What Would You Do If You Found A $100 Dollar Bill On The Ground?

Spending time with various business leaders as they seek new ways to meet this year’s budget goals can definitely provide for some interesting conversation, as many carefully pinch pennies during these difficult economic times. 

Contraction seems to be the common denominator across business lines, with more and more employees facing layoffs.  Interesting, there is not a lot of discussion about finding money that may have been left on the table that could actually help a company avoid losing talent that they may never be able to reclaim once the economy picks up steam.  

My advice to businesses that have the ability to expand is to do just that.   Take advantage of discounts on everything from real estate to supplies to labor.   By growing your business during difficult times you will quickly leverage your place in the market and gain a competitive edge.   You may be asking why someone would recommend taking such risks with so much economic uncertainty.  My answer is exactly the same as it would be if you were to ask why I would recommend you put your personal money in a Roth IRA. 

We live in a pay me now or pay me later society.   In my latter example above, individuals have the opportunity to pay taxes today to avoid taxes later.   Given the massive monetization of our debt it is inevitable that our future tax rate, say when you turn 59 ½ and have the ability to access your Roth IRA, will be substantially higher than today.

The same is true for capital for your business.   Money remains relatively cheap and contrary to what the gloom and doom media is saying, money is available.   By investing in your business today, you will be substantially ahead of your competitors who are contracting and will be forced to play catch up when the cost of everything, including labor, gets more expensive as the economy improves.  

Remember, the best source of capital isn’t the banks.  It is actually within your own four walls; find money by looking for places where it is being left on the table.  For most companies, simple fixes can literally turn into millions of dollars by leveraging experts to assist you in identifying multiple sources of overlooked money. 

Simply put, if you were walking down the street and found a hundred dollar bill on the ground what would you do?  Most people would pick it up but then again many businesses are hamstrung by bureaucracies that don’t offer the operational efficiencies of individuals resulting in money just lying around.   Companies across all industries leave billions of dollars on the table each year.  While they often employ people to manage their receivables or pursue collections, they generally are only scratching the surface of the money that they are owed.  

As a matter of course, we routinely find money overlooked by existing vendors or internal receivables departments.   On top of this are the more than 80% of uncollected judgments, amounting to billions of dollars annually for the business community.

By partnering with experts in the field of operational, procedural and workflow optimization you will quickly discover a world where money can grow on trees.   By focusing on such aspects of your business as maximizing profitability and pursuing unpaid judgments you can quickly discover a substantial lift to your bottom line, with no new money required! That’s not a bad ROI, especially during these troubling economic times. 

Chris Tidball is the Vice President of Business Development for Sequoia Financial Services and can be reached at chris.tidball@sequoiafinancial.com or 818.409.6016.