Necessity is the mother of invention
In February 2018 a business partner and I opened our first business in the construction sector, supplying casual or permanent staff. As a start-up, we needed to ensure that we would be paid as per our agreed payment terms which initially worked well.
Six months later however, payments became increasingly overdue, and we found we were spending more time chasing overdue debts than being able to focus on growing the business.
Cash flow became a weekly struggle. No matter how hard we tried, we found it incredibly difficult to juggle between being both salesman and debt collector. Most companies threatened to cut off future business if we pushed too hard. Others would simply ignore us.
We tried debt collection agencies and if successful they would take up to 20 per cent of the total value, making it a loss. Or, we tried litigation but that could end up costing us thousands just to get the original invoice paid, effectively wiping out any profits and turning it into a loss. We lost hope.
Companies then began ‘phoenixing’ their businesses, declaring bankruptcy and we lost thousands of dollars. We almost experienced liquidation ourselves from non payment which was grossly unfair. We were taught to simply wipe debt, as it was more expensive to chase. This meant not only did we lose our money, but the offenders went on to rip other innocent companies off with no consequences.
Enter Grunt Invoice protection…
They say necessity is the ‘mother of invention’, and that’s exactly what we did.
We created an easy-to-use invoicing and accounts receivable platform that acts as the middleman and is suitable for any business that provides credit terms for payment
The platform
We created an easy-to-use invoicing and accounts receivable platform that acts as the middleman and is suitable for any business that provides credit terms for payment.
Within Grunt IP, there are three different invoicing options:
- Free invoicing – if you simply require an easy-to-use invoicing tool you can choose the free invoice option and invoice as many as you like at no cost.
- Accounts receivable – For $2 per invoice you can choose accounts receivable option which will send reminders and alerts to your clients to encourage prompt payment.
- Invoice protection – For $4 per invoice, we not only assist in the collection of outstanding monies, we also provide full legal protection in the event of non-payment. From final demand letters, all the way to the company winding up, our trusted legal firms will act on your behalf for no extra cost.
Grunt IP is a pay-as-you-go platform where there are NO subscriptions or ongoing charges. Clients can pick and choose which invoices or customers you wish to protect with invoice protection.
Note: Grunt is not a debtor insurance agency and in the event of your customer being declared bankrupt Grunt will not cover your outstanding debt.
