According to Experian's current late payment index, cash from your clients should be pouring into your business right now. Their figures are showing the biggest improvement in days in debtors since late 2007.

The south west comes out top with only 18 days beyond terms whilst in London things are not so good with settlement taking 27 days beyond terms. As far as sectors are concerned, the worst payers are in property with 39 days taken beyond terms on average. Remember terms are usually 30 days for many businesses so property is taking 69 days on AVERAGE according to Experian.

Have a look at the full survey at http://www.experian.co.uk/ and check the scores versus your clients to see how you are doing by sector. Remember to add your credit terms to the numbers in the survey!

As a consultant Finance Director specialising in creative, marketing and professional firms I suspect that you may see that your clients are performing worse than the survey is leading you to expect.

There are a number of reasons for this, but don't lose heart, there is actually a great deal that you can do to improve the speed with which you can turn work done for clients into cash in your bank by improving your internal procedures.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/johntoppin

http://www.nomizon.co.uk/

Steering an efficient business, particularly through times like these, can be a difficult task. Inspirational and constructive leadership is obviously a prerequisite, but sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day, or indeed enough internal resources, to resolve every issue.

To this end the Institute of Sales Promotion has put together a small group of well-established and respected experts for its members,  including John Toppin.

For further details:

http://www.isp.org.uk/survivalkit.php?pid=560

The Royal Institute of British Architects announced a similar scheme last month, again backed up by John Toppin:

http://www.ribablogs.com/?cat=8

Companies led by middle aged, well qualified people with experience in a similar industry are better placed to survive a recession and generally outperform competitors. So says Professor Roger Hussey of Bristol Business School.

This is what he found when he surveyed businesses (for Kingston Smith) who survived the recession of the early 1990’s.

If you are running a creative business and don’t happen to have grey hair you can of course tap into experience by appointing a non executive director or a mentor or business advisor.

Do you think that your business would benefit from investing in access to the insights of someone who has been through a recession before or do you view it as an extra cost that you can’t justify right now?

According to Professor Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire, most of us will make a New Year's resolution - maybe to quit smoking or lose weight - but only one in 10 of us will succeed.

Professor Wiseman said it was possible to increase the likelihood you will keep your resolution.

"Deciding to revisit a past resolution sets you up for frustration and disappointment.

"Choose something new, or approach an old problem in a new way.

"Think through exactly what you will do, where you will do it, and at what time."

He said those who made vague plans were more likely to fail - for example instead of planning to go running twice a week you should plan to go running at specific times every week.

Businesses often set new goals or seek to change something for the New Year –and with today being the return to work for many, this is probably day 1 for your business New Year resolutions.

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions for your business and how confident are you that you will succeed?