Launched last year, Osu is already attracting rave reviews from users who can’t believe how quick and easy it makes it for them to operate and get paid for their work.
A recent survey revealed that more than 1.2 million self-employed professionals in the UK spend at least four-and-a-half months over their lifetime chasing payments.
Even worse, for an unlucky 88,000 self-employed professionals, this increases to more than five hours each week – a hefty 1,380 days over a lifetime.
The shocking research really lifts the lid on the financial strain that entrepreneurs or micro-businesses with just one or two team members face from late payers.
Many told of their frustrations chasing payments, often having to wait weeks, if not months, to receive the money – causing some to lose sleep worrying about their finances.
‘Incredibly frustrating’
It’s a situation that Josh Portnoi, a self-employed personal trainer and Osu user, knows all too well.
He said: “While most clients are good at paying, there was always the occasional delay or a few clients who needed constant chasing.
“That’s all completely changed since I signed up to Osu. It’s just so quick, easy, and convenient.”
Osu allows users to manage clients, schedule appointments, issue invoices, and take payments. Uniquely, Osu’s account-to-account payment technology allows these payments to be completed instantly with zero transaction fees – removing a familiar headache for many self-employed workers.
In short, Osu does all the hard work for you.
Chasing payments
Noam Nevo, co-founder and CEO of Osu, reckons the self-employed need to be paid on time to ensure their businesses don’t run into financial difficulty.
He said: “When we’re talking about the self-employed, we’re talking about nearly four-and-a-half million individuals, united by the fact the overwhelming majority don’t have any admin or accounting staff helping them keep the payment side of things on track.
“We believe most people will be staggered to understand the sheer amount of time that the self-employed are spending chasing payments week in, week out.”
Osu can help
That’s where Osu steps in. The free app has already helped more than 1,000 self-employed professionals and plans to increase its user base to 10,000 this year.
Osu removes the traditional challenges many self-employed people experience when it comes to running things day-to-day and taking payment for their work.
Users can manage their clients within the app, schedule work and send calendar invites. And after the work is done they can send a payment request by entering their customer’s name, phone number, and the amount owed. And with one extra tap, they can add a professional invoice.
Customers can then pay on their phone in seconds, without ever needing to download the Osu app.