Hey everybody, and welcome back once more to Ridin Out the Recession in Miz Judi’s Kitchen!
You guys have all been great in your support of our little endeavor here, and we can’t thank you enough! Now, tell all your friends and neighbors to come on in and join us in the kitchen too! The more the merrier!
Turnin’ the Other Cheek:
Well, I see ole’ Deb’s been beatin’ her gums together this morning telling you all how “ill-tailed” I was in regards to my computer crashing! I have one bad day, with Deb living in an otherwise “perfect world,” and she decides to trash me. I don’t know what we’re coming to?
You know, I could decide to give ya’ll my version of this event, but ya know what? My Daddy always told me to turn the other cheek, and that’s what I’m gonna’ do, turn the other cheek! I don’t reckon it’ll hurt none to tell ya’ll though, the “other cheek,” I’m referring to is actually…one of em that’s in my britches. Why don’t cha go tell everbody that too, Deb-o?
Now all you guys know that in reality I’m just playing around with my lovely wife Deb, but in all honesty, the only one that really needs to thoroughly understand I’m playing around…
is Deb! You do understand that, right honey…I’m just playing around Deb…hey Deb!
Oh Lord, if you’ll just get me oughta’ this one…I’ll get outta’ the next right by myself, I promise!
Ya’ll hold on, I gotta another one today!
Collectin’ Receivables
While I got ya’ll this morning let me share another quick little story with you all. This story is in regards to our business which by the way, for those of you who don’t know, we’re in the asphalt paving business.
Now my Dad, and he really did say this, always beat into the kids heads…
collect your money, whatever you do collect your money!
Now I did kinda’ tell you guys a little one in our earlier story, because there’s one thing my Dad didn’t do, and that was turn the other cheek especially in regards to collecting your receivables. But I gotta tell everyone out there he was right about this…exactly right!
Dad was in business for himself for over 40 years, in the egg business. He sold this out in 1995, but still has orange groves and cattle. As I said earlier he was relentless in his educating us to collect our money. He claimed, and I’m sure he’s close, if not correct, in this next statement.
This is that more people go out of business from the simple fact of not collecting their receivables than any other reason.
That said, I always took it to heart, and since being in business we’ve always collected our money. Now sometimes it wasn’t what you’d call easy, but I did collect what we were owed. I’ve never wanted a penny extra, and wouldn’t accept it, but if we’d done work for you, and it was good quality work, and accepted by the owner, G.C, whoever, then I wanted paid. It was…my money!
If we screwed up, we’ll fix it no problem, at our cost, but then I want my money, which is the only way to do business. Back “in the day,” I’ve literally stood on desks, demanding my money, but people, that’s exactly what it was…my money.
We had people that worked with us, and they had families to feed as well, so it was my responsibility to see that they were paid, and I accepted the responsibility of it being just that. But once more, if something wasn’t ours, we didn’t want it. All we ever wanted was what was owed to us, that’s all.
Well there’s the background to what I’m going to tell you about this morning.
We’d done a job for a company we’d never done work for in the past. They really didn’t know me but new our reputation for being a good, well-run company.
We pride ourselves on that fact, heck we demand it! We’ve been in business now almost 16 years …and never been in the phone book, seriously. Our company has been built entirely by word of mouth, customer referral! We’re very proud of that fact too, by the way.
Anyway, this new company we’d done work for still hadn’t paid us after 30 days, I allow everyone 30 days. Then I have Deb call, check on payment and 9 times out of 10…no problem, the check comes pretty quick at that point.
Well Deb had called this company and the lady in payables told Deb we’d have to have a proof of insurance certificate mailed to them prior to even okaying the check to be processed. Most, if not all the time you present that at job startup or prior to. Some companies want this, some don’t, but in this case they had waited 30 with no request for our certificate. Then Deb said the lady was just about as rude as rude could be, and I gotta’ tell you, Deb’s about as calm as they come, that is unless I’d pushed one of her buttons!
Plus some companies pull this type of stunt to literally delay your being paid, but many times I’ve charged our materials and have a 30 day account myself, so once again, about 30 days out I want to see some cash flow coming through the door.
When Deb told me of the goings on, well at that point I made a phone call, and I really have to say I wasn’t my usual cheerful, happy go-lucky self, just to say the least!
I called, and that dern phone rang, and rang, and rang some more, the whole time me bitin’ at the bit for somebody, heck anybody to answer! Then it picked up, I took a deep breath where I could say my piece and…it was a dad-gum answering machine!
Usually I just hang up, but in this case I was livid, and went ahead and just let em have it, both barrels, into this dern answering machine! I told them my name, what company I was with and what this call was in regards to as well as demanding my money, once again we’re talking about…my money!
About 15 minutes later my phone rings, and I’m still on go! I answer it and this lady says very politely, “Mr. Bronson, I just received a message from you on our answering machine, and,” well before she could finish I’d already cut her off.
I told her Ma’am, you’re really not wanting to talk to me right this minute, and I’m being just as polite as I can be, but I really need to speak to someone in your company who is male. Because you see I’m not sure I won’t say things a lady needs to hear on account of I’m so dad-gummed aggravated right this minute!
She then says, “No, Mr. Bronson, you don’t understand, when you left your message earlier on our machine, you’d evidently dialed the wrong number…we’re a Recording Studio, you know, music.”
Man, I ‘bout fell down I was so embarrassed by this. I’m here to tell you some of the language I’d used in my message was really…okay, okay, pretty raunchy, I admit it!
She told me she was the owner of the Studio, and I started apologizing and telling her I was so, so sorry, and it was indeed a mistake and could she forgive me….
I’ll never forget what she said, and I wish I remembered her name, but please, if you’re out there and happen to read this column, please e-mail us, I’d love to say hello to you again!
That lady said, “Mr. Bronson, I was sitting at my desk when your call came in. I started to pick up but decided to see who was calling first, and I sat there and listened to your entire message!”
I again tried to apologize for my rude behavior, and once more she stopped me.
She continued by saying, “Mr. Bronson I listened to your message, and then played it again, and then once more, and I was thinking to myself, I bet that man collects his money!” She said she then went and got her entire sales staff and marched them into her office telling them, “I’ve got something I want every one of you to hear!”
I literally couldn’t believe what she was telling me and this is the truth, this really happened!
She then said, “I sat them down and told them, I want you to listen to this man. I want you to hear everything he has to say and why he’s saying it! Pay attention!”
She said she played it for her sales staff twice. She then told me she asked them how many times they’d talked about collecting their receivables, and then asked if they thought the man on the recording would collect his? She said all agreed that there was no doubt I’d collect my money.
I want you to know that lady thanked me for that rant of a message I’d left at her place of business by mistake. She said it was the best teaching tool she’d ever seen, and what an example it set for her staff. You want to know why she felt that way…because it was my money, nothing more, and by her running her own business she understood the importance of that fact! Collect your money!
That is one of the best, if not the best compliment I’ve ever had in my entire life, and I hoped you all enjoyed my sharing it!
Keep your eyes open, and your nose in the wind!
God Bless!
Dub
