How to collect business debts

by Jim Heath

THIS BOOK tells you what debt-collection methods there are, how well they work, and how to choose which to use.

You're in for some surprises. A lot of this material comes from behind the scenes: straight from lawyers, court officials, private investigators and debt collectors -- talking informally and bluntly.

What you'll gain from the book is increased profits and fewer worries. And if you're new to all this, it could actually save your business.

Before we start...

1. This book is copyright, but you can make any 'fair use' of it under copyright law. That of course doesn't include poor-attitude things like re-publishing the work (or parts of it) and claiming it's yours, or copying it to another website or mirroring it, or putting parts of it in some other document or website and implying you wrote those parts, or using any of it in a publication that you sell. You get the idea.
2. In June 1998, I started asking people to recommend books they found useful in their battle to collect debts. With their permission, I'm listing those books -- and what they said about them -- in Battle Manuals for Debt Collectors. I've added two powerful ones myself. I'll look into any suggestion you make, and add it if the book seems useful -- no matter what country it's published in.
3. This book was published in 1990 under the title "The Debt Book" and is based on the law in Victoria, Australia. It's likely to be out of date in a few small ways, even in Victoria (though Victorian law, like most law, evolves slowly).
4. Many of the debt-collection principles in the book are universal, and some probably would have worked well in ancient Thebes and Babylon. But don't expect the details about court procedures and such things to apply to you -- unless you live in Victoria.
5. Lawyers have checked this book, and so have debt collectors and other pros. But I'm not a lawyer and don't claim that the general information in the book will work in any given situation. If you have a legal question, see a lawyer.
6. Which brings me to this lovely wet-blanket statement that you'll enjoy reading: All information and advice in this book is provided without any responsibility or liability on any account whatsoever on the part of the author or the copyright holder or the book publisher. Also, the names of people and companies used as illustrations are fictitious and any resemblance to real people, living or dead, or to real companies is purely coincidental.
7. If you'd like an original copy of the printed book, I regret that you can't have one: it's been out of print for a long time. But if you're in Victoria, there are copies in the library system. Similarly, there are copies of the Western Australian edition in the library system there.

Jim Heath
Perth, Australia
December, 2000