It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Richard Hanby, Technical Director at Ascendant Solutions.
Debt, Debt and more Debt – the more you know about your customer today will pay dividends tomorrow tenfold. Information accuracy is going to be a vital part of business operations moving into 2024, knowing which customers can, can’t and won’t pay before they fall into debt is an ideal prevention mechanism for your businesses cashflow.
If you aren’t regularly reviewing credit limits of your business-to-business customers based on their circumstances 2024 could be painful. Looking at our primary business activities, we’re approached more and more for information services like credit reports, debtor tracing and investigation work for pre-litigation.
It might seem like doom and gloom looms, but how deep this storm hits will depend on your preparedness for winter. Hopefully the BOE maintains if not drops the base rate, but we can’t rely on hoping for the best, we’re helping our clients prepare for the worst.
Look North recently ran a segment on Local Authority solvency, all of those on the panel said that their authority will be bankrupt within 2 years. As I write this, Nottingham City Council were the latest to issue a Section 114 notice barring all new expenditure and asking for central government intervention.
If we don’t hear “credit crunch” on the news by March, I’ll be very surprised. Changing times are hard but will be harder the less you know about your customers both before and after they fall onto hard times.
Ascendant Solutions provides credit risk and credit reporting services based on a wide combination of suppliers built within bespoke online software which meet NCSC standards.
