Weathering the Storm

In Utopian terms it’s better to be safe than sorry, however in the current financial climate it may not be possible to be 100% prepared for all eventualities.


However some practical steps are outlined below which will assist you in being pro-active rather than reactive:-

• Always have a plan B – the worst can happen

• The liquidity preference theory - manage your cash flow.

• Make the bank manager your new best friend - keep them abreast of your current situation.

• Get up to speed with tax - question what can be done to improve tax cash flow and ease payments

• Price correctly - don't have a knee-jerk reaction to the market.

• Review your terms and conditions - What happens if you deliver products to a customer who closes down before paying you? What terms do you have in place to limit your liability if there are problems? On what grounds can the contract be terminated?

• Manage your Debt Collection

• Your people - Your people are your biggest asset, but also during times of downturn unfortunately also often your biggest area of cost. Have you complied with legislation in respects of contracts for your employees? Do you know their key terms of employment? If you have to deal with redundancy, do you understand the process?

If you are looking for sound, practical, commercial legal advice at excellent prices then please contact us at ://www.amberglobelegal.com/

We have recently started advertising your business on a new sales website www.businesssalesdirect.co.uk as well as freehold properties on a rotational basis on www.egpropertylink.com.


Many of you will have just completed your latest financial year. Can you please send us your most recent accounts as soon as possible or, if they are still with your accountants, your management accounts, VAT returns or at the very least advise us of how the last year’s trading has gone and when you can expect to have accounts available.

Pretty much every single interested party asks for the latest accounts once they have received the sales details and any delay in providing this information can mean that we will lose their interest in your business.

We have recently upgraded our website including the free Business Advice section which we hope you will find useful. Various professionals will begin “blogging” in that Section in the next few days on such topics as Employment Law, Business Sales legal issues, VAT and Tax, and Websites and E-Commerce. If you have specific questions to ask on those topics then please feel free to email any of the bloggers. I suspect that the E-Commerce and Employment Law topics will be of particular interest to many of you.

Even though your business is for sale my strong advice is that you should continue to run your business as if it weren’t, which means continuing to upgrade your website, improve your premises and grow your business. If you don’t then the worry is that your business will start to stagnate or at worse deteriorate which will have a negative impact on your sale price. Purchasers are particularly fearful of “catching a falling knife” and any downturn in trade or profit can kill a sale.

I am still of the view that the business sales market will keep improving. We are seeing continued strong buyer interest and high levels of enquiry. I think any redundancies in the Civil Service can only be good news for us all as it will tip more buyers into the market. However prices are still very keen and buyers will definitely not pay a premium.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of your business, its asking price or its marketing then please call us on 0800 707 6370.
http://www.amberglobe.co.uk/