A FREE Small Business Workshop Presented by SCORE and Co-Sponsored by the Rowayton Library

A Business and Bagels Series Workshop

Dealing with Deadbeats: Getting the Money You Are Owed Fast and Legally

Thursday, July 24, 2014

7:30 am - 8:30 am

(a light breakfast will be served courtesy of the library. SCORE Fairfield County will underwrite a drawing for a subscription to Entrepreneur Magazine at the end of the session.)

Rowayton Library

33 Highland Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06853

Sooner or later, it happens . . . and few things "eat at your insides" worse than when a client stops paying you. There are ways to avoid bad debts from the beginning. Ensuring contracts are in place to keep payments timely is just one way to ease the pain. But when debts arise and it falls upon you to collect, you need to be well-armed. Find out the four steps of collecting an overdue debt and what you can and can't do. Lastly, learn when you need to cut your losses and throw in the towel on a bad debt.

In this fast-paced program, Cliff Ennico will teach you winning strategies to make sure you are paid on time, every time, and for keeping bad debts at an absolute minimum. Specific topics will include:

• The four types of creditors, and which ones always get paid when a client or customer is "stretched" financially
• Avoiding bad debts in the first place, keeping them to a minimum, and keeping them small
• The four steps in collecting an overdue debt
• Negotiating "workouts" with your debtors
• Surviving small claims court
• "Going medieval" and (legally) making a bad customer's life miserable
• Things you can't do when collecting overdue debts
• The pros and cons of using collection agencies

Our Speaker:

Cliff Ennico (www.cliffennico.com), a nationally recognized authority on the legal problems of small business, is best know as the former host of "Moneyhunt", the fast-paced PBS reality television series, where entrepreneurs defend their business plans before America's toughest panel of experts. His weekly business advice column, Succeeding in Your Business, the "Ann Landers of the business world", is syndicated nationally by Creators Syndicate, and appears in dozens of major newspapers and small business websites throughout North America. He is also a frequent contributor to Entrepreneur and other small business magazines, has hosted over 100 streaming video segments on small business legal and tax issues for the Small Business Television Network website (www.sbtv.com), and is the author of 15 books on entrepreneurship and career management including Small Business Survival Guide and Advising eBusinesses. A member of the faculty of eBay University, he delivers talks to business groups nationwide on the legal, tax, financial and human resources (HR) issues involved in running a successful e-commerce business.