Things don’t always go to plan
My business is facing difficulty
Most businesses have good times and not so good times. It’s not always easy, we recognise that so we are here to help.
If you are facing difficulty, maybe you know you might miss a payment on a loan, or go over a limit. The earlier you let us know, the easier it will be to work out what the best solution might be.
In our experience helping businesses in financial difficulty, we found that the earlier the conversation started, the easier it was to find a solution. We have people ready to help you. Once you’ve read our guide, ‘Small & Medium Enterprises in Financial Difficulty’, the best thing to do is to call us on 1890 47 88 33 or your relationship manager. If you don’t have a relationship manager, you can call into your local branch.
When you have contacted us, we will ask you for some documents to get a clear picture of your business’s finances. Once we have all the information, we can work out a plan to address your financial difficulties.
We can start with a simple conversation to try to understand your position and then work together to put a plan in place. Your accountant or solicitor may be able to offer advice as well. Or perhaps find an independent adviser who knows your sector and can work with you.
Every business is different, and while these aren’t the names of real customers, some stories might ring a bell. If they do, then you should act as soon as you can. The best way of avoiding a big problem is to tackle it while it is still manageable.
The COVID-19 payment breaks are now closed to new applications. If you are already on a COVID-19 payment break, click here to find out what to do next.
Cashflow Slowdown
Mary’s training business had been successfully trading over 20 years. She had several reliable clients, so things were going great. However, when two of her best clients went with alternative suppliers, cash became tighter. Mary realised she needed to do something when she missed one of her loan payments. She talked to an independent advisor, together they prepared some cashflow projections and shared them with us. We worked out a cashflow management strategy to ease the cashflow issue. Once the new clients were in place, the payments became regular again. For further help see our small business cashflow planner.
Missed Payments
Sam knew her garden business was in trouble. She was struggling to pay suppliers and bank payments were overdue. She thought she would be able to trade out of trouble, but the seasonal uplift never came. Sam spoke with her accountant and they realised they should involve us. Sam was relieved after the first conversation as she felt we understood her and her business needs. Once we had the right financial information, we were able to reschedule the missed payments into a manageable repayment plan.
Hot and cold business fortunes
Bob’s heating supply business had been going well, but recently orders weren’t coming in as quickly as before. Bob phoned us, sent us his up to date trading figures and we were able to have a good discussion on what was happening in his business. We reviewed his operations, his income and costs and together we made a plan for the way forward.
We created a guide to help you address financial difficulties. You can download it HERE.
The guide gives more detail on how the process works and has links to helpful resources and information. In all cases, we will respond as quickly as we can and keep you informed. We promise to be sympathetic and helpful, listen to you and make sure your questions are answered.
Here’s how it works
| 1. Get in touch - Either through your relationship manager or by calling 1890 47 88 33. They will let you know what to do next. |
 |
3. Assessment - We’ll then work out how we can address your financial situation. We will do the assessment as quickly as possible and keep you updated as we go. |
| 2. Getting the financial information in place - We will let you know exactly what financial information we’ll need. We’ll need to form a clear picture of your finances so that we can assess your business. |
4. Resolution - Once the assessment is done, we may be able to offer you suitable changes to the original agreements we have with you. We may also offer new arrangements for your business. |
 |
Talk to us If you are worried about payments call us 1890 47 88 33Or call into your local branch |
 |
Download our detailed guide To help you address financial difficulties
LEARN MORE |
 |
Other support and resources Contacts and tools to help manage your business finances LEARN MORE |