Confident Cashflow

From commercial clients to more specialist, tougher cleaning jobs, from its Swindon base, So Fresh and So Clean has served the south west since 2011 and as director Laura Dent explains, cashflow can be a challenge running a small business – or at least it was until she worked with Confident Cashflow. In this powerful case study Laura reveals just how transformational the process has been:

“I wanted to work with Nicki at Confident Cashflow, I had met her and knew her reputation. We had some conversations, but you know, I just didn’t have the time or the money for it. Oh, the irony of it! You know if you do not make the time, then, it’s never going to be fixed.

“However, it was during a mastermind session with Fiona Scott, of Scott Media and I’ll be honest, I was having a bit of a bad time with cashflow. I literally did not have any money in the account and Fiona very kindly gifted me a day with Nicki Kinton, to do her Cash Flow Focus Session. She told me she was going to help me and would book the day with Nicki, and I would make time for it. That gesture literally saved my business.

“It was quite different to what I expected. I thought we’d be talking about terms and conditions or bringing people in chasing money, but it wasn’t. We literally went through the whole business process by process and looked at different services. We went through different scenarios and mapped out every step with Post It notes and we started to see ways it could be streamlined. That took half a day, and we spent the other half a day going through every single little bit to figure out where we could improve things to make it smoother, more efficient.

“Nicki helped me understand my payment terms and reassured me when I worried that changing our payment terms would lose us clients. It didn’t! There was silly stuff, like invoicing at the end of the month and giving them 30 days but would already be paying my staff for that work. It was about making it part of the onboarding process and asking the right questions.

“It was one day, and Nicki’s firm is called Confident Cashflow, it gave me the confidence to make the changes to my cashflow. At first, I was like: ‘Oh my God, I’ve a massive list of things to do’, but it was okay, one step at a time and just one day had given me six months of homework for a reason.

“It is ridiculous to think I was still working on the tools full time and running the business in the background and while we’re not a massive business, we are not small. I was like a busy fool and couldn’t see what was in front of me. Since working with Nicki, I have been in the office since January 2024, and we are now turning over six figures. We have also got an office administrator and we’ve increased our staff by 50% again. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the work I did with Nicki.

“None of it was instant, it has taken time to effect change and part of that has been mindset, it’s been transformational. If I didn’t have the tools that Nicki gave me, I simply wouldn’t have made the changes that made the difference. Before I had Nicki, we normally sat between £6,000 and £9,000 overdue or past due. We are currently owed less than £500.

“I would recommend Nicki because she’s just so knowledgeable about what she does. There’s just no nonsense, just this is how it is, this is how you should fix it. And then it’s down to you to take it on board or not. She’s a straight shooter and that’s what I like about her. There’s no fluff and she’s a lovely lady, that made me feel comfortable enough to spend the day putting my flaws out there and owning it. She did not judge, she just helped me turn it into something remarkable.”