Blog

Small firms worst hit by downgrades

Posted 09 Jun 2010

Almost 9000 New Zealand firms had their risk ratings downgraded during the first quarter of 2010, according to research of 20,000 companies by credit reporting agency Dun & Bradstreet.

While recent government stimulus has buoyed consumer spending, that may not continue through the rest of 2010, putting more pressure on many small businesses.

Quarter of Kiwis plan to skip paying bills, says survey

Posted 09 Jun 2010

A recent survey has painted a disturbing picture of Kiwis attitudes towards paying their bills on time. Pay TV and mobile phone bills were most likely to be skipped but perhaps most surprising is that 20% of respondents would consider skipping a mortgage payment if money is tight. This might be an issue of education as much as finances, as the results suggest many Kiwis weren't aware of the consequences of late payment.

Terms of business are important so do your homework first

Posted 09 Jun 2010

Terms of business, terms of trade, or terms and conditions. However you refer to them, your terms of business are an agreement between you and your customer on how you will work together. Good terms of business can mean the difference between being paid on time, or not and avoiding liability if things go wrong, or not. Every small to medium business relies on healthy cash-flow and the surest way to undermine that is to have poor terms of business in place with your customers (or worse yet, none).