Ep 117She Built a Business Going After People Who Don't Pay Their Bills
He claimed he had no money, then donated $36,000 to a fundraiser
Rivka Brodsky
She Built a Business Going After People Who Don't Pay Their Bills
with Rivka Brodsky
I have no work experience, but I have a ton of life experience. (what she told the employer who gave her a first job)
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Quotes
“In order for success, you need to be willing to take risks.”
“Vendors are not your personal credit line or your personal ATM.”
“Silence doesn't get rid of your invoice. It just makes things worse.”
“It's not always about the amount. It's about taking responsibility, the good faith payments. They could go very far.”
“If you believe in yourself, other people will believe in you.”
“Anyone that is bringing in a lot of money, never ever rely on just that business for all your finances. Diversify.”
Takeaways
- 1 Life skills are work skills. Running a home of eight children and managing a child's medical care across several states got her hired with no resume. She taught herself medical billing at 3 a.m. and ran the AR department within a year.
- 2 She found her business by asking about 10-12 vendors at one conference whether they had unpaid balances. All did ($30,000 to $6 million), and she walked out with her first clients on a 20% commission.
- 3 Four kinds of non-payers: those who never meant to pay, those who want to but can't right now, those unhappy with the product or the bill, and (most common and easiest) plain accounts-payable or receivable disorder.
- 4 Take risks, but think them through. She overthinks every outcome first and avoids risks whose downside would be worse than where she is now.
- 5 Most people who owe money mean well, and she helps them with payment plans or by collecting from whoever owes them. Good-faith payments, even $500 a month, earn respect.
- 6 For those who can pay and won't, she holds them accountable, for example by pointing to their large public donations or a family trip. She runs tactics by a rav and notes that honest isn't automatically permitted.
- 7 Silence is the weakest move. Creditors will usually give more time to someone who communicates.
- 8 Honesty builds trust: when a client turned out to be at fault, she told him, he dropped the claim and still paid her for her time.
- 9 She places single mothers in jobs for free (about 60 so far). Not everyone is cut out to own a business, but everyone can do something.
- 10 Sales: believe in yourself and your product. Her track record and references are her best sales tool.
- 11 Success brings a fear of going back down. Keep boundaries (she now answers business messages 9 to 5) and don't depend on one business.