|
Are Slow Payments Affecting Your Business?
 If
your business is experiencing slow paying
customers, then you are by no means alone.
New research has found that businesses now
take longer to pay their bills than at any
time since Late Payment legislation was
introduced in 1998. However, there are ways
to reduce the worry...
Research for Experian has found that the
average time for an invoice to be paid is
now 61.07 days, up by almost two days since
November 2006. Large businesses are still by
far the slowest to pay, at 81.5 days, while
medium and small companies take 61.3 and
60.2 days respectively.
Jo Howard, Marketing Director of Experian’s
Business Information division, said:
“Information on how long it takes for
businesses to pay their bills is very
powerful and is a great asset for improving
business efficiency.
“Businesses need to be increasingly cautious
about trading with companies that have a
poor or erratic payment performance record.
More alert companies are more likely to take
steps to screen out poor performers from
their new business activity and check for
default or late payment amongst new and
existing customers so they know who they are
dealing with and are forewarned of any
potential problems.
“At the same time, they might be trading
with a very creditworthy and sound business
that has a culture of late payment. It pays
its bills, but traditionally later than its
peers in its industry. Here, a business can
be prepared for late payment or take steps
to change its payment terms to encourage
faster payment or develop more creative
collection strategies.”
One of the easiest ways to get round
worrying about slow paying customers is to
use factoring or invoice discounting.
The speed of factoring makes it particularly useful to small
businesses; and it is fast growing in
popularity as more business owners see the
benefits it can bring.
As you are paid instantly; factoring
provides an extremely quick form of finance
that can help you to balance your cash flow
or finance expansion, without the risk or
hassle of a long term loan or other finance
agreement.
For more information on
factoring and invoice discounting BizHelp24
recommends you visit the Ashley Finance
site (link below), as they are one of the few invoice
finance companies that work especially with
small businesses.
Find out more about how Invoice Finance
could benefit your business here.
| 
