Taking Payments In A Positive & Transparent Client Relationship With Kate Strathmann

Getting paid by clients is the #1 most important part of the workflow in a service business. If you don’t get paid, eventually, you won’t have a business. But how you go about getting paid – now that’s where some magic can really happen.

In our last episode, we talked with Dana Kaye about transitioning from hourly to value-based pricing. The choice to make that switch to value-based pricing then allows you to the next logical step – making your client payments easier.

Today, we’re going to talk with Kate Strathmann about the process of getting paid by your clients and how to make it easier.

Should you accept credit cards? How about checks? Do you charge your clients the credit card processing fee? What about payment plans – should you offer them?

How you decide to answer these questions can affect not just your workflow, but also your cash flow, and, ultimately, your relationship with your client.

Kate Strathmann is the founder of Wanderwell Consulting, a business consulting and bookkeeping practice. And for Kate, taking payments is an opportunity to reinforce a positive, transparent relationship with her clients. It’s a client touchpoint that she’s particularly thoughtful about.

We’ll talk about the basics – what kind of payments to accept, and when to ask for payments – but also how to think about offering payment plans in a whole new way.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How Wanderwell Consulting’s pricing and the payment mechanisms are designed to ultimately support the relationship they are cultivating with their clients
• How offering multiple payment options and moving to a prepaid system has lead to the ability to automate payments
• Kate's position on different payment methods–credit cards vs. bank transfers vs. checks
• How being able to charge upfront and automatically has impacted the operational capacity, and administration of the business
• And some of the common practices of online service business that Kate wishes would just become a thing of the past

Links:

• Wanderwell Consulting
• Instagram: @_wanderwell_
•  Scalespark Dollars + Decisions Roundtable
• Twitter @ScaleSpark
• LinkedIn @thesusanboles

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