The Working Capital Scheme run by the Department of Business and introduced by Lord Mandelson in January 2009 was an attempt by government to boost the amount of credit available to small businesses.

Essentially, the government provided banks with guarantees covering 50% of the risk on existing and new working capital portfolios up to £20bn.

The first £1bn tranche of the scheme was due to be launched by 1 March to support about £2bn of loans for companies with a turnover up to £500m.

All the main banks are taking part in the scheme.

Research has shown that the majority of small businesses do not have the resources to deal with late payers.

It is very rare in a small business that they can afford a credit management professional to chase unpaid invoices.  As a result, small businesses perhaps don’t take advantage of the different risk management services for managing debt such as credit reports, credit insurance and debt collection which are more commonly used by large firms.

As a result, many small businesses are forced to do the tracking down and chasing of late payers themselves which is unfortunate as they could have been spending that time developing their businesses.

The internet has helped to a certain extent with the availability of credit reports online, but many people need to be educated as to the availability of such information and the importance of using it.

For more information on credit control, have a look at our article; Setting up a Credit Control System .

Whilst the Made Simple Group has been around for some years selling through its multitude of websites, the provision of company credit checks online is a relatively new venture having been launched about 12 months ago.  After the success of our first year, we decided to invest further in our systems which has culminated in the re-launch of our website. This has resulted in a vast extension in the number of offerings and what we think is a more flexible, user friendly and intuitive approach to the provision of such data.

Of more importance, we believe our pricing is the most competitive in the market place.

In these difficult times, credit crunch, recession or even the “D” word, the importance of knowing who you are doing business with is paramount.  Using credit reports and having access to information about customers, suppliers and even competitors has never been easier or more important and our new site makes if affordable.

Our blog, which we hope to update very regularly, will also provide useful information and links to what is going on in the business world particularly as it affects the smaller business which is our target market.

We’d love to hear from you and discuss your problems and we are always open to suggestions.

Most of all, the more of us that are successful in business, the quicker wemight get out of the current economic mess.