In this week’s Business Finance Bulletin Rob Warlow looks at the impact late payment can have on growth plans with a recent survey from Close Bros Finance demonstrating how it can hold your business back.

Rob also looks at how crowdlending platforms Funding Knight, ReBuilidngSociety and LendInvest have reached new highs and milestones as they continue to challenge the traditional High Street banks.

And in the Business Finance Tip of the Week Rob shares some thoughts in an interview he did on what a good Business Plan looks like.

With the economy beginning to pick there is one barrier to growth that many business owners don’t see until it’s too late and that is lack of cash to fund future growth. Two recent surveys have highlighted the recurring problems UK businesses have when it comes to late payment.

The first survey from Close Brothers reveals that of those businesses experiencing problems due to late payments, 58% said that it impacts on their day-to-day cash flow management with 17% saying it has resulted in them reining in necessary spending. A further 15% say it threatens their ability to trade.

The impact of late payment is not just on poor cashflow but also in terms of the time taken out of the working day to chase up outstanding debts. Close Bros found that 17% of businesses spend more than 10 hours a month chasing late payers.

Despite chasing for payment it can often happen that the debt remains unpaid and findings from Satagom an automated credit control firm have revealed that 40%of firms have written debts off in the past.

As discussed in previous blogs part of the solution the late payment is to ensure there is a system and process in place for chasing bad debts. The Satago survey found that 77% of firms don’t have a person or a procedure in place so making the chasing of late payments even more difficult.

If your growth plans are held back by poor cashflow there are a number of solutions including invoice discounting, factoring, and spot finance which are detailed here – Cashflow Solutions.

Also here is a chat Rob Warlow had with Steve White of Thornbury Collections on steps you can take to avoid late payment.

Posted on 30.05.2014, by Rob Warlow

In this week’s episode we look at the first quarter figures of the government’s Funding for Lending Scheme (not all good news I’m afraid). Better figures though come from the British Bankers Association first quarter figures on bank lending, which shows a steady increase in bank lending.

A survey from Close Bros Invoice Finance reveals the different types of finance business owners are using and, in another piece of research, a look at how crowdfunding continues to grow at a rapid rate.

The Business Finance Tip of the Week is a clip from a live seminar Rob Warlow did recently in which he shares his thoughts on what to do if your bank has said no… move on!