The financial turmoil that has hit some European countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal, where they have seen their economies suffer and almost faced bankruptcy, only to be saved, almost at the eleventh hour, by other eurzone countries, has caused much concern in the money markets. While the UL economy has large debts, there is still money available in the financial institutions to lend to small firms, but the unrest has caused interest rates to be somewhat retaliatory, making small firms think twice about taking on an expensive business loan. Where a small business needs financial support to get through a lean patch because it has not been paid by a large business for delivered[/spin] or equipment provided, they might find themselves between a rock and a hard place, with money either coming from expensive bank deals or credit cards. They need to chase up the overdue bill with the large business and their first move will be to make contact with them to be informed what is happening. If they don’t get a satisfactory result then they might feel pressured into checking up on their Debt Collection directions.

The accepted Debt Collection providers; lawyers and Debt Collection Agencies tend to charge in the order of 10% to 20% or more of the bill value, which might be a significant sacrifice for the small business. If the small business is ready for a challenge they might take on the Debt Collection process with their available resources and use Debt Collection Software, which can cost around ?40 for a decent Debt Collection Software package. Obviously the small business may neither have the experience in Debt Collection, nor the teams of expert people that lawyers and Debt Collection Agencies have, so they will have to both learn about the Debt Collection process and designate resources to make the Debt Collection Software package deliver the goods. During their required consideration of Debt Collection Software suites, attention should be paid to the set of instructions as this will be a useful source of information and training materials so that they can find out about the Debt Collection process within the context of the Debt Collection Software. One of the key elements of the Debt Collection process is Debt Collection letters, since these are a fundamental communications link between the two firms it is important that these are composed with care. The people nominated to composing the Debt Collection letters will need to have a good command of English since it would be detrimental to the Debt Collection process if any Debt Collection letters were sent out with spelling or grammatical mistakes present. The fundamental purpose of using Debt Collection Software is not just to save money over what lawyers and Debt Collection Agencies would charge but to be in control of the Debt Collection process. The small business will not only want to convince the large business to pay the overdue bill but will also want to do so in a way that will not disrupt the business relationship that might well have developed between the two firms. The recent economic climate has brought a rise in the number of lawyers and Debt Collection Agencies and it might well be the case that some of the more recent lawyers and Debt Collection Agencies to enter the business to business Debt Collection market might not be ethically minded and for the small business so sign up with one of these might be disaster, not only from how much it might cost but also in possibly breaking up the business relationship with the large business.

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