"You can have invoice collection problems at $50k, too, but they're much less likely than at $500"
Where are you getting that from? From my extensive experience with both large and small transactions I don't find that to be the case. Assuming the profit potential is the same would you rather have the risk of 1 50,000 customer or 100 $500 customers? (Let's assume the $50,000 customer is reselling your product at the same margins).
"If you're not a bank, stop taking on so much credit risk. Businesses can deal with substantially sterner payment terms than you'd think to offer"
It's a risk that needs to be evaluated. Be to easy on credit you loose money. To strict you will loose business. Really no different than security policies or spam filters.
It also depends on your margin. If you have a large margin on your product you can afford to take a loss much easier then if you are selling Plasma TV's with very small markup.
Currently one of the products we sell is less than $50 and our cost is less than $10. If someone wants to mail a check, no problem. (Although of course we try and get payment by credit card.) We are making (say) $40 so if we don't get the payment no big deal. Not sure I would say the same if the numbers were 100 times larger though.
Where are you getting that from? From my extensive experience with both large and small transactions I don't find that to be the case. Assuming the profit potential is the same would you rather have the risk of 1 50,000 customer or 100 $500 customers? (Let's assume the $50,000 customer is reselling your product at the same margins).
"If you're not a bank, stop taking on so much credit risk. Businesses can deal with substantially sterner payment terms than you'd think to offer"
It's a risk that needs to be evaluated. Be to easy on credit you loose money. To strict you will loose business. Really no different than security policies or spam filters.
It also depends on your margin. If you have a large margin on your product you can afford to take a loss much easier then if you are selling Plasma TV's with very small markup.
Currently one of the products we sell is less than $50 and our cost is less than $10. If someone wants to mail a check, no problem. (Although of course we try and get payment by credit card.) We are making (say) $40 so if we don't get the payment no big deal. Not sure I would say the same if the numbers were 100 times larger though.