S
Squiddy
Guest
I was reading through my latest issue of First Voice the other day, a magazine focused on Small to Medium Enterprises (SME's) in the UK. It has a lot of information on new laws that are being passed, issues that are being faced by local businesses and how to deal with them, amongst a great many other things. There was one noteworthy story that related to a post we have up currently which talks about about a web development company defacing one of their clients websites, so I thought I'd explore the topic a little bit more on DF.
The story in question is titled "Late Payment: A culture of Contempt" and it relates to a plastering company that collapsed in 2012. They basically got screwed out of £450k by a company that refused to pay them for their services. It also mentions a glazing company that sacrificed 40% of its turnover by refusing to supply the construction giant Balfour Beatty, due to the constant struggle of trying to wrestle their deserved payments from the company.
The most astonishing piece of the article, however, is the fact (Source: Bacs - Payment Providers) that there is an estimated £36 billion worth of collective debt for SME's in the UK, a result of late payments. That is a lot of fucking money.
I myself have had only brief issues of clients not paying, and I managed to wrestle the funds out of them after no more than a month or so and it was not for anywhere near the amounts mentioned above. I can only imagine the stress this put onto someone's shoulders - especially if they have other staff to pay, so that they can provide for their families.
Has anyone here, or their company, suffered from late payments? How do you deal with those matters and what preventative measures do you put in place to avoid these situations?
The story in question is titled "Late Payment: A culture of Contempt" and it relates to a plastering company that collapsed in 2012. They basically got screwed out of £450k by a company that refused to pay them for their services. It also mentions a glazing company that sacrificed 40% of its turnover by refusing to supply the construction giant Balfour Beatty, due to the constant struggle of trying to wrestle their deserved payments from the company.
The most astonishing piece of the article, however, is the fact (Source: Bacs - Payment Providers) that there is an estimated £36 billion worth of collective debt for SME's in the UK, a result of late payments. That is a lot of fucking money.
I myself have had only brief issues of clients not paying, and I managed to wrestle the funds out of them after no more than a month or so and it was not for anywhere near the amounts mentioned above. I can only imagine the stress this put onto someone's shoulders - especially if they have other staff to pay, so that they can provide for their families.
Has anyone here, or their company, suffered from late payments? How do you deal with those matters and what preventative measures do you put in place to avoid these situations?