Whats happening now?

We now have a situation in economic Britain where the media are trying to reinvent a situation created by THEM only a few months ago - Yes that's right the dreaded "CREDIT CRUNCH !"

Seems like now we've all had enough - it's time to tell everyone that the Crunch has now bottomed out and that the corner has already turned?

Well for the first time ever we are seeing end of summer sales starting in mid May and even more depressing news coming from the housing market. If you want to get away from it all then that's also going to cost you 20% more with the at its weakest ever against the.

To be honest the whole thing has given the government and the banks full excuse to really SQUEEZE the consumer by increasing petrol prices and ever increasing mortgage charges being levied by the country's main lenders, who are not passing on interest rate cuts and are now charging exorbitant arrangement fees. I recently moved house and due to a difference in four months between finishing my mortgage and starting a new one I had to shop for a new deal. I ended up going back to the same lender to borrow the same amount as before but my monthly payments increased by £350. The alternative was to take a new fixed payment deal with an "arrangement" fee of, wait for it ...... £20,000.

A lot of lenders are also using the current climate as an excuse to decline clients who would otherwise be accepted or using the situation to tighten their acceptance criteria making borrowing more difficult or impossible for many growing businesses.

So how do we survive and prosper under these conditions?

What you must do is protect your cash position and not leave your business exposed and at the mercy of the bank , who remember can withdraw an overdraft facility at anytime without notice.

The first thing is to check your credit control position. Cash flow is the life blood of every business so you must guard against clients who are slow or even worse non payers. You are not a bank so why allow clients to take 30, 60 or even more days to pay you? It also makes good sense to check your client's financial position prior to giving them goods on credit.

There are a number of cheap and easy ways to do this. If your clients are mainly businesses - visit the following sites

LINK this is the companies house official site web check area and by keying in your client company's name or registration number you can immediately check how long they have been trading, for the princely sum of £1 you can get an online copy of their last 2 years accounts which will tell you their net worth and turnover. You don't need to be an accountant just look at the bottom line on the balance sheet. If it's in brackets get cash up front Or better still offer Leasing !

If you serve individuals and give them credit ask for the home address and home phone number and run them through www.192.com/uk again you will have to pay a small charge but better to know who you are dealing with than have the problem of doing a lot of work or making a supply and not getting paid. More sophisticated credit check info is available from www.marketsafe.com or www.experian.co.uk these are more expensive but of course you get a lot more information and remember the old phrase "You only get what you pay for"

For any business established before the late 90s then we have seen all this before; the bottom line is that although spending will slow down, at the end of the day, life continues and that means that despite what the media try to tell you, business will also continue. With that in mind now is a great time to check out the facilities available at Technology Leasing Limited, whether you are a new business or have been established many years; if you are a supplier in need of a finance facility for your clients we'll be delighted to hear from you.

Regards

Brian Burns

CEO and Chairman