Spend an exotic holiday in Asia


A Beginners Guide to Business Debt Recovery

When you're running a business, making surethreat of legal action is enough to make your
your customers pay their bills on time can becustomers settle up. For some businesses,
very difficult and a huge drain on resources;however, it can be difficult finding out
especially if you only have a handful ofexactly how to go about commencing legal
staff or are a sole operator. Unfortunately,action against a debtor. As a result, many
many small businesses are forced to closeoutstanding debts find themselves passed to
their doors within 12 months of starting up,specialised  debt  recovery  companies.
and non-payment of customer accounts plays a
large  part  in  forcing a business to close.In the UK, there are many debt recovery
companies available who can help reclaim
Non-payment is a serious issue for businessesoutstanding debts, and these companies have
of any size. Late or non-payment of debtsthe time, expertise and resources required to
can cause serious cash-flow problems,pursue customers who have outstanding debts.
resulting in your business facing manyIf you decide that legal action is necessary
problems of it's own - from unhappy staff toto reclaim an outstanding debt, companies
not being able to maintain supply-and-demandsuch as Capquest offer solutions that can
for other customers you may have. However,help  reclaim  your  money.
if you're experiencing problems with getting
paid then there are several steps you canOne solution is to commission the debt
take to ensure your debt recovery doesn'trecovery company to recover the debt on your
impact  too  heavily  on  your  business.behalf. For a fee - normally around 10% -
the company will act on your behalf to work
Trying to contact a customer or client aboutwith the customer in order to find a mutually
an unpaid bill can be difficult. Mostsuitable solution for both you and the
contact is done either by phone or mail, andcustomer. Alternatively, many debt recovery
there is always the uncertainty about acompanies will purchase the debt from you.
letter being lost in the post, or a telephoneIn return, they will process the debt as
message not being passed on, although in sometheir own and allow you to draw loans against
cases it could be that the person you arethe money owed to your business. This method
trying to reach is simply avoiding you.is commonly used by businesses to improve
However, contacting the customer is verycash-flow, but is also a useful method of
important as there could be a genuine reasonreducing  administration  overheads.
why the customer hasn't settled their bill,
and you should always try to attempt toIt's important to be sure that if you employ
discuss the situation and reach an agreement.the services of a debt recovery company, such
These could range from allowing the customeras Capquest, then be sure that they are
to restructure their repayments to writingmembers of an accredited body. Most debt
off  part  of  the  outstanding  balance.recovery agencies are members of the Credit
Services Association, who are the only
Sometimes, however, it is necessary toNational Association in the UK for companies
consider legal proceedings against a customerthat are active in relation to unpaid credit
in order to collect an outstanding debt.accounts, debt recovery agencies, tracing
Taking legal action to reclaim an outstandingagencies and allied professional services.
debt should be a last resort, and often the



1 A B C D 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117