Les Echos publish this morning December 9, 2014 the results of a survey conducted by American Express among 300 entrepreneurs of SMEs and ETI, which shows that in France, today, two thirds of bosses face late payments, with 10% of them believing that these delays jeopardize their activity.
70% of business leaders are therefore concerned about their cash flow, it would be interesting to know more precisely what actions are taken by them to answer these questions.
If the survey informs that 29% of them simply relaunch their customers, which is indeed the first idea that can spring to the risk of unpaid, the question that arises then is why 71% do not do it …
Others try, sometimes without the desired success, to negotiate cash facilities with their banker. Have these additional costs been included in the margins when negotiating prices with customers? Even if the money borrows at low cost these days, this additional charge is no less an additional component of the margin, which is added to the additional payment period incurred by the company …
19% of business owners say they are renegotiating payment terms with their suppliers, which is a permanent step in reducing payment delays, if indeed these negotiations not only succeed, but if they are respected.
Lastly, 2% of them use factoring, a technique which actually helps to reduce settlement times, if indeed its cost can also be integrated as a component of the selling price of the goods. services sold.
TAIGA, which combines the Saas software edition dedicated to the improvement of the WCR and cash forecasts to operational consulting missions, wishes to provide business leaders with some additional levers for actions that favor a structural effect over time. a simple reaction to a problem suffered more or less violently depending on the situation.
Indeed, it seems essential to ensure that the organization of the company is structured around a culture of cash. Salespeople, buyers, customer service, accounting, management control, everyone must have in mind the need to be able to contribute to the conversion of a sale into cash.
In addition, setting up a cash flow monitoring, but especially of its cash flow forecast is decisive for anticipating needs. How many business owners know exactly what they have spent the last two months? How many know what they will cash in the next three months? In addition to being more likely to succeed than anticipated, having a knowledge of its flows allows for a more precise vision of its needs, and the initiation of structural corrective solutions.
Anticipation will not correct market trends, it will however better align its structure to respond to this trend, to ensure that the recovery of customers is systematic, to ensure that the terms of payment are negotiated and not that prices integrate all the financial components, in short, that the culture of the company is also based on the importance of cash flow.
If Emile de Girardin wrote to the attention of politicians that “to govern, it is to foresee”, the maxim also works with regard to the heads of companies, to whom one can not advise too much that to direct, it is also plan your cash flow.
