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A NEW SURVEY has revealed that the biggest challenge facing businesses in Ireland and the UK at the moment is late payment from customers.
The survey, conducted by the Irish International Business Network (IIBN), found that 56 per cent of respondents feel that payment from customers had a mild or very negative affect on their business.
Chairman if the IIBN Dublin chapter, Niall Fenton , said that late payment from customers is “slowing down business development across the UK and Ireland.”
“The British Government is currently considering fining companies who do not settle invoices on time,” he said. “I’m sure this is a policy that would be welcomed by many small and medium enterprises throughout Ireland.”
Despite concerns about payment, most businesses are are feeling more confident with 64 per cent reporting either a mild or significant increase in turnover and gross profits in the last year.
83 per cent of businesses also expect to see an increase in profit over the next twelve months.
When compared it appears that Irish business people in the UK outperformed their Irish counterparts at home in terms of customer demand (81 per cent in UK to 71 per cent in Ireland). They also reported a marginal advantage in their ability to expand into new areas (65 per cent in UK to 64 per cent in Ireland) in the past 12 months.
This may be related to greater access to capital in the UK, IIBN said. Almost 40 per cent of respondents in Ireland claimed a lack of access to capital impacted negatively on their business compared to only 26 per cent of respondents in the UK.
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I’m afraid you didn’t need a new survey to find out this!
This has been a problem for years and the Construction Industry is the biggest culprit on my opinion.
“Fining companies who do not settle on time”
– this has to be a joke, right? Government gotta have their little slice amongst the misfortune?
Can you imagine the mess of bureaucracy and the amount of businesses that are going to close down if this “law” existed? I thought unemployment was high enough?
Companies which may be fined are endangering other businesses and jobs. Pretty sure that once a couple have been fined as well as hit by the late payment charges under EU late payment regulations the offenders will start paying on time.
How many businesses have gone down due to late payers?
You won’t survive on ‘No Payment’, but you will on ‘Late Payment’.
The problem is that nearly every SME going was living on the limit of its overdraft to get ahead of the posse. The supply of credit contracts and all hell breaks loose.
have your say