly. So when it comes to me, when I go to close it out, I'm going back and I have to go back and do problems. So I have to go back and research, okay, this information was entered incorrectly. So instead of it going to one vendor, let's say, because they've got a contract number and their information was into wrong into the system, by the time it gets to me, I've got to go back and untangle a mess. A better example is this. Okay, I actually have a perfect example. So another agency that I used to work for, the client, I was closing out the contract and the vendor said, I was reconciling the money. That's what I was. Yeah, I'll reconcile the money. And the vendor said, hey, D, you're $9,000 short. And I'm like, excuse me? You know, I kind of like, I had a Scooby-Doo moment. I'm like, what? What? How is that possible?

And they said, oh, when we reconciled our books, we realized that we were overpaid by $9,000. So we've been to turn the money to the government. I said, really? They say, when? Oh, and they told me the date, blah, blah, blah. And I said, do you have a copy of the check and a copy of your letter that you submitted to the government, excuse me, to show that you did it? Oh, sure. Now, Dr. Tammy, you remember how we used to write checks?

People don't even know what a check is today. Remember how you used to write checks? Remember in the memo section? Yes. Okay, here's what happened. So this vendor repaid the government, and in the memo section, they had the wrong contract number. So that money never got applied to the contract that I was trying to close out. So basically the money is sitting in a suspense account.

And if I hadn't done the things I talk about in terms of problem solving, I would have never known that $9,000 that was owed on our contract was never going to get there because in the memo section is the wrong contract number, which means when it got, and the money got received, it is sitting in suspense. Now, eventually I'll be able to figure it out and get it applied to our contract, but that's what I'm talking about. I'm always problem solving because those are things that happen all the time. Data entry errors, excuse me, data entry errors are very costly. And we live in a world where everybody wants to do everything super, super fast. You know, we text, we, you know, we email. We don't always, we don't even do quality control anymore. You and I both know how important it is to make sure that your information is correct.

you know, the name of your company, if you're doing electronic funds transfer, the name of your routing number, your checking account number, all the things. People are so quick to just process everything. They don't check things. And then, unfortunately, we live in a world where people get irritated when the mistake was made, but it was on you because you didn't take five extra seconds to verify your information. I'm old school and, you know, people tease me all the time about that. But what I know is this is because quality control is, is, is, you know, important. If you don't catch errors on the front end, it becomes a nightmare, it can become a nightmare on the back end. You and I both, you know this with dealing with media. I'm sure when you,

when you set up things, you have to make sure the cameras are right, the lights are right, etc. If somebody misses one step, if you have a checklist of how things are supposed to go, if somebody misses one step, the interview, like, for example, how about if you forget to hit the record button? You had this great interview and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I forgot to hit the record button. Yeah, I've done, I actually did that. I was See, there you go. That's what I'm talking about. Talk to this one person and we talk, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And all of a sudden I look and I go, oh, you know, because we were, you know, I was just closing it out. And, of course, you never get back that original interview, you know, you can go do it, you know, a reasonable facsimile. But it's never. It's never the same. And here's the thing. Usually when you have a great interview, you and I both know, you have a great interview. So you have a great interview. You're in the flow.

When we saw the first thing we talked about, I said, I said, how funny that we both have on similar colors today. But it was like one of those things. It was just like, great colors, great choices. Let's go. And the energy is, you know, the first take of your interview was usually really good because, first of all, you know, you're super excited. You're in the flow. And then if you have to do a retake, you're like, it's not the same because the energy goes. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So you're. book has been a catalyst, a foundation. What else are you doing? Like, what are you creating? What are your goals and plans? And I wanted to know, like, how are you working with people? Obviously, if you have, you're still working at your job. And I know I've seen you out on adventures. Yes. So what are your goals and plans for collect the cash?

Great question. Well, first of all, one of the things I've already done is I actually have a workshop. So I actually have a webinar that I actually do. And so one of the things I've done, speaking about adventures, one of the great adventures I got to do was, but last year I just got to do a talk for the professional photographers of America. And so I was able to go do a virtual talk to their team and tell them about this.

So I have a workshop, other things in the work, I'm doing something called Money Talks. I have a couple of friends that we are all, we are all in the money space. So we come together once a month and we talk about different things in finance. So I talk about collective cash. Another friend talks about the drivers, like 16 things you need to know about in your business. And another friend talks about bookkeeping. So what I've been doing is, you know, not just, stop just staying in my collective cash lane.

I'm looking to collaborate. So we're doing that. So we're doing money talks. I've got a webinar. Eventually, I want to create a, you know, a workshop where I'm going to go in and train business owners on how to do this, you know, more effectively. And, you know, as I, you know, here's the thing. I'm on a journey as well.

As I grow, collect the cash grows. You know, how we get to talk today is because I've been on the journey of doing talks and sharing this message and getting it to the point where people are saying, you know what, huh, I never thought about if people own me money, what do I do? Because the assumption is that people, because. because you're in business, people are automatically going to pay you. What happens if a credit credit card, give you a perfect, a live example? What happens if you have a coaching client and the credit card doesn't go through? That's an issue. That's a collected cash issue.

Now, what should happen is that if your credit card payment doesn't go through, you or whoever supports you gets on the phone and talks to the person who says, okay, hey, I went to process your credit card. It didn't go through. Oh my gosh. Hopefully what's going to happen is, I'm sorry. Number one. Number two, they're going to say, give me either 24 hours, let me make a payment so that I could, you know, I obviously have enough credit. Open the credit. Yeah. Credit, exactly. Or B, can I use a different card?

And, you know, give me a minute. Let me do this. One of the things, one of the things with collected cash is I want people to get more comfortable. So you ask me like, what's the future things is as I do more talks? I want business owners to get more comfortable with this. I say it this way, as comfortable as you were to ask for the sale, you have to be just as comfortable to ask for the money. That's what my objective is, is that you understand that sales and collective cash goes better. together. Here's a perfect example of, you know, one of the things I'm working on. You have a

cell phone, right? Yes. Me too. Everybody that's listening has a cell phone, whether your team iPhone or team Android. One of the things that I'm trying to teach people is this. How you bought your cell phone is how I want you to get better at collecting the cap. So, for example, you walk into whatever the phone store company is, hey, Dr. Tammy, welcome to you, blah, blah, what brings you in today? Oh, you know, I was working on my phone and this button just isn't working. You're like, okay, before they even start with you, they ask you for your driver's license, They confirm you have an account with X company. Then you're like, they say, oh, did you know that your eligible for an upgrade?

You're like, I didn't come in here to buy a new phone. I just came in to get the button fixed on a phone. That's it. That's all. So this process of how you collect the cash is how you buy your phone. There was a sale. Next thing you know, they'll tell you to walk around the store, look around, look at the phones, and you go, oh, well, iPhone, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever number it is.

And you're like, oh, I'm eligible for an upgrade. You're like, I didn't want to get a new phone, but I like this one and get it. So first of all, there's a sale. Then you rent it into a new contract. Then they have what's called order entry. They'll go in the back. You decide to get a new phone. They'll go in the back and they'll go have inventory.

They'll get your new phone. They'll scan the information uploaded into your system. So there was a new sale, a new contract, order entry, order fulfillment. Then they're called accounts payable, which is billing. Dr. Timmy, when would you elect your bill from the phone company? You say, oh, I pay my bills on whatever day. They're going to enter the information into the system. So they have a new sale, a new contract, order entry, order fulfillment, accounts payable.

The phone company bills you every single month. Accounts receivable, aka collect the cash, there's a person in every phone company that's collecting cash every single day based on every account that's supposed to come in. So they've got a list of accounts where the money is supposed to hit on the first to second and third, whatever. So the sale, contract, order entry, order fulfillment, accounts payable, account receivable. then they wrap it all up in a nice bow they're going to ask you how would you like to pay for the diversity so you're going to sign a new contract and not you don't buy a new phone and then they're going to ask you how would you like to settle this crash credit debit debit debit you're going to let's tell the person there here's my credit card debit card you're going to pay them cash but before you get to leave all those things that I just described is how you bought your cell phone but that's also the sales process for how you do business

if business owners who are listening now and in the future, take the cell phone example I just gave you and do that with your business, you'll know how many sales, how many contracts, how many orders you have, how many invoices are outstanding, how you're supposed to get paid, and you're not going to move forward to make sure that all those things transpired. And then before you leave, these two magical words happen, transaction approved. That's how you bought your cell phone. That's how you do business. And you do the same thing over and over and over again. So that goal is to get that message out to more people so you understand. Just like you bought your cell phone, that's how you do your business. If you do those things, you have a sale, you have a contract, you have an order or a product or a service.

You build somebody. You expect to get paid. And then it rents and repeat. So that's the bigger goal of collective cash is to take that message and get people to get more comfortable with collecting cash. Just like I said, as confident as you were to ask for the sale, you have to be just as confident ask for more money. That's a really good example. And as you were talking about all of the, in the world today, there's so much need for financial literacy.

And it's right up there. And I know I've done presentations and talks to the small business administration or the, what is it, the small SDC. SBDC. I've talked to them as well. I think I can just imagine. how even the Goodwill Industries trains people for business and do different things. But I think that what you're talking about, like you said, it's a piece of that puzzle.

And it's a piece that a lot of people don't think about until they go, gee, how come I have all these outstanding, this money outstanding, and I need that money to grow. So if somebody wants to reach out to you, what's the best? way to do it? First, best way to reach out to me is go to www.combe.combe, for slash, book. That's www.w.w.clectthecash.biz.bore slash book. One, you can get the book, which gives you, you know, the opportunity to get my framework in a book. And secondly, there's a link to to schedule a call with me. And if you want to have a conversation about

this, please feel free to do that because here's a thing. Dr. Tammy, the reason I do all this is that what happened to me personally, I don't want to see another small business go out of business. And so this is a conversation. So lead tied to that. So what also I forgot to say was this. All of us watched COVID happen. And one of the things that I saw that really, really drove this more so was that when I kept seeing small business owners having to close their businesses, I kept wondering, hmm, I mean, I'll never know, but I kept wondering, I wonder if they had contracts or sales on the books or had invoices that were old to them. And unfortunately, you know, they didn't have a system in place to go collect the cash.

I wondered if that was something that could have saved their business? I don't know. Second thing is, I happen to love theater. So the bigger thing for me was when I watched Broadway shut down, I said, hmm, every Broadway is all the theater houses. They had shows. All those shows had contracts with vendors for the food, for the alcohol, the chop skis, whatever. All those shows shut down, which means that all those vendors were expecting all those sales,

where their cash flow was impacted. So I kept seeing, man, this is my story on Flick because I'm sitting there looking at this going, wow, so Broadway has shut down, which means every theater house is shut down, which every theater house is a business. The business has contracts with vendors, with all the people that run the show. All those people were expecting to make sales. They were expecting everything that was projected for the sales, for the shows, it never happened. imagine the stress that they felt with their cash flow because, number one, their rent, mortgage, paying their vendors, all the things was impacted. I saw my story and I'm like, okay, and nobody's talking about this.

Nobody's talking about the major impact, the major stress of when you don't get paid for your product, food service, how that impacts your entire life. So you ask me, like, what's my bigger mission with collective cash? It's to continue to raise the banner that, you know, I say it this way, collect the cash, sale is not complete until the money's in the bank, but you must collect you first. And you must see that sales and A.R. Accounts receival, they go together. And when you have a sale, you got to see it all the way through to make sure you get paid. That's my goal. Absolutely. You have to make sure you get paid. And I agree with that. So everyone, go check out,

collect the cash.biz forward slash book. Is that right? That's it. Hey, I got it. And take the opportunity to talk with D because, again, she's written it all down in the book, but she just said, hey, feel free to reach out and talk to me. Have a conversation because if anything, go and look and see what you have outstanding in your accounts receivable and how old is it. And, you know, why don't you take her advice and pick up the phone and talk. because it's so important.

Again, somehow it used to be the telephone. We used to talk to people on the phone and look forward to hearing people's voices. And now people are like, oh, send me a text. Well, sometimes, like, you cannot get all the information you need in a text. Exactly. Spend a short time on the phone. And isn't it a lot nicer to just have a pleasant, hey, how are you doing? And then, hey, what's up with this?

Why didn't we get paid? And to find out, oh, it was as simple as, oh, we didn't get the invoice. I mean, the worst case scenario is, oh, we don't want to pay you because X or, hey, COVID happened and our cash flow, but we'll pay you when we're able to. I mean, there's a lot of scenarios that could happen. So, D, it's great to catch up with you. I really appreciate all the. time you've spent, and I'll give you one more opportunity to give us some last words. Well, first of all, thank you, Dr. Timmy. It's always a pleasure. Listen, when you went into

business and when you created your business, or if you're planning to do it in the future, please know that you have a product or a service that people need, and you have to be confident that what you have to offer can and will make a difference. I created a collective cash because of a personal setback that happened to me in my career, and I decided to take it from lemons to lemonade. And so here's my tip. Make sure you do this. Collect the cash. The sale is not complete until the money's in the bank, but you must collect it first. Remember, the sale is not complete until the money's in the bank. Collect the cash. This is Dr. Tammy Patser, and we've been speaking with B. Bowden. So go check out, collect the cash.

and go make it a beautiful day. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at businessinnovatorsradio.com today.