Financial Resource

When it comes to fighting late payment, small businesses are the David in the struggle with big business Goliaths. At the Forum of Private Business, we continue to battle on behalf of small businesses against late payment by larger contractors. We champion our members on this issue and provide a collective voice for small business owners who fear the consequences of speaking out.

We’ve taken our message to the national media (BBC2 Working Lunch and Radio Five’s Wake Up to Money) and recently spoken out against computer giant Dell, who we exposed for increasing its payment times from 50 days to 65 days at the expense of their smaller and more vulnerable suppliers. We now know that the Government’s efforts to fight late payment are just a first step, and we are determined to find solutions to this endemic problem – whether they are political, cultural or practical in terms of helping businesses better manage their payments.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the recent interest that has been generated in the media. We’ve got the backing of bloggers and newspapers including Manchester Evening News and The Mail on Sunday. This inspires us to keep going and push harder.

The Forum of Private Business is not afraid to name and shame companies that are late payers, or which enforce changes to payment terms and conditions, and we’re proud to say that we are the only organisation in the UK to do so on a sustained basis. In a recent member survey, late payment and the devastating impact it can have on cash flow, was one of the biggest concerns of small businesses.

Following this flurry of interest, the Forum of Private Business‘ Chief Executive Phil Orford spoke about how the problem of late payment is affecting small businesses and explained what they can do in the future.

According to Phil, late payment poses a real risk to economic recovery. He explained what needs to be done to address the problem and argued that businesses should avoid breaking moral and contractual codes in order to benefit both supply chains and the wider economy.

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