The £700k Client: Part 4

Every director assumes the same thing when a customer stops paying. They must be struggling. Cash flow’s tight. They’ll sort it eventually.

Sometimes that’s exactly right. And sometimes it’s something most directors never even consider. The company simply decided not to.

They’ve got the money. They’ve just worked out that not paying you costs them less than paying you does. Especially right now, when everyone’s desperate for work, and there’s always another supplier willing to take the contract on.

In the worst cases I’ve seen, particularly in tougher years, a company will stop paying a creditor altogether, on purpose, and deal with the fallout later through an insolvency practitioner, settling for pennies in the pound. And if other creditors are being treated the same way and don’t push back, a small handful of people, sometimes just one, end up considerably better off, while everyone who trusted the relationship goes unpaid.

It’s an ugly thing to say out loud. But it happens. And it’s exactly why hoping for the best isn’t a strategy.

I got a message only yesterday, a Sunday, from a genuinely successful business owner who’d just read the book. He passed on one piece of advice he swears by. Weekly or monthly debtors meetings, every manager in the room, and every action from that meeting actually followed through before the next one. He says it focuses minds better than anything else he’s tried, and it’s the single biggest reason his cash management works.

That’s what a proper process actually looks like. Not a quiet word with credit control once a quarter. A standing meeting, real accountability, no drifting.

The moment you’re owed real money, you’re not a supplier anymore. You’re a lender. And if you don’t act like one, somebody else will decide how that story ends for you.

Do you need someone on your side? I’m Mark Smillie.