It's a common problem in today's tough economy: some customers are simply not paying their bills. Thus, business owners need to get up to speed on the ugly business of collections.

OK, so what are some best practices? Let's take a look:

Understand your collection cycle: With any accounting package, you can put together an accounts receivable aging measure. Essentially, this gives you a breakdown of how long it takes your customers to pay. It's a good idea to have at least a year's worth of the aging (note that there may be some seasonality in the data). With this, you can better gauge when there are danger signs with customers.

Escalate: "If you notice customers are not paying when they typically do according to your aging trends," says Dr. Devin A. Jopp, Chief Operating Officer of SCORE, Counselors to America's Small Business, "then you need to act quickly. The first step is to make a call and find out why."

This was one of my last to make the list of 8 for 2008, and did not show up in previous stories, but investors should take note. Everything we read and hear about the investment climate in 2008 makes one rather tepid about the stock market. One of my friends even suggested to me a few days ago that he was considering going to all cash. That is a bad idea. A better idea is to find investments that will do well in this environment. Loews Corp. (NYSE: LTR) might very well be that company. The stock closed on December 28, 2007, at $49.35.

In a recent news release, Loews announced a plan to spin-off Lorillard. By mid-summer LTR should be separated from this tobacco company and maker of the Newport brand of cigarettes. This will free up some cash for stock buybacks, according to the article, and also from some liability. This might be good news to many but is not the reason I like Loews so much.

The real reason is that in searching out investment opportunities I took an interest in Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO) as a major player in the search for oil offshore. Well it turns out that Loews is a major shareholder. When I was reviewing insurance companies, which were way down in 2007, and I think oversold now, I came across CNA Financial (NYSE: CNA), which has fallen on hard times and may be a comeback story. Then I learn that Loews owns a major stake in CNA too.

As you gear up your business for 2008, I'm sure you have lots of good ideas. But there is something that is often ignored – getting organized. And with the explosion of email and digital media, being organized is getting even tougher.

To help things out, I had a chance to interview Monica Ricci, the author of Organize Your Office In No Time and the founder of Catalyst Organizing Solutions. She is also Office Depot (NYSE: ODP)'s organizing advisor.

Ricci's core filing system is called F.A.I.T.H, which involves:

File It: If something requires filing, then file it now.

Act: Have an action file for your recurring tasks.

In Progress: This is a file for things that don't fit in a category. Examples: invitation to an event, plane tickets, directions to a client location, or even a birthday card.

Toss: Don't be a pack rack.

Hand Off: Maybe something will be useful for a colleague?

"Everyone should set aside time once a month to sort and slim the files," said Ricci. "Put the date in your planner for one hour on the last Friday of every month."

If you take a look at the stories of great entrepreneurs – such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT)'s Sam Walton, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Bill Gates, and Howard Schultz of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) – you will see that they had the help of mentors and advisors.

After all, being an entrepreneur can be lonely, stressful and challenging. And it's often difficult to get solid advice.

"I can't overstate the importance of mentors in my life," said Ben Casnocha. Ben started his first business at 14 years old, and even wrote a book on his experiences, My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley.

So where do you find mentors? Ben recommends lots of networking. In fact, he considers the Small Business Administration's SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) a great resource (and it's free).

But be wary. Make sure you do lots of background research on the people you like. You might realize that they really aren't a good fit.

Back in the 1990s, Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) cofounders -- Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- played to their own drummer. Instead of taking gobs of venture capital, the dynamic duo did it on the cheap by themselves. For example, they built a sophisticated server platform using old PCs and free Linux software. And, when cash was low, they used their trusty credit cards.

You could say that Google built a business using old-fashioned bootstrapping.

And if Larry and Sergey can make it work, why not you?

This post is part of our Money Face-Off feature. Let us know who you think comes out ahead in this head-to-head match-up, and check out our other Money Face-Off posts.

These two moguls run huge media empires with what seems like very personal involvement. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp'B' (NYSE: NWS) is working his family into the picture, sometimes. However, Sumner Redstone, Chairman of Viacom (NYSE: VIA), is working his family out, always. He seems to have a trap door at the top of his empire, like a haunted house, or a not so fun-house. You work your way to the top and then a trap doors opens in the floor dropping you out.

Rupert seems to have a plan (see, Rupert Murdoch & Homer Simpson are winners -- look for sequels). Sumner seems to have a scheme as he is wheeling and dealing to improve the state of his vast holdings and taking no prisoners. But from all I have read, the company is treading water, having a success here and there, and then you get little things like Viacom's MTV, Nickelodeon facing challenges.

A few months ago I posted a story about a possible new niche organic food company I might invest in. The founder of the company was looking for seed capital and follow-on funding. He has been developing the product for several years and has most details of his business plan worked out. However, he has no funding as of yet, and while he has numerous connections in the food industry, he is light on all of the other things that go into the management and execution of the business. Based on four months of discussions and assisting him as part of his unofficial advisory board, we moved closer to striking a deal.

My own knowledge of the food industry is severely lacking, and I am not very well-versed in retail sales or distribution either, but many of our skill sets were complimentary. The founder is a family acquaintance (caution lights blinking) and I was interested in helping him out if I could. I do believe the business is viable.

We got into discussions more recently about whether to go public (penny stock) or stay private. The potential to raise capital using different approaches and, most importantly from my perspective, how critical it was to start up with a bang or take a go-slow approach. This proved to be one of our major points of contention. I was in favor of bootstrapping the company along and not taking on very much debt, funding growth out of profits. My associate wanted to scale-up fast and was willing to take on greater debt to develop a few additional products that he had in mind to expand the line, even before we had established the initial product in the market. While I credit him for knowing his industry and the potential market, my own general business principles started to be tested.

Since I could not offer much of my time, I introduced my entrepreneur friend to another good friend that does have the time, knowledge, capital, and experience to help with the execution of the business on a full-time basis. He was actually looking for his next venture and has a personal interest in gourmet food. His experience also includes business development and international sales for a Fortune 500 company -- perfect I thought. Just like the big venture capitalists, I would bring cash and business leadership and all would be right in the world.