Wincollect Software began offering Bad Debt Collection Software as a service about five years. The first ten years in the Collection Software business, we provided software strictly as a premised based solution. Over the past several years, many companies have approached us about starting a new collection agency. Some have been very successful and others not so. Software as a service or hosted software reduces the initial cost of your collection software eliminating the cost of providing your own server and the need for an IT manager.
Those that have been successful typically have been those from the collection industry. A salesman or operations manager from an established collections company decides to go on their own. They have a good understanding of how a collection agency runs and most often have a client or clients that they have done business with previously. With any startup businesses, there is a fair amount of initial investment that needs to be made before the first dollars come in the door.
To start you need Collections Software, accounting software, computers, phones, an office, a web site, sales contracts, collectors, insurance, state licenses, and a manager to run the operation. Once that is all in place, the keys to success are setting up good processes, hiring and training good collectors and managers that know how to collect money.
Good Collection Software can automate many of the day to day processes, provide reporting to manage the business, and provide an easy integration with your clients to import and export data files and provide reports. Technology today is much more sophisticated than it was just a few years ago and collection software is more affordable. New collection software technology is superior to systems employed just 5 years ago providing web access for your clients and the ability to automate many daily tasks.