debtor management

Bankers and insurers used to be known as solid parties where innovation was often slow. Fortunately, a lot has changed! And we like to talk about that for a moment, because it is high time we got rid of that dusty image. 

Debtor risk is often one of the largest items on the balance sheet whose value needs to be correctly assessed. You know that entrepreneurship involves the necessary risks. It is therefore wise to identify and manage these risks as well as possible. You do this with your risk management: a process by which you continuously identify, control, monitor and report risks.

The WHOA allows viable companies to restructure unbearable debt before it comes to bankruptcy. If creditors holding two-thirds of the outstanding debt agree to the arrangement, the court can force the remaining creditors to join in. Different categories of creditors may be treated differently. This allows the entrepreneur in dire straits, for example, to pay financiers less or later than suppliers. As a supplier, you then continue to supply and so the company does not run out of stock.

It is incredibly annoying to have to go after your own money. Of course, you act like a good merchant and speak to the buyer several times about his negligence and the obligation to pay. Because you know: the longer payment is delayed, the greater the risk of damage. We notice a worsening of payment terms and an increase in collection cases. Not so much driven by a company's morality, but more by a shortage of liquidity. 

In both the public and private sectors, customers can ask for a guarantee or surety. Chances are you immediately think of your bank, which makes sense because until a few years ago, that was the institution to turn to. But times are changing, there are new guarantee providers on the market. And that is more than worth considering! Because of the costs, but there are more advantages.

Kersten BV is a Dutch wholesaler that sells trendy home accessories to shops in more than 72 countries. From beautiful furniture to stylish trays. And from bath mats to etagères. Diederik Kersten is co-owner with his brother; they took over the company from their parents in 1995. Who in turn took it over from Diederik's grandfather. A real family business! Whether the wholesale business still looks the same as in grandfather's time? No, of course not. The world changes rapidly and Kersten BV responds to this in an agile and flexible manner.

Very annoying, customers who don't pay or don't pay on time. Cash flow comes under pressure and the likelihood of writing off the receivable only increases as time passes. What steps can you take?

A good partnership is all about trust. And about good services and service at the right prices, of course. But above all it is about trust. If you engage a broker, you want to be sure that no deals are being done behind your back. To put it bluntly. And we understand that like no other. As entrepreneurs, we too are always looking for parties we can trust. Who are transparent, who let us do business freely. That is precisely why we want to be very transparent about our working methods. And we cannot emphasise that enough.

Uncollectible invoices and bad debts, every entrepreneur has or will have to deal with them. Annoying, but not always avoidable. Of course, before you do business with a customer, you check the creditworthiness of a future customer and you have your credit management in order to prevent non-payment. This already captures a lot of risk. But what if a company does not fulfil its payment obligation after all?

Schedules hard to knit around, too few staff for too much work, new vacancies left unfilled. Recognisable? It is extremely difficult for many companies to find and keep good staff. Due to the tightness on the labour market, more and more companies are facing staff shortages. At the beginning of the third quarter of 2022, 38 per cent of companies indicated that a labour shortage was the main obstacle to production or operations. Just for comparison, the figure was 10 per cent at the beginning of last year.