RIABU - Tips and tools for getting paid on time by your customers

The Singapore government is making it easier for smaller companies to extricate themselves from certain contracts in order to survive.

It's already made it easier for companies to wind up operations laid waste by COVID.

The latest initiative is yet to be passed by parliament - here are preliminary details: https://www.mlaw.gov.sg/covid19-relief/re-align-framework#overview

But how do you even go about talking to suppliers about unwinding contracts? What should you do if a supplier asks you for the same leeway?

RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi explain.

The oil and gas industry is focused more on heavy engineering than warm customer relationships - yet when payment terms are usually 180 days or more, the latter is critical.

That is the journey our guest on this week's podcast has been on, as he cut days sales outstanding (DSO) to just 75 days.

Peter Hone from ModuResources tells RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi how he brought management on board, and challenges some long-held beliefs in the sector.

The Singapore government has passed a law which will make it easier for zombie companies to wind down.

As payments from the Singapore government to help SMEs are coming to an end, companies which have been propped up artificially by them are likely to fail.

The new act will allow SMEs wind up their business more easily.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood tells Mark Laudi how companies that are ready to wind up can prepare to do so, and how they should approach their customers when they are in such a situation.

Amazon Papyrus Chemicals grew to a US$100 mln company from nothing - but success wasn't always assured.

In fact, delays in payments from customers almost made them go under.
Founder Mike Grundy tells RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi what familiar early mistakes he made, and how he turned sales into cash.

On the RIABU podcast we aim to help SMEs get their invoices paid on time.

But how do the big boys do it?

Bill Padfield is a former CEO of Datacraft - a previously Singapore-listed company taken over by South Africa's Dimension Data and now part of NTT.

In this exclusive interview he takes RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi into the tent to reveal the steps he took to turn a cash-losing S$350 mln business into the S$4 bln powerhouse it is today.

Australia's Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell is proposing to abolish Fringe Benefits Tax for two years, to help Small and Medium Enterprises in two ways:

First, it would remove a compliance burden placed which bigger businesses are able to navigate much more easily.

And second, they would benefit from increased sales as their customers wouldn't have to pay the tax on products and services they provide, and might therefore buy more.

RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi debate the effectiveness of such a cut.

Here is the release mentioned in the podcast:

https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/news/news-articles/axe-fringe-benefits-tax-stimulate-cash-flow-ombudsman

Australian Small Businesses are reluctant to take up loans offered by commercial banks and guaranteed by the state.

The Federal Government announced the Covid SME Guarantee Scheme March 22, and earmarked A$40 billion to guarantee 50% of loans.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi debate why SMEs are reluctant, whether they should take on such debt now, and whether SMEs can even meet the criteria of the banks to take them out in the first place.

Tens of thousands of companies in the US are quietly going out of business.

According to Yelp, and reported by Bloomberg, 80,000 companies just canceled their leases, turned off the lights, and walked away between March 1 and July 25.

SME owners lucky enough to have no debt or liabilities can put their businesses in stand-by mode and live to fight another day.

RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi discuss how SME owners can hibernate until the economy recovers.

Debt worth more than RMB 3.65 trillion owed by companies in China is due to be repaid to investors by the end of the year.

The Chinese government is encouraging lenders to refinance, accept payment delays or find other solutions.

Hear RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi in a hilarious discussion about what SMEs can learn from this macro issue of bond debt.

A report by Euler Hermes refers to the government supporting businesses with cash as creating an insolvency time bomb, as this creates businesses that are just relying on government payouts during this time. They are known as "zombie companies".

RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi talk about taking a hard look at your company to figure out if it's a zombie company.

The report by Euler Hermes can be found here: https://www.eulerhermes.com/en_global/APAC/apac-economic-research/Calm-before-the-storm-Covid19-and-the-business-insolvency-time-bomb.html