Purchase Orders.
I have business ethos that compels me to deliver more than asked, on time and every time. This approach to business, I find, leads to more business. When asked to do something, I just do it and worry about charging later. Looking back over the last year, I probably invest more time undertaking minor unpaid jobs than paid ones. This can be viewed as an alternate to sales and marketing, but there is a down side.
Of course some work has to be charged for and this is the difficult area. Do I agree to do a job and start on a promise or do I hold out for a purchase order before doing anything. The conventional approach when dealing with a major company is to wait for all the paperwork before doing anything. This is fine for long term or expensive projects; everyone needs to fully understand what they are getting into.
But my business specialises in rapid small projects lasting between one day and six weeks, I can be called in to solve a problem that needs addressing immediately. My clients cannot wait six weeks for the finance team to deliver a purchase order, so I take the promise and just do the work.
It would be ideal if large companies had some flexibility to manage small projects differently. It would allow them to achieve small tasks for small charges and in short timeframe's. Currently their internal processes hamper them in this area.