Every successful business owner will eventually have to cope with an unfortunate aspect of commerce — collecting unpaid debts from clients and customers. The collection process can be cumbersome and long, leading many busy executives to let their unpaid collections simmer on the back burner.
That’s understandable. You have key personnel focused on the future opportunities to expand your brand footprint. But that doesn’t mean that you should let debts age and collection efforts stop.
A judgment doesn’t equal payment
Judgments are only as good as the paper they are written on when debtors ignore their financial responsibilities and refuse to pay their bills. However, in the hands of a seasoned debt-collection professional, that judgment can translate into repaid debts and fuller coffers.
It’s not that getting judgments against those who owe your company significant sums is unimportant. On the contrary, judgments are integral in the debt-collection process. But they are not the final step in this process.
It might be time to initiate garnishment
Garnishments work best on creditors that owe lesser sums of money and who remain gainfully employed so they have paychecks to garnish. For individuals or corporations that owe larger sums of money, asset seizure and forfeiture might be a better strategy.
Here in Florida, judgments remain valid for 20 years. During those two decades, all post-discovery collection information and efforts remain available to the creditor.
Find a dedicated collection team for your accounts
Few executives have the time or the patience for the paper chase involved in wage garnishment and other collections. That’s why it’s a good idea to dedicate the resources and efforts of debt collection professionals who can fully focus on recovering unpaid debts.