As a small business we are grateful for every customer, but when invoice time came around each month there were some customers we weren't quite as grateful for. We all have them, that account that never pays on time. The one client who makes you beg to get paid. A few are just forgetful, some are in a financial bind and then there are the deadbeats that never intended to pay.

We'd dread the phone call. With a knot in my stomach I'd call to remind them they hadn't paid and it would always end with a promise to send the check right away. Life would go on until the next month when I'd see they still hadn't paid. With each passing month the call would get tougher and tougher.

There had to be a better way of handling past due accounts. We looked around online for a collection agency but they all had high fees and were only interested if the delinquent invoice was fairly large. What do you do if the bill is only $250? What if it's only $25?

After a lot of time reading articles and forum posts there seemed to be one universal truth in debt collection, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” The best way to insure you got paid the money you were owed was to remind your client of the debt, remind them again and remind them again. It seemed that being persistent paid off for many of the small business owners posting on the Internet. It's the same basic principle the large collection agencies use, have a representative call them once a week and show no sympathy.

That's great in theory, but there are a couple of issues with collection calls that didn't sit well with us.

• It's time consuming
• Remembering to do it.
• Confrontation
• Call screening
• Predictable
• Permanent

It's time consuming.
I've got too much on my plate to be devoting so much time to calling customers who owe me money. It may take a few calls to get through to them each time and I might have to call a dozen or more times to get paid. Let's say it takes 5 minutes to grab their invoice and make the call. On average I was calling 3 times before I got through to them and I'd have to pester them 5 or 6 times to get paid. That's an hour and a half of my time. Many times the delinquent invoice was worth less then the labor I put in collecting on it!

SqueakyFax frees up your time. Invest five minutes in describing the account and the system then does the work. It will fax them daily, weekly or monthly without any further drain on your time.

Remembering to do it
It's important that you are persistent. If you forget to contact them for a while it sends a message that you aren't that serious about claiming the money you are owed. Remember it's the squeaky wheel, not an occasional chirp that gets the grease.

SqueakyFax automates the faxes so you don't have to remember to do anything. Your customer is reminded of their debt in a consistent and timely manner so they know you're serious and you aren't going to go away quietly. It's not just two or three calls, but repetition that gets results. Remember, some people need reminded, others need annoyed.

Confrontation
Conflict is unproductive. People often say stupid things when they are confronted and it's hard to negotiate when one side makes an ultimatum. Besides, we work hard to find our customers and would hate to loose one due to an awkward phone conversation. Unless you really enjoy conflict, there is a good chance you'll put off calling or worse yet, agree to poor terms just to avoid future confrontation.

SqueakyFax is text based, allowing you to craft a polite, yet firm, request for payment. Since you aren't speaking directly with the dead-beat client there is no confrontation.

Call Screening
Do you really think the head of accounting has been in a meeting for three straight weeks? When a customer owes you money they can utilize caller-Id or a receptionist to screen your calls.

SqueakyFax sidesteps the perpetual “away from his desk” message by sending a fax. In most offices faxes are printed without intervention so someone is bound to see your message. The fax number it is sent from rotates from a pool of numbers, making it even more difficult to block your message.

Predictability
If you set your calendar to remind you to call at 9:00 every Tuesday the delinquent account will mentally set their calendar to avoid the phone every Tuesday at 9.

Squeakyfax randomly chooses a time during business hours to send your message.

Permanent
Email gets deleted. Conversations are quickly forgotten. A scribbled note during a phone call may not have the correct details.

SqueakyFax puts a hard copy in their hands. You determine what information to give and how much detail to include in a printed request for payment on past-due billings.

We've created SqueakyFax as the answer to our problem of collecting on past due accounts. We believe that other small businesses, freelancers and private contractors will find it an invaluable tool in getting paid for the work they've done.