A few people have asked me how the big shake up in the financial markets and general global gloom is going to affect Fluidata. My answer is actually I think it will have a positive impact on the business. It is an opportunity for us to evaluate our client base, focus on our target market and hopefully acquire other businesses to ride the inevitable recovery wave. Already we are seeing a number of difficult clients (small and large) fall by the wayside as their business activities catch up with them while Fluidata is winning larger contracts and attracting new clients who previously wouldn’t have considered the solutions on offer.
While Fluidata is still seen as a luxury in terms of cost to very small businesses or home users, larger businesses who are used to spending thousands on internet services can see real value both in service and cost. And by being strict with our terms of business ie if we provide you with a service you pay us money we pick up on those clients who are running into issues sooner rather than later.
I had one potential customer tell me the other day that they were a $50bn organisation and so didn’t need to pay us in 30-day terms but 60-days and if we couldn’t accommodate that we wouldn’t get the business. My response? Lehman’s was a $600bn organisation and it looks like they will be leaving their suppliers with a huge bill following their early collapse so same rules apply to all clients large and small.
It amazes me that with the current economic climate anyone would entertain such a demand – especially if it is a large organisation as we know how long payments take anyway to be processed.
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