The financial turmoil that has hit some European countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal, where they have seen their economies suffer and almost faced bankruptcy, only to be saved, almost at the eleventh hour, by other eurzone countries, has caused much concern in the money markets. While the UL economy has large debts, there is still money available in the finance houses to lend to small businesses, but the unrest has caused interest rates to be somewhat punitive, making small businesses think twice about taking on an expensive business loan. Where a small business needs financial support to see it through because it has not been paid by a large business for jobs completed[/spin] or products supplied, they may find themselves between a rock and a hard place, with money either coming from expensive bank loans or credit cards. They need to chase up the overdue bill with the large business and their first action will be to make contact with them to uncover what is happening. If they don’t get a positive answer then they may feel pressured into finding out about their Debt Collection strategies.

The accepted Debt Collection providers; solicitors and Debt Collection Agencies tend to charge in the order of 10% to 20% or more of the bill value, which may be a significant sacrifice for the small business. If the small business is looking for a challenge they may take on the Debt Collection process in-house and use Debt Collection Software, which can cost around £40 for a decent Debt Collection Software package. In reality the small business may neither have the knowledge in Debt Collection, nor the teams of experienced employees that solicitors and Debt Collection Agencies have, so they will have to both get to know in detail about the Debt Collection process and designate resources to make the Debt Collection Software package deliver the goods. During their required consideration of Debt Collection Software suites, attention should be paid to the instructions as this will be a useful source of information and training materials so that they can educate themselves about the Debt Collection process within the context of the Debt Collection Software. One of the key stages of the Debt Collection process is Debt Collection letters, since these are a fundamental communications link between the two businesses it is important that these are written with care. The employees nominated to creating the Debt Collection letters will need to have a good knowledge of English since it would be harmful to the Debt Collection process if any Debt Collection letters were sent out with spelling or grammatical mistakes present. The primary purpose of using Debt Collection Software is not just to save money over what solicitors and Debt Collection Agencies would charge but to be in control of the Debt Collection process. The small business will not only want to get the large business to pay the overdue bill but will also want to do so in a way that will not disrupt the commercial relationship that may well have developed between the two businesses. The present financial situation has brought a growth in the number of solicitors and Debt Collection Agencies and it may well be the case that some of the more recent solicitors and Debt Collection Agencies to enter the business Debt Collection market may not be ethically minded and for the small business so sign up with one of these may be disaster, not only from how much it may cost but also in possibly damaging the commercial relationship with the large business.

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