Managing cash flow is crucial for small businesses. but, as you begin to grow it can quickly become overwhelming, and eat into time that should be spent cleaning windows.
If you find yourself spending too much time every day chasing payments, planning routes, finding customer records, managing your accounts, or simply going door to door to collect cash - there is software to help you manage.
Particularly popular in this category is card & online payment processing. In years gone by, Window Cleaners would spend an evening or two each week ‘collecting’ owed money, trying to catch the same customer at home, that owes three cleans and appears to have disappeared from the face of the earth.
This creates problems for the Window Cleaner, as not only is it a waste of time, it also means that there is a constant list of debtors restricting the cash flow of the business.
Cashflow restrictions can cause unneeded stress and perhaps limit how you're able to re-invest to improve your business.
However today this doesn’t need to be the case, with direct debit software such as GoCardless and portable Card Readers like the one provided by iZettle, there is no reason for the modern Window Cleaner to be owed significant amounts of money, payments can be collected without even seeing the customer - and particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, many people even expect cashless/ contactless payments to be accepted.
With a little time spent exploring the options, now could be a brilliant time to modernise your payment system, stop cash flow problems, and maintain good relationships with your customers.
Here are our favourite tools for simple online payments!
Helpful Tools
Gocardless An easy way to collect direct debit payments. Your customers sign up, then you charge them when you’ve cleaned their windows - no more outstanding payments!
Izettle This payment processing system allows you to take card payments from a reader connected directly to your phone or tablet. Take card payments on the go with competitive processing fees.
Paypal A trusted way to take payments, request money from customers & set up custom payment links.
Head to our Starting a Window Cleaning Business Hub for more helpful guides
