#PayDontDelay

It’s clear. It’s a call to action for bigger firms: pay your suppliers and don’t look for excuses to delay. It’s going to be everywhere for the foreseeable future.

The ‘Wait off’ campaign has been pulled together by Terry Corby, the redoubtable Chair of the Good Business Pays organisation. It has the weight of many of the organisations representing small businesses behind it, plus that of others like some of the banks which are recognising the importance of improving payment practices. Take the ‘wait off’ small suppliers: don’t make them wait to get paid.

Waiting for payments adds to uncertainty for smaller firms. They don’t invest in growth, upskilling, training, equipment, digital transformation, reaching net zero, innovation and job creation, unless they are certain that the money they’re due will be in their bank accounts on a certain date. Waiting for payments drives small firms out of business. The FSB predicts hundreds of thousands could go to the wall this year, with waiting for payments to arrive being one of the main contributing factors.

That’s not the only problem though. A therapist reported recently that business owners with mental health issues are beating a path to her door in unprecedented numbers. She can’t be alone. Waiting to get paid causes sleepless nights and the downward spiral into anxiety, depression and other mental health problems. This can cause relationship breakdown, homelessness and sadly even suicide.

If you’re running a bigger company, and you want to continue to have goods and services to sell on to your customers, you need to nurture and support your suppliers. You need to pay them as quickly as possible as a matter of priority. Many big firms realised this during the pandemic. If your suppliers go to the wall while waiting to be paid because they aren’t able to manage their cashflow, or if they choose to work with your quicker to pay competitors, you could have a hell of a job finding new ones.

Make sure your suppliers are paying quickly and saying: ‘It’s a wait off my mind’; ‘It’s a wait off my shoulders’. #PayDontDelay