Guide to managing business debt

It's fair to say that the last 18 months have been challenging for everyone across the UK, small businesses and business owners included.

The severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic sent many businesses into survival mode, where the priority was finding ways to overcome the enforced closures, the lockdowns and the financial hardship that the spread of coronavirus brought.

For some businesses, this remains a priority.

While it's true that survival is still on some businesses' minds, others have been able to recover and can now look positively towards the future.

We've designed this guide to provide impartial information to help businesses through survival and onto recovery, helping them stabilise and move forward to growth and future success.

We've focused on the following areas:

• Understanding debt finance
• Managing debt
• Improving your cash flow
• Moving from survival to recovery and growth
• Resources for businesses worried about their debt

We've produced the contents of this guide with contributions from Be the Business, an independent, not-for-profit organisation whose goal is to help business owners and leaders improve their businesses' performance.

Chapter 1: Understanding debt finance

• What is debt finance?
• Why your business might need debt finance
• Why debt might be helpful for a business
• How debt now can affect your credit later

Chapter 2: Managing debt

• What you can do if you have concerns about managing your debt
• How an accountant could help manage your debt
• Concerned about repaying your Bounce Back Loan? What are your options?
• Consolidating and refinancing business debt
• Getting back on track

Chapter 3: Improving your cash flow

• What is cash flow and how do you manage it?
• Creating a cash flow forecast
• How to prevent and manage late payments

Chapter 4: Moving from survival to recovery to growth

• Your business's financial recovery: key steps
• Making your business more resilient to change
• Adapting to change
• Case study: Papersmiths
• Moving from survival to recovery and growth
• Case study: Bare Kind

Chapter 5: Useful resources

• Debt information and resources for businesses
• Basic financial management for small businesses
• Mental health support

Please note that this guide and the content provided is for information purposes only. The guide is not intended to provide advice (including legal, financial, tax or other professional advice). You should always get professional or specialist advice before doing anything on the basis of the content contained within this guide.