According to the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), the largest multi-disciplinary, non-partisan organization dedicated to research and education on bankruptcy, 60,837 companies declared bankruptcy in 2009, the largest number for almost 20 years.

This represents a 209% increase over the 19,695 business bankruptcies declared in 2006.  During the first quarter of this year, 14,607 businesses have declared bankruptcy, a pace that surpasses last year’s first quarter figure.  

With so many companies declaring bankruptcy, the odds are increasing that many of our customers will be forced into bankruptcy at some point soon.  It is more important than ever to stay on top of the situation and to protect your business centre from this: 

·         Speak to your clients regularly about their company performance. 

·         Monitor your accounts receivable closely. Stay on top of those clients who default on payments.

·         Enforce the late fee penalty and have clients sign a document saying they agree pay within the terms or will pay a late fee percentage.

·         Ask team members to notify the manager if a client is receiving collection calls or calls from angry clients. This could be a “heads up” of a potential collection problem.

·         Ask team members to alert the manager if the client is receiving legal notices in the mail. This does not mean go through the mail, but legal notices are easy to spot.

·         Set Google alerts for your clients.  You will receive a lot of good and potentially bad information about the client.

·         Once a client is in default, you must protect your centre from incurring further debt.

It is a situation that no business centre wants to see when a client has no option but to dissolve its business.  In these challenging times it has become an all to frequent event and we should be guarded when it comes to such issues.  Bodies such as the BCA can help your business centre from such issues and keeping an open stream of communication with everyone is key.

To find out more about office space in your region please visit www.instantoffices.com to find out more.