The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since 1980 and is recognized globally as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. He's a columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera and Linux Journal and frequently appears in other publications both online and in print. Additionally, Dave maintains four weblogs: The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, Ask Dave Taylor, Dave On Film, and GoFatherhood. Based in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs, as well as active member of his community and busy single father to three children.

What is "net plus thirty" on an invoice?

Had an interesting experience this morning. I sent a standard email invoice to a client company (whom I shall not name) that included the line

Payment: Net Plus 30

His response was "is that who you want the check made out to, Net Plus 30"?

me: "no, those are the payment terms: I am stating that I want to be paid within thirty days of receipt of my invoice"

he: "Wait, so you want to be paid the amount you billed us plus 30?"

me: "skip the "net plus thirty" and just ask accounting to process my invoice, please."

Now, I've been doing business - including processing invoices and purchase orders - for a long time, so for me, an invoice that says "net + 30" or similar is well understood. It's basically saying "don't pay me in three months, please. Just issue the darn check."

Obviously, though, that's not common parlance, at least not with the organization to which I sent the invoice this morning.

Which leads to my question: how much jargon, how many common catchphrases or acronyms, do you use in your daily correspondence that aren't being clearly understood by your recipients?

A great example of this, of course, is with culturally-contextual metaphors. If I say "that's a home run!" would you understand? Probably, if you're in the United States of America and are at all familiar with baseball. But if you're not? If you're in Madrid and are obsessed with soccer (which you'd call futbol) or if you're in Mumbai and are a cricket fanatic? There a "red card" or a "sticky wicket" would make sense, but then most Americans would be completely clueless about the reference and its implication in your communication.

That's your exercise for the day: pay attention to how you're communicating with others and ask yourself the question what metaphors, what jargon am I using that might be getting in the way of clear communication?

Do it right and I promise you, it'll be a touchdown. :-)

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