Best Wishes for Whichever Holiday you are Keeping Now...

...and please don't forget that this is the Season for giving - and that some creatures give ALL the time.

Animals help people to see and hear.

Animals are good companions to people who have no other companions, and no access to the sort of communication that you are enjoying at this moment.

Don't forget them. A couple of quid from you can mean life for an animal - and perhaps a better and happier life for an animal AND a human being.

There are a lot of animal charities. I support the National Animal Welfare Welfare Trust because it's a small charity and I like its ethics and what it has achieved over the years, but if you want something more global, you might want to look at
The International Fund for Animal Welfare . Or you might want to get involved in something closer to home.

The important thing is that you DO get involved, somehow, somewhere, because - one day - you, or someone close to you, might need an animal to be eyes, or ears, or a friend.

Please give as generously as you can to an animal charity. The charities need the money - and people need the animals.

The Banks Are Not Always The Villains Of The Piece

I met a man waiting for a train a couple of days ago. I’d seen him before – same place, same time - and somehow we fell to talking about the rise in company insolvency all the way from Lille to London.

My companion was adamant in blaming the banks – and, of course, the record drop in lending - for all of the problems that are besetting business today and driving so many companies into liquidation.

I have to say that I agreed with him in many essentials; it is very difficult to get finance and - at rates often well above Bank of England base rate - it is far too expensive for many large companies (let alone SMEs!) to accept financing at such rates even when it’s offered.

However, the fact is that there is more than one reason for finding oneself short of cash, and it isn’t always down to the fact that one can’t borrow it cheaply, or at all.

I tend to use the long journey from Chinon to London to play catch-up with trade papers and journals that I've not had time to read properly. I'd been playing catch-up that morning with the November issue of the Journal of the Institute of Credit Management and - along with various other things - I'd found a very small article on page 13 written by David Squibb, the Regional Trade Director for Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets.

In his article Mr Squibb related a story about a business with a £30 million turnover that had approached his bank with an unprecedented request to borrow moneys in order to pay its staff. The bank naturally made enquiries, and discovered that the company’s credit controller had gone on maternity leave, and that no steps had been taken to replace her. There was therefore no-one on hand to follow up on invoicing or collecting - and so the cash dried up.

I found the article, and passed the journal over to my sometimes fellow traveller.

The good news is that he’s probably still thinking about it. The bad news is that he managed to disappear into the bowels of St. Pancreas with my copy of ‘Credit Management’.

If you want a free sample copy of Credit Management, you can e-mail Meg Cox at the ICM, and she will send you one. In the meantime: please remember that it isn't just charity that begins at home...

Are you a Sage Line 50 or Sage 200 User? Free Offer Worth £500 From CreditPal!

Last Saturday I was talking about CreditPal. If you haven’t read that post, CreditPal is a free on-line service that – if you’re an SME - could enable your Company to get the financing or credit insurance it wants or needs to survive and/or grow. I referred to it at the time as ‘a free lunch’. I also mentioned in that post that there was an upgrade available – CreditPal Plus – which does what upgrades always do: gives subscribers more and better.

CreditPal is a service provided by Future Route and Graydon, and today I received a very pleasant – and, indeed, very welcome - e-mail from Chris Poll, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Future Route. I think it proper to copy it out here in full:

Geoffrey you are correct - it is a free lunch.

I am also prepared to offer the first 10 SMEs who have Sage Line 50 or Sage 200 accounting systems who upload their data for a free Graydon credit review on CreditPal a free CreditPal Plus for the next 12 months - and that is worth £500 for each SME business. So enjoy the desert, coffee and liquors as well. Xmas comes early this year - just email me - I am the CEO of Future Route that supplies CreditPal. mailto:Chris.Poll@Future-Route.com.

I think that this is a very timely and very generous offer. I also think that you would have to turn over an awful lot of rocks to find anyone else prepared to make such an offer, and that you should try to take advantage of it.

You can find out more about CreditPal and what Chris is offering by going to CreditPal or by contacting him by e-mail at the above address or by using any of the following alternative means:

m UK +44 (0) 777 0755 662
m Italy +39 3891 022408
Skype ID : chrisgpoll
EA : Nora Sharples
t +44 (0) 844 375 9070
f +44 (0) 844 375 9072
a Enterprise House, 1-2 Hatfields, London, SE1 9PG, UK.

Incidentally: the software is accredited by The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales under the terms of its Accreditation Scheme. No problems there!

Sign up to the Prompt Payment Code - Your Voice Matters

I've talked about large customers and late payment many times over the past few months. Back in May I remarked that this behaviour is a form of commercial blackmail, and added that it's usually accompanied by the unspoken threat that the customer will delist the supplier and take its business elsewhere if the supplier doesn't knuckle down and accept the situation.

The Prompt Payment Code won't give any SME an instant way out of this situation - but it's worthwhile taking the time to sign up to the Code because - in the last analysis - public opinion carries weight and is capable of changing the moral climate.

Signing up to the Code is simple. Here's what you will need to agree to:

• Paying your suppliers on time within the terms agreed at the outset of the contract without attempting to change payment terms retrospectively and without changing practice on length of payment for smaller companies on unreasonable grounds.
• Giving clear guidance to your suppliers.
• Providing your suppliers with clear and easily accessible guidance on payment procedures, and ensuring there is a system for dealing with complaints and disputes which is communicated to them.
• Advising your suppliers promptly if there is any reason why an invoice will not be paid to the agreed terms.
• Encouraging good practice by requesting that lead suppliers encourage adoption of the Code throughout their own supply chains.

You will be asked to supply two references to prove that your own Company pays its suppliers promptly, and you will notice that there is a Data Protection Notice at the bottom of the application form which states:

Institute of Credit Management (Services) Limited and its group companies will use your information including without limitation your personal information ("Information") for the purpose of registering your organisation as an approved signatory to the Prompt Payment Code. We may need to disclose your Information to our service providers and agents for these purposes.

By submitting your application to become an approved signatory to the Prompt Payment Code you consent to the display of your organisation name and postcode (which may include your personal information if you are a sole trader, partnership or other unincorporated organisation) on this website which may be viewed by anyone accessing or visiting this website. In addition by submitting your application you consent to the sharing of your Information with the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).

Don't be afraid of that - think of it as free (and potentially very advantageous!) advertising - and don't be concerned that your Company is very small in comparison with those organisations that are advertised as having signed up already.

Your voice, and your vote, and your participation in the Code and what it stands for and is trying to achieve, matters a lot. You can only encourage other people to adopt the Code if you first adopt it yourself and make it obvious that you have done so.

If it makes any difference to your thinking about the validity and usefulness of the Code: the Forum of Private Business is targeting the public sector at the moment. It intends to 'name and shame' those with poor payment practices, and highlight the work of those Councils and Health Trusts that do pay their suppliers on time. The FPB has submitted a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to every single Council and Health Trust in Britain (all 700 odd of them) asking how long they take to pay their suppliers (many of whom are small businesses).