Confident Cashflow

Here’s the scenario: you know you should be profitable. You’ve done the maths and your income should easily cover your expenses. And yet, you never seem to have enough cash.

You muddle through, chasing late payments, and believing that how customers pay you is outside of your control. You continually spend money on credit control – a band-aid for a wound that won’t heal without investigating and addressing the root cause.

Many businesses become convinced that the problem is poorly paying customers. But actually, that’s the symptom.

The good news is that the real problem is within your control. It’s time to revisit your credit policy and the processes that back it up.

Cash is so critical to the success of a business – even a highly profitable one – that investing in getting a handle on your credit management should be top of your agenda.

At Confident Cashflow, we work with businesses to review and strengthen 5 pillars which together help create, implement and monitor a healthy credit policy. In turn, this strengthens your business and gives you confidence to invest and grow.

To find out more, book your FREE discovery call and find out what you can be doing to strengthen your credit management approach.

It’s common for business owners to believe late payment is the weapon of larger players and that, as a small business or SME, they can’t influence the policies of industry giants.

Because out of the 6 million businesses in the UK, only 8,000 meet the government definition of a ‘large business’ and only 36,000 are classified as medium sized. That means well over 5 million businesses are small and you are therefore far more likely to be owed money by one of them.

Many smaller businesses might believe they don’t need a credit policy until they reach a certain turnover milestone. This is wrong. You can never be too small to set best practice foundation upon which to grow your business.

By spending some time and investing in best practice advice and guidance, you can ensure your credit policy serves your business. A robust policy will remove the problem of late payment as well as assisting with decision making when it comes to vetting new clients.

Contrary to popular belief, profitability does not necessarily equal a healthy, cash-rich business.

Many of my clients have looked fantastic on paper but, in reality, they do not have the money to hand to cover their bills. This is most likely down to their clients paying them late; an issue that a robust credit policy can solve easily.

We can help you identify what your credit policy needs to contain by carrying out a 5 Pillars Review.

It’s time to say goodbye to your money spending more time in your customer’s bank account. Bear in mind that, for a business with a turnover of £5million, one extra day’s cash equates to £13,000.

If you find you are frequently let down when it comes to customer payments, there is a good chance that something is missing from your credit policy. All you need to do is find that gap.

Instead of wishing and hoping that your clients will become better payers, why not address the root cause of these problems with a full review of all 5 pillars of credit management?

Our 5 Pillars are a framework which enables us to assess all the activities that relate to the way you deal with cash and credit.

With the clarity that the review brings, we can create and document your best practice credit policy as well as the forms, documents and procedures that sit beneath it.

Revising your credit policy (or implementing one for the first time) requires a thorough audit of the way your business works and success will depend on having total buy in from everyone who plays a part in the decision-making process.

If you’re not sure what help you need, why not take advantage of our FREE discovery call