What are your payment terms?
Many party planners don't think about things like this, but cash flow is very important to any business.
The company you work with likely uses the standard practice that you pay for your orders when you submit them.
The bottom line is that you should match your company's payment policy.
Here are my payment commandments:
- Always collect payments at the event. Chasing payments after the event is time consuming and unprofessional (not to mention awkward). Even if your company allows COD, make it your policy to collect payments at the time of sale.
- Never pay for an order without collecting the payment from the guest or host. You are not a lender. You are a seller. If someone cannot afford to purchase your products today, but can pay for them in their next pay cycle, then you have 3 choices:
- Have the host pay for their purchase and they can pay the host later.
- Take their order now, but process it in a separate order when they can pay for it.
- Book a party with them in that next pay cycle.
- Process the orders the next business day. This will ensure that guests receive their products in a timely manner.
For your clients, these terms enable you to provide excellent customer service and to deliver orders more quickly. For you, these terms improve your hourly rate (by eliminating calls to chase up payments), make your hosts happy (because they don't have to collect money for you), and keep you from going into unnecessary and risky debt.
Promote your payment terms at your party. If you have not had a policy like this before, or if you have been slack at enforcing it, make a few calls to your next hosts to inform them of your new payment terms.
Wendy Lloyd Curley is an expert in Profitable Party Planning
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