1. Assuming that businesses don't use credit cards to buy from other businesses

Yesterday, I got a call from a local IT provider -- one with a great reputation, and some of the best clients you could ever want. The IT provider had a problem: one of their customers wanted to pay a $50,000 bill with a credit card.  After a brief conversation about the problem, we learned that there were actually four different clients that had tried to pay big bills with a credit card.  The National Small Business Association does a periodic survey onsmall business funding, and in 2008 discovered this gem:

59% of US Small Business Use Credit Cards for Funding.

If you don't offer a credit card option, you may be setting yourself up for problems getting paid:

2. Failing to Take Electronic Payments

It's 4PM on Friday. Your client calls and wants to have four new A+ techs on site for a rollout on monday. You need 40% up front, and your client has put you in a tough spot: you can send four techs on Monday, and hope he has a check for you when you get there, you can delay scheduling until you get a check, or you can calmly send your client a link to your online payment page and let him pay the deposit you using a credit card or bank transfer (ACH or eCheck) payment.

3. Failing to Send the Bill

Probably the most common mistake that businesses make is simply failing to bill the client. Invoicing isn't easy, and requires you have processes in place to track time, materials and contracts. Tools like VPSpay.com can help by setting up automatic credit card or eCheck payments for recurring and scheduled future payments.