SFP’s Guide to Business Survival includes a number of remedies to help fire and security businesses navigate through the current crisis.
The Guide to Business Survival is set up in three clear stages of keeping or getting a business back on track. Part One explores the steps a business can take without having to resort to borrowing, and the importance of a cashflow forecast in understanding your true financial position; if the company is in need of cash, Part Two of the Guide outlines the various different funding options available, both short-term lending schemes to help businesses ‘bounce back’ from the current crisis as well funding solutions for more longer-term planning.
Part Three of the Guide goes on to explore the restructuring and insolvency processes, and how there are still ways of giving a business and its employees a future. It explains each element of the Insolvency regime, and the differences between Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) and Creditor Voluntary Liquidations (CVLs), for example, through a series of helpful questions and answers.
There is also guidance throughout on how to negotiate with creditors and HMRC with both formal and informal ‘Time to Pay’ arrangements, and how to choose a broker to help better understand the myriad of funding options available.
Simon Plant, Chief Executive of the SFP Group, says that running a fire and security business can be tough, even when things are going well: “Many in the industry fail, not because they don’t have a great product or service, or even a full order book, but more often because they’ve spent too much time ‘doing the day job’ and not enough time focusing on the cash,” he explains.
“Throw in a global pandemic,” he says, “and that challenge is taken to another level. The Government has responded quickly and decisively to help small businesses with a variety of employer and employee support programmes and funding packages, and with tax breaks and payment holidays. But such support cannot go on indefinitely.
“With the furlough scheme giving way to a Job Support Scheme, repayments of loans falling due, and deferred payments no longer deferred, businesses are facing a series of ‘pinch points’ that will undoubtedly impact their cash flow and their future prospects.
“Our Guide equips business owners with the information and steps they need to navigate their way through this current crisis, or how best to restructure their business with the help of a licensed Insolvency Practitioner.”
Throughout the guide, SFP focuses on the positive actions a business and its directors can take to recover and return to profit. It also explores a director’s fiduciary responsibilities, especially in an insolvency process, and spells out the financial and personal consequences of failing to act quickly and responsibly.
