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Tired of always wondering where your money is? Wish there was a way you could actually get paid on time and pay your bills when they’re due? With a few simple tips you can have the money in your bank account in no time flat – every time you fulfill a contract. Think it’s just a myth? Try these recommendations and see!

1. Contract Up
Of all the steps here, this is by far one of the most crucial. If you don’t have a contract in place, some clients will be inclined to bolt as soon as they’ve gotten what they want from you. With just this one document, so many more headaches can be avoided. Don’t do a thing without getting it all down in ink first! (you can send contracts online these days, too)

2. Be Specific
The contract is always necessary – for both parties. The document should outline everything both of you expect. For your part, you should outline the bare minimum: what you’ll do, what the client’s responsibilities are to help you get your job done, how many revisions you’ll do, when you expect to be paid, and the penalties for late or non-payment.

3. Keep the Lines of Communication Open
Send updates on the project, or just follow up on the week’s activities. Have as many communication methods as possible so your client has no excuse to avoid you. Email, phone, social media, snail mail, carrier pigeon – ask your client how they prefer to be contacted and do whatever it takes to get the job done.

4. Offer Various Payment Methods
If you only take checks, not only will your client be a little wary of how you do business but it also offers them potential reasons to pay slowly - or not pay at all (temember that old “the check’s in the mail?”). The more options you give them to pay you – such as accepting credit cards online – the more cash positive you and your business will be.

5. Send Invoices Quickly
The job is done and the client has approved it. Now it’s time to relax, right? Wrong. Send that invoice right away. The longer you wait, the more time your client might feel like they can take to send you the money. Set an example and be as thorough and timely as possible.

6. Follow Up
Do you have a client that’s known for being late? Suspect the client you just signed will come up with excuses to delay payment? Trust your gut and follow up with them when you feel it’s appropriate. While sometimes you’ll be proven wrong, often you’ll be proven right. Don’t let it get to where you’re way past the time when you should’ve been paid – go ahead and send a reminder or better yet, give them a call. It’s harder to make excuses when there’s a polite-but-impatient contractor on the other end of the line.

7. Take a Down Payment
Still worried a client is going to grab your hard work and hit the road? Down payments are a terrific safeguard against that type of behavior. They can pay a little or a lot (all depends on you), and when you complete the work they send the rest. The best part of a down payment is you can adjust it after you know the client is trustworthy. If you’ve worked with them several times, you might want to simply eliminate it altogether.

Are all your customers equal? Sure, each person who comes through your doors (virtual or not) is special in some way. However, there are definitely some customers who make a much bigger impact on your business – either through your wallet or the joy you experience working with them.

You see them day in and day out buying stuff and even talking to you on social media or through email. Some of them are so close to you they’re more friends than anything. You know they’ll be around for a long time and want to reward them for their dedication.

This is precisely why you need the Best Customer Report provided at Outright. Outright is a bookkeeping app for small business owners. It tracks your income and expenses, and slices and dices that information into handy reports – like the Best Customer Report. This particular report helps you figure out which of your customers have been around the longest and who’s given you the most business over a certain period of time. From there, you can…

1. Nurture the Relationship

After you know who's your best customer, you’ll want to nurture this relationship even more. While you don’t want to seem like you’re “sucking up” by any means, you want the customer to feel wanted and special. They’ve been providing you with business and there’s nothing wrong with pointing out how awesome you think they are.

Simply acknowledging them can go a long way. However, you may want to go a little further. One way is to give them a break on future orders – perhaps you can provide a “top customer discount” or send them coupons in an email. Not only does this give them incentive to buy more stuff it will increase customer loyalty and also minimize the chance that they leave if something goes wrong.

2. Figure Out Their Type

Why does that particular customer keep coming back to buy more and more each month from you? What traits do they possess that may be in other customers, so you can expand your market and business? Is there a niche there you can exploit for more sales?

Starting with your Best Customer report you can find commonalities. Are your best customers in a certain geographic area? Are they a certain age? Do they all love Canadian football? You can then use that information to try and figure out if others like that customer will also flock to your store, potentially giving you even more long term customers.

3. Improve Products and Services

Best Customer Reports can provide information to you in all aspects of your business. For example, you may have long wondered what people tend to flock to in your company – what are people buying from you the most?

After you figure out your best customers, you can go over their history and find this very info out quickly. Using this you can accentuate the very products and services you provide to customers that you know sell well. If you know your best customers tend to hire you for graphic design over website creation, for example, you can put more emphasis on the graphic design portion of your business to bring in more clients. And since Outright integrates with your eBay, Etsy, Amazon and other marketplace accounts it can also quickly show you which products your best customers consistently buy.

Do you know your top 3 best customers? If so, what do they all have in common?

Great news everyone! We're happy to announce the launch of our new Reseller Program!

What does this mean? Well, starting now, if someone signs up with us because of your recommendation, you get paid. All they have to do is click the Bravo link/banner placed on your site or email marketing campaign, then sign up with us for a free trial. Pretty simple, right?

Commission Breakdown

  1. Earn 25% commissions on every customer you refer - for the lifetime of that account
  2. Earn 10% commissions anytime someone you invite to the Reseller Program refers a customer

Anyone can become a Reseller, whether you’re a customer or not. Apply here to get started.

We look forward to doing big things together!

Lloyd Lofton is the COO of American Eagle Financial Services, LLC. Lloyd's company specializes in insurance and financial products that provide quality protection with value pricing. They have a unique payment model that allows consumers to finance critical purchases without taking on traditional credit card debt.

What motivated you to start your own company?

We have been in the insurance industry for years, and as the market has changed we needed non-insurance related products. We found many consumers and small business owners had been affected by the economy and thus their credit had been negatively affected.

What's special about your business?

We help consumers make a needed purchase of a product or service even though their credit may not be the best. As long as they have an income and a checking account, they could qualify to write one check for 25% of their purchase and have the balance debited from their checking account over a 3, 6, or 12 month period of time. This makes the purchase more affordable and helps them stay debt-free because unlike credit cards (which are typically not paid off in the same month) they are debt-free in terms of that purchase after their payments have been made in full.

Merchants get to add a "no credit required" finance program for customers who don't have the money or credit necessary to have the auto repair, dental work or other needed product or service. We fund the merchant in 3 business days for the sale while their customers get to pay over the 3, 6, or 12 month period of time. It helps merchants pick up "lost sales" and become more profitable.

How will you use Bravo Video?

Merchants will record how the program helped them pick up "lost sales" and manage revenue through these hard times. Merchant's customers will record how the ability to write one check for 25% and pay over a 3, 6, or 12 months of time helped them make a needed purchase at a time when otherwise they would not have been able to - which often times can result in a hardship.

Congratulations Lloyd! We applaud your efforts and welcome you to our growing roster of Bravo Startup Sweepstakes winners!

Facts / Stats to Tweet:

1. 100 million internet users watch online video each day. Tweet
2. In 2012, 54.6 million people in the U.S. viewed video on their mobile phones. Tweet
3. The average internet user spends over 16 minutes viewing video ads each month. Tweet
4. 96% of consumers click links after watching online videos. Tweet
5. 90% of consumers make decisions after watching online videos. Tweet
6. 80% of consumers remember where they watched online videos. Tweet
7. 64% of consumers are likely to buy products after watching online videos. Tweet
8. 46% of consumers take action after watching online videos. Tweet

Whether you have a website or a business, you want to make sure your audience and customers can engage with your brand or organization anytime, anywhere. AppsFor50.com offers an affordable, simple, and powerful way for you to connect with your audience and customers wherever they go. Below you'll find some interview questions answered by the founder of the company, Cornelius Brown Sr.

View AppFor50.com's 'Share Your Story' Page

What motivated you to start your own company?

The magic answers would be to better provide for my family, stimulate the local economy, or follow my dreams. However, while those answers are all true, my motivation is rooted from helping and educating other business entrepreneurs accomplish their goals in today's economy - in one of the most affordable ways - utilizing mobile technology.

I look back on where I have been with many of my other business ventures, which have led me to the passions of my past and present combined. My professional life choices of military service, teacher, regional business manager, software programmer, and entrepreneur, led me to my true love of giving back to others, believing that I have a lot to offer the world in my current business pursuit.

You ask, what motivated me to start my own company...well, besides the previously mentioned...life did! I believe in that old saying, "knowledge is power." However, it's the application of that knowledge that gives you TRUE power!

What's special about your business?

What's special about my business is the people that make up my organization and the impact they have on various entrepreneurs. They educate and train today's entrepreneurs and effect their bottom line significantly.

Without breaking the bank and falling within any businesses shoe-string budget, my business enables entrepreneurs to maximize their ROI, by engaging their customers in the "here to stay, forever evolving" mobile technological revolution. I could go on to tell you I have the best service since the invention of the "Snuggie," but the fact is, there are thousands of mobile app development companies popping up every year. We all think we are special in one way or another. I find it best to stay in my lane, implementing my core values in the everyday practice of business, with a team to compliment my values. If that makes my business special, then so be it. What's truly special is assisting that young entrepreneur in obtaining a 20% increase in business in the 1st month... or helping that old mom & pop shop understand that the umbilical cord they have to their rotary phone has be cut and then guiding them into the light of new technology... or simply educating that tech-savvy kid that believes that it will cost him his 1st born to obtain a professionally customized mobile app. All that we require is the look of satisfaction as they benefit from all that we have to offer, an ingeniously affordable marketing tool. So, I would say it's the "who," not "what," that makes my business special!

How will you use Bravo Video?

As a startup, Bravo Video will significantly compliment my business' service in the educational process for those entrepreneurs that are on the fence with embracing mobile technology. In my very competitive market, Bravo will play an important roll in not just testimonial words or a voice, but a real face with real clients.

I can't begin to tell you enough about how thankful every one of my clients are that my business found them or they found us. I want them to be able to tell the story that they are very eagerly ready to tell. Not only did I survey my team, but my clients as well, informing them of my option to add Bravo vs. competitors. The vote is unanimous, your core values, and the fact that you even offer a startup sweepstakes, speaks volumes. Not only will my company, current and future clients take advantage of your offering, you're also providing a valuable asset in my B2B service, and it carry forward to my clients (B2C). Now that's a unique benefit that brings true value!

Congratulations AppsFor50.com! We applaud your efforts and welcome you to our growing roster of Bravo Startup Sweepstakes members!

Over the past year, we've received more than our fair share of requests to extend the initial 30-day free trial period. So, for the balance of January, that's exactly what we're going to do!

Whether you're gathering testimonials from your client base or running a large-scale social media contest - we understand that setting up a user-generated video campaign requires time, careful planning and strategic marketing effort.

Starting today, we're offering a full 60 days to test the Bravo Video platform. No more excuses - choose a plan that's right for you and see what user-generated video can do for your business!

Valid thru January 31, 2013

While we don't expect to have any downtime, we do want to make you aware that upgrades are occurring. We sincerely apologize for any potential inconvenience this may cause.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know by contacting us through the Support Center.

But how are these providers breaking through the noise and positioning themselves as the best solution for a student's academic desires?

Veritas Prep, a premier provider in this space, is building their brand by using Bravo Video as a communications conduit.

Raising The Stakes

While offering testimonials is certainly a standard practice for test prep and admissions consulting providers, making them feel real and authentic is quite another issue.

Displaying text-based quotes has always been an effective marketing tactic in this niche. But with so many competitors, many providers are looking to raise the stakes and offer more genuine and authentic-feeling testimonials.

Realizing Face Value

Through utilizing Bravo, these video testimonials are now offering Veritas Prep the highly effective peer authority and believability they were seeking. Moreover, the details being shared in these videos are especially revealing. Facial expressions are vital cues that provide a deeper emotional connection for onlooking prospects.

Needless to say, the video testimonial approach is working, because it’s real – and it’s relevant. We wish Veritas Prep continued success in their user-generated video endeavors!

We're thrilled that they integrated our platform, and are now able to generate real-life video reviews from their members. They decided to use our iFrame embed tool which allows their members to record, review and submit videos directly from the Monthlys website:

When a member submits a video review, they automatically receive 100 reward points they can then use towards other products and services on the site.

These videos will certainly an authentic style of credibility which brings a deep experiential value to the Monthlys brand. After all, what’s more convincing than someone sharing their regular delivery of micro-brew beers from all over the world with their friends and neighbors?