Welcome to The Simplifier, brought to you by…

Contents:

1.  A Note From The Editors
2.  Quote of the Week
3.  Article: Make it easy for your clients with A/R calls
4.  This Week’s Simplification Tip
5.  In the News & On the Web
6.  Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
7.  Keep Smiling

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1. A Note From The Editors

Sometimes a change of pace can be just the ticket. We’ve been publishing The Weekly Simplifier for 19 weeks now, and we’ve had a good amount of time to evaluate whether a weekly publication is a good fit for our organization, and for the Simplifier’s purpose. And…we’re not sure. ;-)

So we’re going to try a different schedule — bi-weekly — for an equal amount of time, and see if it’s a better fit. We did 18 weekly editions—this is our first bi-weekly edition. Wednesday, September 13 will be the publication date for our next issue.

Of course, if you start getting Project Simplify withdrawal, you can always check our website out in the meantime. We’ll be posting new content there frequently, as always. :-)

We’re always happy to hear your thoughts on these matters. Remember, you are the reason for the very existence of this newsletter!

Enjoy!

-Editors Shawn Tuttle & Lance Brown

P.S. - A name change comes along with the timing change. It’s just The Simplifier now.

2. Quote of the Week

“Unlike other resources, time cannot be bought or sold, borrowed or stolen, stocked up or saved, manufactured, reproduced or modified. All we can do is make use of it. And whether we use it or not, it nevertheless slips away.”

-Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber

3. Article:  Make it easy for your clients with A/R calls

By Shawn Tuttle

People have been asking about systems for A/R, Accounts Receivable. Every small business has different systems reflecting the situation they are working within. A/R is a touchy subject because we are talking about cash flow, and let’s face it, cash flow issues rank up there as one of the scariest issues facing the business owner. You need your clients/customers to pay you so that you can pay your bills.

Why don’t people pay on time or respect your terms? Maybe they honestly forgot or misplaced the invoice and are waiting for a statement. Maybe they are having cash flow difficulties themselves. Maybe they have issue with your product or service that they haven’t told you about. And maybe, just maybe, they did pay and it slipped through the cracks on your end.

Simplification comes in two forms in this situation: systems to ease the process, and a helpful attitude to burn away mental clutter.

Follow your system
There are a number of possibilities for the outstanding receivable; you don’t know what’s going on until you give them a call. Perhaps you check your file two times a month for overdue invoices, on the 10th and 25th. It’s automatically on the calendar those two days. The phone number and contact name are already on the invoice, right? That was information you made sure was on the invoice when you created it. You pick up the phone, dial, and…

Clearing the mental clutter
Calls about money make a lot of people uncomfortable. Check in with yourself to evaluate your state of mind and mood. Remember you are simply calling to complete the transaction. Your company performed its part of the deal, now it’s their turn.

Think about calls you have received from businesses asking for money from you. Are you more, or less, inclined to make payment if they are friendly and polite or if they are rude and demanding? A negative attitude carries a lot further than the end of the phone call. It pays to go out of your way to be friendly.

When you are friendly, there is a higher likelihood for conversation and connection. This gives you the opportunity to work with your client/customer. Can’t pay the full amount? How about 1/2 now and 1/2 in 2 weeks? What realistically, can they commit to? Just because you call doesn’t make the cash magically appear in their account…. but paying four $500 payments may be a lot easier for them than one $2000 payment.

Back to the system
Take notes of the call on the invoice, including: date, name of person you spoke with, “LM” or “left message” if no one there, and what the results of the call were. “Sending 1/2 tomorrow 8/29 and the other 1/2 on 9/12″. Be specific. When you come back to the file on 9/15, will you be able to understand your notes? Better yet, if someone else were to open up the file on 9/15, would they understand your notes?

9/10, your next “check for overdue invoices” day rolls around. Maybe you give them a friendly reminder that they agreed to pay the other 1/2 this week. You’ve already established a friendly rapport regarding the invoice, so this can be a friendly reminder service call.

Making these calls keeps you in the forefront of their mind, and helps keep the full transaction positive. That’s good business.

—
Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify

4. This Week’s Simplification Tip

What to do with too many books 

Books. Who has more books than their bookshelves will aesthetically display? Or has come to the realization that in order to shelve all of your books you’d need floor to ceiling bookcases in your office, living room, and bedroom?

One option is to display the books that hold current interest/reference for you, and put the ones you are emotionally attached to, but unlikely to read again, in boxes for storage. Another option is to fondly “archive” those books in your memory and then send them off to make another reader happy, well informed, or more educated.

Of course, as a Simplifier, I advocate the latter.

Once you’ve decided to let your books find new homes, you have a number of excellent options to facilitate the transfer of your books. The August issue of Plenty Magazine included an article called Remembrance of Tomes Past which listed several great ideas for what to do with books no longer on the favorites list. We’ve added some of our own suggestions too:

• your local library may have book sale fundraisers
• Local used bookstores might even give you some cash for your stash!
• Local thrift stores usually aren’t very picky about what books you leave them.
• And there are some more ambitious options too (quotes taken from the various web sites):
  • Eco Encore: “Individuals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations send us donations of books, CDs, movies and software that are suitable for resale. We catalogue the items and sell them in our online Amazon and eBay stores, and the profits from our sales go to the local environmental organizations we support.” (Looks like they mostly support environmental and sustainability groups in Washington state. You can send them your books… OR what about encouraging a non-profit in your area who has a solid volunteer base to get a similar project going? There are probably already a number of people in your area who sell on eBay and Amazon…)
  • Reader To Reader, Inc.: “is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to bringing books, free of charge, to needy school libraries across the United States. It is our belief that books have a singular power to inspire and change people’s lives.”
  • SAFE:  “was established in 1985 as a nonprofit [501 (c)3] by concerned American and Sudanese business persons, academics, and government officials to help improve educational opportunities for Sudanese children and youth. Currently, this goal is being accomplished by collecting and delivering donated books to university, college, and public libraries throughout the Sudan.”
  • Books for Soldiers: ” is a self-service site. Once you are approved as an Official BFS Volunteer, simply go to our message board (you can get there by going to http://booksforsoldiers.com and clicking on the VOLUNTEER FORUM link at the top of the page) and take a look at the posted requests.”

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5. In the News & On the Web

If you know of something in the news or on the web that should be featured here, let us know!

In The News

Book review: Organizing Magic—40 Days to a Well-Ordered Home and Life  (Newsday.com)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/f2fay
This review doesn’t sugar-coat the book or pan it. It’s an even-tempered review which lets folks know if the book might be for them.

Organized for Success (The Gainesville Times/Prince William News)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/j9ywe
This article is supposed to be a “back to school” organizing guide, but it makes for a comprehensive set of pointers for anyone who’s looking September in the eye. It’s very long and detailed.

Time Management for Retail Sales Professionals (Furniture World Magazine)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/kupck
This is another article that’s supposed to be for a target population, but should work for almost anyone. You don’t need to be in retail to get a lot of good ideas from this extensive article on time management for business owners. We stole our quote of the week from this article.

6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

The Best of August

We’re taking a gamble by featuring the best blog posts from August here. As of press time, August still has one more day. What if one of the month’s best posts gets posted tomorrow? With our new bi-weekly schedule. that’s a chance we’re just going to have to take. Here’s to living dangerously…

(Click an entry’s title to read the full entry.)

Who’s the boss, you or fear?
This post deals with fear’s impact upon your business, and how to counter it.

12 suggestions for great writing
“Learn from the masters of writing…” Suggestions of guidebooks and role models for writing modern non-fiction.

Share lists online with Ta-da Lists
This cool online service makes group projects easy by allowing folks to share and edit to-do lists.

Mental chatter or silence
Struggling with your inner chatterer—a worthwhile endeavor.

Email folder organization mania
Finding the right balance in your system of organizing using e-mail folders.

Combine cell data in Excel
Another pointer has been added to our Instructions page. Read more about it here.

Energy efficiency at home
Our fearless leader’s house was profiled in the local paper for being a model example of good energy efficiency practices. They made an online slideshow and everything. Neat!

7. Keep Smiling

A Quick Laugh

The new employee stood before the paper shredder looking confused.

“Need some help?” a secretary walking by asked.

“Yes,” he replied, “How does this thing work?”

“Simple,” she said, taking the fat report from his hand and feeding it into the shredder.

“Thanks,” he said, “but where do the copies come out?”

(From this page: Smile! The Remarkable Personal Benefits of Smiling)
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Thanks for reading!

Publication Information
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The Simplifier is published by:

Project Simplify
P.O. Box 597
Nevada City, CA 95959
phone: 530.205.5775
web: www.projectsimplify.com
e-mail: (newsletter@projectsimplify.com) newsletter (at) projectsimplify (dot) com