CreditorWatch takes on Dun & Bradstreet in the corporate data stakes – Business Dynamics Australia

Another product from the Australian credit reporting bureau, CreditorWatch, that has some interesting implications.

The startup organisation has brokered a deal with the ASIC organisation (that manages Company data in Australia), and managed to deliver ASIC company extracts at significantly cheaper rates that the incumbents, Dun & Bradstreet and Veda Advantage.

We find it astounding that an small start up like this can negotiate with ASIC to deliver a company extract report for $16-00, when their larger competitors, Dun & Bradstreet and Veda Advantage, is charging more, even with their organisational size, and we assume, negotiating power. As in, the CreditorWatch extract is 30% cheaper than the incumbents.

And other information brokers, such as Veda Advantage, are charging  40% more.

No wonder there is a groundswell, even by the banks, against the incumbent bureaux.

We feel there is going to be a real shakeup in the credit reporting industry in Australia, in the words of CreditorWatch‘s founder.

The original article is copyright to Business Dynamics Australia, and the original article can be found here.

May 6, 2011

Newcomer bad debt registry CreditorWatch has secured a lucrative contract with ASIC to make corporate information more accessible and affordable for SMEs with the launch today of its new product CreditorWatch Express.

CreditorWatch Express allows businesses to retrieve valuable corporate information from the ASIC database, identical to that supplied by the bigger agencies such as Dun & Bradstreet and Veda Advantage, but at a rate more than 30% cheaper.

“For too long small businesses have been unable to afford vital credit and ASIC corporate information. Now that CreditorWatch has access to identical ASIC information that Dun & Bradstreet provides, we are determined to compete head-to-head with them by bringing real price competition and transparency into the market and shake up the industry,” said Colin Porter, managing director of CreditorWatch.

What to do when customers won’t pay – Dynamic Business Australia

Another article from Dynamic Business Australia, this site is proving to be a real treasure trove of information on credit management!

This time, an article on “What to do when customers won’t pay”, as the title suggests. This article was put together by Colin Porter, the founder of creditorwatch.com.au.

Original content is copyright to Business Dynamics Australia, and can be found here. Published in full, without comments, as the article is self explanatory, and is basically a pocket guide to credit management, we guess.

What to do when customers won’t pay

Non-payers, defaulters, fly-by-nighters: it’s a sad fact of business that if you deal with customers on credit terms, you’re likely to have encountered the type of customer who – when the work is done or the product delivered – refuses to pay.

Most of us have a horror story about a client who consumed time, resources and cash before dodging their debt – sometimes declaring that they couldn’t settle, other times simply going missing.

When considering this problem, it’s worth remembering why we sell on credit terms in the first place. We do so because it’s part of our service, because it distinguishes us from competitors who won’t. In other words, it’s a courtesy. It doesn’t have to be extended in every case, and it pays to remember that what we are actually doing every time we work without being paid up-front is, in effect, lending to our customers.

With that in mind, here are some things you can do to deal with customers who won’t pay.

CreditorWatch exposes bad debtors for small business – Dynamic Business Australia

More on the new Australian based CreditorWatch credit reporting bureau, which targets the SME customer base.

This article was published by Business Dynamics Australia, and is copyright to them. The original article can be found here.

CreditorWatch exposes bad debtors for small business

CreditorWatch is a new service that lets small business expose clients who have not paid invoices on time and monitor current and potential clients credit ratings to avoid bad debt.

This year’s Dynamic Business Credit and Debt Survey found that 73  percent of SMBs had seen an increase in the time taken for client payments to be  received in the last six months. Compared to the previous  year, the survey also found that 59 percent of SMBs are expecting an  increase in the level of bad debt as a percentage of total annual  revenue for 2009-2010.

CreditorWatch aims to help small business owners band together to share information about bad debtors, providing information to help eliminate exposure to the ‘bad eggs’ who systematically avoid paying their invoices on time despite continuing to trade as normal.

A mechanism for SME’s to consolidate their payment history experiences together in one structured and cohesive environment, for mutual benefit. A simple but powerful concept.

The startup helping SMEs get paid – Dynamic Business Australia

We saw this interesting article from Dynamic Business Australia 27/11/2011, which we feel just about says it all.

-A business that is focussed (on delivery an SME context sensitive credit reporting solution).

-A business that is price sensitive (on delivery an SME context sensitive credit reporting solution).

-A business owner that has been on the receiving end of not being paid, and so understands what is needed.

We like.

Content copyright to Business Dynamics Australia, the original article can be found here.

The startup helping SMEs get paid

Colin Porter can spot an opportunity in the market a mile off. At just 12 years old, he started shovelling snow from his neighbours’ driveways. Soon his little pockets were weighed down with lollies and shiny pounds. Thirty-one years later, his eye hasn’t changed, but the opportunities are a little different.

As the proprietor of a successful publishing business, Porter was sick of slow payers and non-payers impacting his cashflow. He found the procedures available to small business for pursuing bad debt costly, inefficient and ultimately, toothless. “I hate hearing ‘We’ve got to plan for bad debt in next year’s budget’,” Porter says. “It’s like planning for death. Lawyers tell you to write off bad debt because it’s too costly to pursue. Businesses know this, and continue to operate without paying bills, knowing most debtors won’t pursue it.”

But bad debt can cripple a small business. “No matter how successful a business is, the product can be great, the service can be fantastic, but if they don’t have cashflow they can’t operate.” Negative cashflow also hinders growth, Porter says, and that’s quantifiable. “When I look at my business, if I could get paid 30 days sooner, that’s almost 10 percent more money in my pocket per annum that I could be using to reduce my debt or reinvesting into my business.”

Porter looked for a credit reporting service that was accessible for small business. Finding it didn’t exist, he set to work building a peer-to-peer credit reporting system from the ground up, pitched directly at small business.

A big risk for him, but what a great approach. With the upcoming Experian Australia bureau about to be launched, a niche SME bureau introduces some interesting dynamics for the incumbent bureaus.