Business

Small Business 101: How To Start A Collection Agency

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">When people hear the words&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;collections agency&comma;” they have pretty strong reactions&period; They usually think of a boiler room atmosphere of people using unscrupulous means to get collect on a debt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There are a lot of financial opportunities there&period; About <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;usatoday&period;com&sol;story&sol;money&sol;personalfinance&sol;budget-and-spending&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;17&sol;its-official-most-americans-are-currently-in-debt&sol;110443996&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">80&percnt; of Americans<&sol;a> have some type of debt&period; Mortgages&comma; student loans&comma; credit cards&comma; and medical bills are the most common&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There’s an increased chance that some will default and require a collections agency to step in and collect the debt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Stay tuned to find out how to start a collection agency that thrives&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Understand the Industry<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Starting a collections agency requires a specific set of knowledge&period; Over time&comma; the industry developed a bad reputation for collection on outstanding debt&period; This led to regulations at the state and federal level&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">At the federal level&comma; the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;consumerfinance&period;gov&sol;ask-cfpb&sol;are-there-laws-that-limit-what-debt-collectors-can-say-or-do-en-329&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Fair Debt Collection Practices Act<&sol;a> is the main law that limits what you can say or do to collect a debt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Each state has its own laws that govern debt collection practices&comma; such as garnishing wages to repay a debt&period; You need to know what you can do and what you can’t do to collect a debt and stay within the law&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You need to be aware of licensing requirements to collect on debts in each state where you do business&period; New Jersey requires that you submit a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;state&period;nj&period;us&sol;treasury&sol;revenue&sol;filecollagbond&period;shtml" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Collection Agency Bond Application<&sol;a> and file a &dollar;5&comma;000 bond with the state’s Department of Revenue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Identify Target Market<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong> <&sol;strong>Do you have a particular niche that you’d like to work with&quest; For example&comma; will you work with small businesses in your local area&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Another possible target market is to work with the health industry to collect on a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;medical-debt-impacts-credit&sol;">medical debt<&sol;a>&period; Many families find themselves in a position where they can’t pay the doctors or hospitals for their medical bills&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">No matter what industry or niche you work with&comma; you need to make sure that you understand what their key issues are when it comes to collecting on debts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For example&comma; for small businesses&comma; late or non-payments can be damaging to businesses due to the lack of cash flow&period; You can incorporate that in your marketing messages&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>What’s Your Revenue Model&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">When you learn how to start a collection agency&comma; your primary objective is to build a profitable business&period; You need to figure out how you’ll make money from your collections business&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There are two ways to collect a debt and make money&period; The first is that you can work with a business to collect on a debt that is less than 90 days old and get a percentage of what’s collected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The reason why you want to work on a debt less than 90 days old is that you have a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;business&period;com&sol;articles&sol;7-red-flags-every-business-should-be-aware-of&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">much better chance<&sol;a> of collecting the debt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The second way you can make money is to purchase debts from businesses for pennies on the dollar&period; For example&comma; someone might have a credit card debt of &dollar;1&comma;000&period; That credit card company will charge off that loss and sell that debt to you for &dollar;100&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You can collect on that debt and make more than &dollar;100 back&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In either case&comma; you don’t get paid unless you collect on a debt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Check out the Competition<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Who are the other collections companies that you’re up against&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Keep in mind that many collections agencies work in a number of states&comma; so you’ll have to start looking outside of your local area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You can start by checking out collection agencies online&period; You’ll want to know who they target&comma; what their marketing messages are&comma; what they charge&comma; and what their collections rates are&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You can read these reviews and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;sidebysidereviews&period;com&sol;collection-agencies-review&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">compare prices here<&sol;a> to start with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Hiring Your Team<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Starting a successful collection agency largely depends on the team that you hire&period; You have to put your pride aside and realize that you’re not an expert in everything&period; Trying to do everything yourself is noble&comma; but you’re only going to burn yourself out in the end&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The key players you’ll need on your team to start with are a business or tax attorney&comma; who can advise you on setting up the legal structure of the business and the tax implications of certain structures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You definitely need an accountant who can make sure you&&num;8217&semi;re setting aside enough money to pay federal&comma; state&comma; and local taxes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You also want to make sure that you’re hiring the right collections agents for the job&period; It’s a stressful job&comma; and not everyone is well-suited to this type of work&period; Ideally&comma; you want someone who is<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Company Culture<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Collection agents have a hard job&period; They have to collect on outstanding debts&comma; and people on the other end of the phone will yell and scream at them all day long&period; This can turn into a toxic environment with <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;forbes&period;com&sol;sites&sol;williamcraig&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;29&sol;how-positive-employee-morale-benefits-your-business&sol;&num;5e753de52549" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">low employee morale<&sol;a> and low productivity due to sick days&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You can set the tone at your company and create a culture where your agents are valued for the work that they do&period; Having regular meetings with your team to help them understand the mission and values of the company is also key&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">When your employees are working towards a common purpose or goal&comma; they feel like they’re making a contribution to the company&period; That’s often just as important as collecting a paycheck&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Marketing Your Business<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong> <&sol;strong>How will you go about getting clients to work with&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Once you have the foundation in place&comma; you need customers to work with&period; There are dozens of ways that you can market your business&period; You can use a mix of digital marketing and offline marketing strategies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Calling on banks or small businesses while using <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;amazing-free-seo-tools&sol;">SEO tools<&sol;a> to boost your search rankings is an effective way to market your business&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>How to Start a Collection Agency<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Are you ready to start a business&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">How to start a collections agency starts with knowing the laws and regulations in your state and at the federal level&period; You can then pick out your target market and hire your team&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Want to know more about starting a business&quest; Read this article that will show you <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;great-way-helping-small-business-grow&sol;">how to make your business grow<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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