Insolvencies rise but less than expected?

A recurring theme over the past couple of years has been the anticipated boom in insolvencies expected by many finance providers and certain insolvency practitioners. Sometimes the language i’ve heard invites the retort that you are talking about peoples businesses and lives.When referring cases, the attitude of the “professional” is a key factor for me.

Insolvencies have risen year on year but is the number as high as expected? Also the numbers were driven by action taken by one particular bank and they will not be the first. In effect they are pursuing fraud rather than outright business failure. And rightly so of course

Either way 2023 will be difficult for many and many businesses will be having to take difficult decisions. Advice from Insolvency Practitioners may not always be geared towards a businesses best interests and will often be driven by the level of the fees anticipated by the IP. Ive seen businesses pushed into expensive and unnecessary Administration rather than straightforward Liquidation so its worthwhile taking independent advice. Also there are many “Turnaround” advisors in the market and this is another area where care is essential.

I have always believed that you can soon ascertain whether whoever you engage sees you as a commodity or a relationship and the difference is vital

The WFH backlash continues

It’s probably not great idea for critics to dismiss James Dyson’s observations and experience when it comes to building and running businesses and today he has eviscerated Work from Home.

That wont stop his critics of course and there are many but who could really argue with this?

This is disingenuous. Working from home has superficial attractions for individuals in the short term. But employers, who are charged with being competitive and developing their workforce, know the huge damage it does to companies and employees alike. If they can’t remain competitive, they will fail and jobs will go to other, more ambitious economies. It is telling that only 7 per cent of those involved in the recent consultation conducted by the government were employers.

And as I have reported before, I know of one lender who marks down the credit worthiness of businesses that are geared very heavily towards WFH. Their view (correct in my opinion) is that these businesses will drift and gradually fade away as more dynamic competition steals a march.

The death of “work from home”?

Being independent, it might be easy enough for me to sneer at the the “work from home” mania and maybe i’m a little hypocritical because I do not miss the office environment at all. On the other, I carry out virtually all my work away from my home because i’m a great believer that a seperate location concentrates the mind

Im at the age where I do not really need to be in the presence of peers to learn too much thats new but on the other hand we are always learning something and when we cast our minds back through our careers, how much more valuable was the presence of face to face interaction and simple guidance or a word or two from those more experienced than a text book? That has been sadly lost for so many young workers over the last couple of years

But there is good news. Work from home (or “work” from home) is dying. Yes it will always have a place and should do too but it is looking less and less likely to dominate (as often and relentlessly predicted by those for whom human interaction is a problem)

Anyone travelling onto London would have perhaps been startled at the increases in commuter traffic over the last few months and as this excellent piece points out, this is reflected in the statistics.

And I strongly believe this is valuable for SMES. There is no substitute for presence and the my wish is that the next step will be for inter-business interaction to wean itself off the addiction to the dreaded Zoom and Teams calls which whilst they have a presence, have too frequently become the lazy option.

The promised invoice financing rebrand….

There is a tendency to pick holes in any business’s rebrand and it has to be said that some have worked extremely well but within Finance the results have been mixed to put it mildly. Liverpool and Victoria rebranding as the snappy LV was a simple and effective example and the key here is not so much the image but the manner in which the name slips off the tongue.

So this rebrand, which was needed, is disappointing. It also makes me wonder what the quality of the market research was (regardless of “likes” on Linkedin). Perhaps they should have asked us brokers, who bring them a heavy chunk of their business?

Why would this have made a difference?

Quite simply clients will ask for names of lenders that I would suggest I contact and many of these slip off the tongue nicely. Paragon finance is a good example but in this case the pronouncement (as I have been informed) of “Cree ya” is going to sound like i’ve sat on a sharp object. The likely response from clients will be”who?” or “what?”

This will not stop me but as with last years rebrand I will no doubt slip into just using the previous name which rather defeats the object doesn’t it?