Small business owners considered closing their businesses in the last year

New research from Xero and PayPal, reveals 37% of small businesses have considered closing their company because of cash flow issues caused by late payments. The findings highlight the scale of the late payments challenge facing British small businesses, who are owed an average of £23,360 in overdue invoices on any one day and have to wait on average 14 days after the due date to be paid.

Xero’s Small Business Insights showed that the amount owed to small business in late payments on any given day in February 2019, was up 17 percent from the year before, demonstrating the startling growth in tardy payment practices. The impact of late payments has a damaging domino effect across the UK economy: on average in any given month, 48 percent of invoices issued by small businesses are paid late, and as a result nearly a third (31 percent) of small business owners struggle to pay their own suppliers on time.

Aston spoke to Gary Turner, Co-founder and Managing Director at Xero to discuss the research and give advice to small business owners on what they can do to help improve the stability of their business.