New effort launched to protect small firms from late payments 

A new effort is underway to support small businesses to get paid faster and boost cashflow this winter, as the escalating cost of living crisis places small firms under increasing strain.

Small Business Britain, TSB and Revenu, a payments app powered by BankiFi, have formed a new partnership to help small business owners get paid on time and tackle the challenge of poor late payment practices.

“Running a small business is challenging enough without worrying about getting paid,” said Michelle Ovens CBE, founder of Small Business Britain.

“The smallest of businesses often unnecessarily suffer the brunt of slow transactions. They not only deserve to get paid on time, but it is vital for their cashflow and can make all the difference to small firms facing a barrage of challenges from all angles right now.”

“We want to give business owners some fire power to combat this issue. Late payments have been going on for far too long in the UK, and bigger businesses really need to step up and play their part too.”

The package of support includes a free three-part webinar series to help small businesses with techniques, tips and checklists to tackle the late payment problem. This includes insight from industry experts on everything from the right technology, applications and software to streamline the payment process, to managing cashflow and customer relationships confidently with best practice pricing terms and communications.

“Facing difficulties in getting paid is the last thing small businesses need in the current climate,” said Adeel Hyder, Business Banking Director at TSB.

“Late payments is a major issue that small firms urgently need more support with. We want this new programme to empower small businesses and equip them with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to deal with these challenges head-on.”

This new partnership builds on TSB’s existing offer to give customers access to Revenu, an app-based financial management tool from BankiFi.

It also comes ahead of a new joint research report being launched by Small Business Britain and TSB in the new year, which will examine how entrepreneurs can grow.

“On average, small businesses in the UK are owed over £6,500 in late payments alone,” said Jo Gibson, Revenu Customer Engagement.

“When there are already pressures on every aspect of running a business at the moment, problems like late payments can be the difference between staying afloat or going under. Our partnership with TSB has allowed us to put our solution to this problem, the Revenu app, directly into the hands of the Small Business, just at a time when they need it most”