As the owner of a small business trying to thrive in this economy, I always want to assess the risk of customers that I choose to work with. Are there any indicators that might tell me whether or not a business is established enough, so that the risk of getting paid from them is not just all on the owner? The theory is as follows... if one person starts a business, the business is the person. If he brings on 1 employee, it still is mostly up to the owner as to the success of the business. With 50+ employees, is the owner still the most important decision maker in terms of the riskiness of being paid by the business? They might have an accounts department, the owners wife might handle the bills, etc. When is the business bigger than just its owner?
      Answer1:I have all customers sign a personal guarantee when opening an account,been burned by LLCs before