SME Business News

1. Make sure your Terms and Conditions are clearly stated and send them out with all confirmations and invoices.  Don’t be afraid to send a reminder as the payment date draws near and start chasing payment as soon as it is overdue.
2. Offer your customers an early payment discount.
3. Credit check new customers and before [...]

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When times are hard, Cash is King.  Follow our Top 10 Tips to keep your cash flow healthy.
1. Credit check your customers before extending credit, or when increasing their credit limit.  If in doubt insist on payment up front or by credit card.
2. Charge a deposit at the time of order. This is particularly important [...]

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Rising costs are having a devastating effect on the health of small businesses according to research by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) on behalf of Make It Cheaper.
The research, which questioned the owners and managers of 750 small businesses, found that overheads have risen by almost a quarter over the past five [...]

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Many otherwise successful businesses have run into difficulties because they have run out of cash.  Here are our Top Tips to stop this happening to you.
1. Collect money owing to you as quickly as possible. Issue invoices as soon as work has been completed, or time them to arrive at the same time as despatched [...]

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For small businesses the priority, as always, will be to carry on creating wealth and jobs – and the FSB is calling on government to create the right conditions for growth by providing an economic stimulus for small business.
One key concern over the past 18 months is that of affordable finance for small business. The [...]

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Public sector clients are still late to pay small businesses, a survey has found.
A survey by the Federation of Small Business (FSB) found that 22% of payments from local authorities were late, while 35% of payments from central government were still outstanding after the agreed payment period.
The FSB believes the government, nationally and locally, must [...]

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New research published by CreditPal, a free online service for SMEs, reveals that over the last two years almost half (43%) of UK SMEs have been left with monies owed to them as a result of their trading partners or customers going bust. The total amount owed to SMEs is estimated to be around 5.3 [...]

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Small businesses have collectively saved almost £3 billion a year in a drive by the government to cut back on red tape.
The British government’s target is to cut administrative work for small businesses to 25% by May 2010 in an attempt to save at least £3.3 billion. In addition to this they have recently announced [...]

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The FPB has welcomed some of the small business-friendly measures outlined by the Chancellor, including the extension to the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme, the freeze on corporation tax for small firms and the extension of the Time to Pay scheme. However, the FPB is arguing that the support package announced by Mr Darling will [...]

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Almost a quarter (23%) of respondents to the survey selected late payment and subsequently poor cash flow as their ‘key issue’ – more than those who voted for a lack of sales (20%), and complying with health and safety regulations (11%).
Even declining bank lending was deemed to be less of a concern than poor payments. [...]

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