Displaying items by tag: credit checks

We recently blogged about Crowdmix, the London-based start-up that went into administration. It’s a sad fact that many businesses fail within their first year. This can’t always be prevented: starting a business is tough. But there are certainly things you can do to avoid disaster.

Profit is important to all businesses, but don’t underestimate the importance of cash flow either.

We always say that in good credit control, prevention is better than cure - collections and recovery action should be for the bad debts you didn't see coming, not the ones you did.

But how do you know who's going to pay on time, and who's not going to pay at all?

If you've worked in credit control for long enough, it will be instinctive, a kind of sixth sense based on the myriad different factors that contribute towards a company's risk profile.

The Institute of Credit Management (ICM) and business minister Michael Fallon have warned that it is "crazy" to fail to credit check new and existing customers.

Each month, the ICM publishes a new top tip to help safeguard small businesses' cash flow, and at the end of January its latest advice, written in collaboration with Mr Fallon, was released.

Dealing with an Insolvent client can kill a profitable business. If your client becomes insolvent it will have a significant knock-on effect, that will impact on your company cashflow, leaving you as a creditor with unpaid invoices that will likely never be paid.

In 2015, more than 100,000 UK businesses found themselves as creditors to an insolvent business, and many will have found their cash flow at serious risk as a result. Any business, irrespective of size, is at risk if their client becomes insolvent but for freelancers and micro-businesses these risks are magnified.

When it comes to avoiding bad debt the old adage "prevention is better than cure" is a very useful rule to follow. As we tell any business owner that will listen, it is absolutely imperative that before you extend a customer credit you answer the following questions:

• Does this customer have the financial means to pay?
• Are they prepared to pay promptly or at all?