The latest figures from UK Finance on business finance and from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on investment have left pundits wondering where the UK economy is headed. Positive as some aspects of the UK Finance statistics may be, they still give some cause for concern. By contrast the IPPR numbers are unambiguously poor. Appetite for funding UK
All businesses go through phases and cycles: from formation to growth to plateauing and, in some cases, on into decline and beyond. Good management sees the red flags early and takes corrective action before the downturn sets in and becomes irreversible. Here, we outline the critical warning signs and the process of recovery, which is outlined in this diagram. Budget
The economic news might not be as gloomy as a few months ago, but the UK’s GDP is flatlining and the IMF is predicting we will be one of the worst performers in 2023 among leading economies. Surely this is no time for ambitious expansion or opportunistic acquisitions? Or is it? After the challenges of the pandemic and the impact
The recent news that one of the UK’s best run and most respected businesses predicts that its sales and profits will fall back in 2023 will come as alarming news for even the most optimistic entrepreneur. Next has an abundance of buying power, economies of scale and the resources to invest in AI to improve efficiency – and still it
So far in our series on what a formal insolvency does to a previously solvent balance sheet and how it impacts stakeholder recoveries, we have looked at overall principles, shrinking non-current asset values, diminishing current asset recoveries and ballooning liabilities. Now we turn to the contentious issue of the cost of an insolvency process. Unfortunately, there is little understanding in
When the government launched its business support loan schemes early in the pandemic, there was widespread praise for the initiative. The speed of roll out, simplicity of the application process, initial repayment holiday and low interest rates were just what embattled businesses needed at a time of massive disruption and huge uncertainty. The Bounce Back Loan (BBL) scheme aimed at
