Has Business Slowed Since the Start of the Pandemic?

Being a business owner in the time of COVID-19 is full of uncertainties, to say the least. For many businesses throughout Northern Virginia, revenues have slowed and future projects have been put on hold. You may have had to close your doors, or shift your operations online, or let employees go. Of course, we know the importance of following all instructions from the CDC to keep ourselves, our customers, and our team members safe. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. 

Take Advantage of Downtime in Your Business

If your business has at all been impacted by the spread of COVID-19, you may be experiencing more-than-usual downtime in your schedule. For a business owner, this downtime can feel a little scary. It may even have you spinning your wheels, trying to find money-generating ways to fill your time. That’s what got us thinking -- when was the last time you organized your books? When was the last chance you got when you could actually sit down and reconcile old accounts? At Wakefield Law, quite a lot of our business comes from collection work. In our collection practice, we help business owners from around Northern Virginia organize their outstanding invoices, manage accounts receivable, and pursue payment from customers and clients who -- for whatever reason -- have failed to pay you in full. 

When we meet with business owners, we hear a common story: I didn’t mean to get so behind on these accounts, and I didn’t realize how much they had added up. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. The truth is, you have been too busy with the day-to-day of running and growing your business to look back. That’s a good thing. But now, with a little extra time on your hands, you have a unique opportunity to take a pause, to spend some time getting organized, and to actually take stock of any outstanding accounts you have hanging out there.  

Collection Work Doesn’t Require a Major Investment

We’ve written this elsewhere on our blog, but it bears repeating in this strange new time: collection work isn’t like a lot of other legal work. Primarily, that’s because, at Wakefield Law, we don’t charge hourly for our services. Instead, we get paid as a percentage of whatever we are able to collect. That means you can bring your scattered accounts receivable files to the experienced collection attorneys at Wakefield Law, pay a small amount into a trust account to cover expenses like court costs and filing fees, and then let us get to work! We will organize your documents into discrete cases, reach out to the individuals and/or businesses that owe you money, and begin to negotiate to get you paid. As we begin to receive payments from your outstanding accounts, then we are paid a percentage, and the rest returns to you!

Humans Working with Humans

In this time of uncertainty, we admire how much our community has come together to provide support and encouragement for one another. We know that a lot of people and businesses are struggling. At Wakefield Law, we have over 30 years of experience in the collection world, and we have a reputation for getting great results for our clients. We are also a family-run firm that understands that everyone we encounter is a human. We treat everyone -- our clients and those who we pursue for outstanding debts -- as humans. That is to say, we are tough, we will do the work for our clients to make sure that your business gets what it deserves, but we also treat every individual we speak to with respect, compassion, and understanding. 

As a business owner, only you have a clear understanding of the circumstances and the size of the debts that are owed to you. Only you know the approach you want to take to pursuing outstanding accounts. We take our cues from you.If you want to take advantage of this downtime in your business to get your books organized and ready to pursue collection, but you want to wait until this crisis has passed to begin reaching out to debtors, that is up to you. We will follow your instruction to wait until the COVID-19 crisis has passed. 

We are Here to Help

In short, we are here to help you. That’s one of our favorite things about working on a contingency (percentage) basis, rather than hourly. It puts us and our clients on the same team. We aren’t working to try to fulfill some number of billable hours, and we don’t count our minutes in dollars and cents. Instead, we take our time. We get to know our clients and their businesses. We offer our support and expertise to help you get your accounts receivable in order. Most of all, we are here to help you get paid for your services. If you have provided a service, you deserve to be paid. We are all in this together. Give Wakefield Law a call at 703-771-9740 to learn more.