Would your business survive this cash crunch?
They were a textbook success story.
Our client had long-standing clients of their own. Healthy profits. Steady growth.
But then one of their clients — a major one — went out of business.
And just like that, they were owed more than £1.5 million which they had little hope of recovering.
A year that looked great on paper turned into a full-blown cash crisis.
Ultimately, the business didn’t collapse, but they had to delay investments, scramble to set up payment plans with suppliers — and weather months of financial stress.
The most painful part?
We’d flagged the risk early on, because the warning signs were there.
When a client is in trouble, it doesn’t come out of nowhere. You’ll often see a patchy payment history, missed or delayed invoice dates and poor credit reports. When you talk to your client, you may also pick up a general sense of financial strain.
But like many business owners, our client trusted the past. Their client had always paid on time before. And the numbers were just too tempting to walk away from.
So they decided to continue working with them — and the gamble didn’t pay off.
In today’s economic climate, this isn’t a one-off story. Any business could lose a major client overnight.
If it happened to you, how would you cope?
Could you survive a full cash cycle without payments from a major customer? (That’s the period it takes to turn investment in your business into income.)
Do you even know how much cash you’d need to keep things running smoothly during that time?
Most importantly, would you spot the warning signs early enough to do something about it?
This is where too many businesses get caught out.
They don’t have clear visibility of their cash cycle so they don’t know how long they could survive without new money coming in.
They’re not monitoring client risk closely enough.
And they don’t have the systems to flag trouble before it’s too late.
That’s where Insight Associates comes in.
We help you build the financial resilience to weather situations like these by:
- Running credit checks on new clients, so you don’t take on unnecessary risk
- Monitoring payments, chasing late invoices and flagging issues early
- Providing regular financial reporting, so you can forecast and plan for potential crunches
- Helping you understand your cash cycle and how much to set aside — without locking up too much working capital
In short, we give you the tools and insight to make calm, considered decisions — even in a storm.
And if something does go wrong?
We don’t just deliver the data. We sit down with you, walk through your options, and help you build a plan.
We can’t make the decisions for you — in the case in this email, our client chose to keep working with a risky customer. But you’ll never be in the dark financially.
And when you’re running a growing business, that kind of control is worth its weight in gold.
Want to see how this could work for you?
== > Email garry@insightassociates.co.uk to get in touch with me today
== > Or call us on 01279 647 447 to book a consultation
Warmly,
Garry
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