Hi, there. Anthony from Contractors Debt Recovery with yet another Emmy award winning episode in store for you today. What we’re going to talk about now is basic client details. Now what do I mean by that. I’ll tell you what happened a couple of days ago. We got a call at our office. Contractor said I’m owed money. So who owes you the money? Doug. Doug who? I don’t know his last name. How do we find Doug if we want to serve a claim on him? I’ve got his mobile number. That’s it. How much does he owe you? Seventeen grand. So based on a name, a first name and a mobile $17,000 work has been extended to this person, doesn’t know where he lives, doesn’t have a fax number, has no idea where to find him. All he can tell me is Doug is somewhere in Queensland.

Now how stupid is that. You might as well just walk down the street and find someone and go hi what’s your first name. Phillip. Phillip, here’s $20,000. See you. You might as well be doing that. Now that is just absolutely absurd. The industry is full of it. You need to stop doing that immediately. So what client details do we need now? What should you be getting from your client before you lift a shovel or move an earth, any bit of earth or do anything? First of all, who is the customer? Is it Doug as a sole trader? Who is the customer or who is the entity you’re doing work for? It can be a sole trader. In which case you want an ABN. If it’s a company, you want an ABN. If you’re working for a person, can you get their last name? I mean how much of a bloody stretch is that? Could I have your surname please? Full name.

If it’s a partnership, the full names of all the partners in the partnership. Now next I want fax numbers. I want all their phone numbers not just the mobile. I want landline as well. Thank you very much. Fax, mobile, landline. I want an email address. I want a street address. Fax number is probably the most important. Street address, email address, a telephone number. Basic, basic stuff and maybe a P.O. Box if that’s the case. Now if you got those things you’re starting to be in decent shape if you have payment dispute to find your client. Don’t be shy about this stuff. Some people are shy. I don’t understand it. You’re in a business. This is a business transaction. If you can’t give me that already there is a problem.

And this is a good acid test when you start in the whole quote or tender reply part of your relationship with a customer. If they’re shy about giving you this stuff, I’d already be very worried. “Mate we don’t have a fax number, if they don’t have a fax number this is already a problem. We’ve only got an email address. I’m not giving you a street. Here’s a P.O. Box or I’m only giving you a mobile number. That is not good enough and you should make business decisions based on that going “I’m sorry. I don’t have enough information on you”. If you have an ABN you go to the ASIC website asic.gov.au. Look up that company. See what the story is with them. You can get a company an ASIC extract for $32 or $33. See where is the principle place of business for that business that ABN. Where is there usual place of business? What address is it?

This is just basic information that you need to be getting on your customer every time. Otherwise, you’d be like the fellow that spoke to me a few days ago with Doug owes me $17,000. Here’s the mobile number and he’s in Queensland. Well do I go through the electoral roll all over Queensland and a contact every Doug in the state? I can’t help him at all. No one can help him and he was a fool for having got him in that situation. There’s no reason for that at all. Don’t you be a fool. Basic information get it on your customer every single time. And you’d being a far better position in order to pursue money or even acid test your customer early on in the business relationship. If you have any queries, give us a call. Numbers at the bottom of the screen. Other than that, I will see you next time.