Nearly all businesses are feeling the pressure of the current economic climate with its tone of increasing financial uncertainty. The term ‘credit crunch’ has become an all-too-familiar term for all of us.
With a firm stranglehold on the available expenditure of any business, ensuring bills are paid on time has never been so important, yet businesses are struggling to pull in what’s owed.
In a report published by Natwest, a staggering £63bn remained unpaid beyond the agreed deadline and that £15.7bn of this was more than 120 days overdue, potentially threatening the survival of those SMEs.
Leading Chester Law Firm, Hillyer McKeown have launched a campaign to help the City’s businesses get cash flowing again. Duncan McAllister, Partner at Chester Law Firm, Hillyer McKeown, said: “The excuses are all too familiar. Businesses are told ‘the director who signs the cheques is away’, ‘our systems are down’, ‘we can’t locate the invoices’. Some businesses still report the old standby, ‘the cheque is in the post’ and the more modern – ‘our computer is down’. We are all aware that customers can be a little economical with the truth but businesses do tend to tread over-cautiously for fear of upsetting a potential clients. But the question we must ask ourselves is ‘Do we want the type of clients who don’t pay on our books?’”
Duncan added: “Financial planning is key. You need to put in place a system with simple checks that support your business. These can be simple things like making sure you credit check new customers and agreeing financial terms that suit your business and not just your customers. As part of our continued commitment to help the City’s businesses we’ve launched out ‘Cash is King’ Campaign. We’ve produced our top tips for keeping cash flowing and these are available to view by visiting our blog.”
Hillyer McKeown’s Top Tips for managing cash flow can be found here: http://www.hillyermckeown.co.uk/blog/2012/05/cashflowtoptips/
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