What does your contract include? Do you offer a discount for quick payment? (Sometimes this is a good idea.) Do you specify a certain number of days after which account is considered delinquent? Is there a clause that allows you to add collection costs, attorney fees and interest if bill becomes delinquent? If not, those costs will come right out of your own pocket!

And when a bill falls into delinquent category do you have a procedure to follow? If not you should have such a procedure and you should be sure to follow through on it. (I’ll deal with this topic in a later article.) Despite delinquent accounts it sounds like 2001 was a great year for you. I wish you an even more successful 2002.

Basically it is becoming a franchisee, only you don't have to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars like you would if you were starting a franchised restaurant. You get a plan and popular products to sell.

3. Offer to help a busy service provider from your house. You would be surprised how many of Internet's most successful gurus are up to their eyeballs in responsibility. Often they will farm some (or much!) of work out to you to do from your own business at home. All you have to do is ask.

Finally, let me mention something that is very close to my heart and should be close to yours. As tough as things can get for we Americans during a recession, it is far, far worse for people in many third world countries. You can be hardest working, most ambitious person in history and still not have two dollars it takes to buy an order pad. You don't have it and you never will.

A very small loan can turn tide for millions of people, especially poor women desperate to feed their children. All they need is a helping hand to get their business started. In process, you do something real and needed to stop terrorism at its economic roots.