Duedil Blog

In all likelihood, your business both serves customers and is a customer itself. Since you expect and rely on your customers to pay you on time, it is reasonable to expect that you in turn pay your suppliers on time. Think of it as the ‘Golden Rule’, but applied to business – treat others as you wish to be treated yourself. After all, you don’t want to contribute to someone else’s failure by not paying your invoices on time. Here are a few pointers to make sure that you are doing part for corporate social responsibility.

 

Whenever possible, meet your suppliers face-to-face. You’ll be able to build a stronger relationship with them when you’ve visited their premises and seen their business in action. Talk to them about their plans for expanding their company. Will this open up further opportunities between your firms? Further to this, if you have any contacts that could benefit your supplier’s business, or vice versa, put them in touch. You never know when they might return the favour to you.

As we wrote in our blog on payment terms, always make sure that you agree the terms of business in writing. It’s up to the supplier to make sure that he or she is happy with your agreed terms of payment. Address any queries with your supplier as soon as you have them. If you find any of the wording ambiguous, be sure to bring this up right away. Nipping problems in the bud will save you time and money, help to prevent costly delays, and ensure that you are both satisfied with the transaction.

Like we wrote in the invoicing blog, it’s important to remember that it is the customer’s responsibility for letting the seller know exactly what information needs to be on the invoice.  So be sure to be precise with your requirements in order to facilitate a smooth transaction.Once these terms are agreed to, make sure that you adhere to them and pay on time.  Besides avoiding needless penalties, you will violate the feeling of trust by being tardy with payment.  If you are putting your supplier under financial strain, your business relationship may not be able to recover.As stated in our cash flow blog, forecast, forecast, forecast!  Having detailed forecasts will allow you to foresee any potential problems with meeting payments to your suppliers.  If you see any problems on the horizon, it’s best to let your supplier know as soon as possible, so they can adjust their own expectations, and save themselves the hassle of being surprised on payday.

By following these guidelines, you can make sure that you develop and maintain strong, trusting relationships with your suppliers.

Jaspar

Jaspar is a copywriter and one of the newest members of the Duedil team. He studied Economics and is interested in finding new ways for people to use Duedil - from entrepreneurs and investors to academics and journalists. Duedil is the world’s largest free database of company information. Using data gathered from a variety of sources, including Companies House, Duedil presents business owners, startups, venture capitalists, and the otherwise curious with key insight into any company in the UK and Ireland.