One of the first things you should do if your overdue customer is also a business is identify their structure- go to www.abr.business.gov.au and search their name. If they are a Pty Ltd company then it’s worth doing a company search- what you are trying to find out is:
– Who the directors are, bearing in mind they are often not the person you’ve been dealing with.
– What their Registered Office address is (if it is their Accountants like most companies, then you can call them and ask them to pass on an urgent message for the directors to call you, without disclosing anything sensitive of course).
– Where the directors live (so you can post them a Letter of Demand).
– Who the shareholders are.
This information is gold. The amount of money we have collected as a result of spending just $9 would be in the hundreds of thousands. Getting the directors names is the most important information- let’s say you’ve been dealing with Joe Blogs whose email address is joe.blogs@joeblogs.com.au. You do a company search and find out the director’s name is Rachel Watson- you now have her email address as it will be rachel.watson@joeblogs.com.au Remember, company directors have a corporate responsibility to ensure their company is paying its debts so you’re actually doing them a favour by bringing your outstanding invoice to their attention. Doing the search is easy- just go to www.asic.gov.au click on “Companies and Organisations” on the far right hand menu under “Search our registers” then click on the “Search our registers” drop down menu and select “Organisation and Business Names” type the name of the company in then click Go. Select “Current company information”, scroll down to Add to cart, then click Ok then Checkout. Enter your credit card information and email address and away you go.
Cheers guys
Why this $9 might be the best money you ever spend