Forbes Collect Article
01 November, 2018
Back in August the shocking news that Mike Ashley's Sports Direct agreed to buy the House of Fraser department store chain for £90m hit headlines. The deal was announced just hours after the 169-year-old chain went into administration when talks with its creditors failed to reach an agreement.
Unfortunately, this is not a stand-alone case, and with more and more retail businesses struggling to stay afloat, SMEs have to be very careful when handling their cash flow and navigating the retail space - especially in the run up to Black Friday and the January sales.
To stay afloat, SMEs need to keep on top of their unpaid invoices, bringing in professional debt collectors if necessary, take advantage of new technologies on offer to make the sales process as easy as possible for their customers and, finally, find their niche and offer customers something that others don't.
The retail landscape is evolving at an incredible pace with huge changes in the way that consumers are now shopping. The move online continues to affect the high street at an increasing rate, with a number of big, traditional retailers falling by the wayside, having failed to innovate or diversify.
So, what can SMEs take from this? Well, there are three key points all CEOs should be mindful of:
Top 5 tips to avoid the impact of debtor's insolvency include:
As debt recovery specialists, we see the effect of the retail problems on our client base of suppliers, service providers and landlords to the retail sector. As such, the effect of the failure or struggles of the large high street brands has a direct effect on our clients' business. At Forbes, we work with those clients to try to avoid being left with bad debt and minimise the impact of customers in financial difficulties.
For more information contact Sadie Butler in our Forbes Collect department via email or phone on 0333 207 9388. Alternatively send any question through to Forbes Solicitors via our online Contact Form.
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