We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dee Bowden a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dee , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

My risk was taking the journey to write my book Collect the Cash. Several years ago I was on a radio show and I shared the following story. About fifteen years ago, I worked for a small IT firm outside of Boston, where I am originally from. They hired me as a part-time collections specialist. They had $8 million worth of sales on their books but not in the bank. Every time I tell that part, I must pause because that is a lot of money. We are talking about a small IT firm, with less than 100 people. The sales team did extremely well, making $8 million worth of sales in software licenses and everything IT. The company billed for the services, but in the part where I come in, which is collections, they never did collect the cash.

I was given a list of accounts, and I am a believer, so I said a short prayer that said, “God, I don’t know what happened that they had this much money on the books, but not the bank, but I need you to show me how to resolve this.” After my prayer, I went to work and what I know about business-to-business collections, also known as Accounts Receivables, is that it is four things. Problem-solving, customer service, gratitude, and relationship building. This was a huge problem that had not been addressed; if it did not get addressed, it would be a bigger one. Now, as great as that is, this part of the story was life-changing for me and what made me create Collect the Cash! I recovered $6 million while working part-time in 60 days.

After sharing this story with my book coach, she says “Dee Your Why is that you want Small Business Owners to win and not experience what happened to you”. So with her encouragement I took the risk and enrolled in her class to write my book . So glad that I took the risk and invested in myself to create a legacy with Collect the Cash.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I provide consulting services to small and mediums size companies that have outstanding invoices and no system/strategy to collect the cash. The problem I solve for my clients is changing the perception of collecting payments and seeing it as part of the sales process. I am most proud of creating the framework for Collect the Cash which includes problem-solving, customer service, gratitude and relationship building.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The books that have significantly impacted my entrepreneurial thinking and philosopy are the following: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Speak Your Way to Cash by Ashley Kirkwood
Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service by Performance Research Associates

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My resilience with sharing my story started with the 1st iteration of How Secure Is Your Cash Flow and no one was responding to it . Once I took the risk and asked for feedback, I received the necessary information to change from How Secure is Your Cash Flow to Collect the Cash. Once I made this change it’s been so exciting to see it take off and make impact.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://collectthecash.biz/book
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deecollects/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deebowden/