Business Survival 101

When your business is in trouble, survival is the only thing that matters.

Not growth. Not innovation. Not exciting new projects. Just keeping the doors open.

If you’re burning through cash and losses are piling up, you need to stabilise things before you can (or should) do anything else.

Here’s what to focus on:

1. Get control of your cash

Know exactly what you have. Check it every single day. Plan it out weekly.

You can’t make good decisions if you don’t know where you stand.

This means more than just logging into your bank account. You need a 13-week rolling cash flow forecast that shows exactly what’s coming in, what’s going out, and when. Update it weekly. It’s the difference between reacting to a crisis and seeing it coming

2. Cut costs fast

Strip out anything non-essential. Make the tough calls now, not later.

This isn’t the time for gradual improvements or waiting to see if things turn around. Be ruthless.

Start with the biggest expenses first. Renegotiate with suppliers. Pause subscriptions and memberships. Look at staffing honestly: can you reduce hours, furlough, or in the worst cases, make redundancies?

The mistake most businesses make is cutting too slowly. They trim a bit here and there, hope it’s enough, then have to cut again a month later. It’s more painful for everyone and burns through precious cash while you dither.

Cut deep, cut once, and give yourself breathing room. Think of it as the business equivalent of ripping off a plaster: no one’s ever wished they’d done it more slowly.

3. Get Money In Faster

Chase those overdue invoices. Convert what you can to cash. Tighten up your payment terms. Every day an invoice sits unpaid is a day closer to the end of your runway.

Get on the phone. Email isn’t enough when you’re fighting for survival. Offer small discounts for immediate payment if you have to: 5% off for payment today is better than 100% of an invoice you never collect.

Look at your payment terms too. If you’re offering 30 or 60 days, can you move to payment on delivery for new work? Can you ask for deposits upfront?

And if you have stock or assets you’re not using, sell them. Cash today beats potential value tomorrow.

4. Talk to your lenders early

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Ask for breathing room if you need it. Banks and lenders appreciate honesty and early warning.

They have options when you come to them early: payment holidays, term extensions, restructuring.

They have far fewer when you’re already in default.

The same goes for landlords, suppliers, and HMRC. Most creditors would rather work with you than force you under. But you need to talk to them before you miss payments, not after.

Come with a plan. Show them your cash flow forecast. Explain what you’re doing to stabilise.

Ask for specific help: ‘Can we pause payments for two months?’ or ‘Can we extend our terms to 60 days temporarily?’.

5. Stop all non-essential spending immediately

This sounds obvious, but it’s amazing the difference when you seriously ask whether something is essential or not.

No new equipment. No marketing experiments. No office upgrades. No conferences or training courses. Just what drives revenue directly: marketing that works; minimum stock levels; core team.

Every pound you spend needs to be tied directly to keeping the business alive. If it doesn’t generate immediate cash or prevent an imminent collapse, it doesn’t happen.

6. Protect your key relationships

When you’re in survival mode, it’s tempting to go into hiding mode too – avoiding clients and suppliers because you’re embarrassed or overwhelmed.

Don’t. It never works. (And trust me, your suppliers already know something’s up when your payment patterns change.)

Your best clients need to know you’re still trading and still delivering. Your key suppliers need reassurance that you’ll pay them (even if it’s slower than usual). Your team needs to understand what’s happening and what you’re doing about it.

Silence creates rumours. Rumours create panic. Panic accelerates your problems.

Be honest, be visible, and keep the relationships that matter most intact.

Cash - the only number that matters

Turning things around isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s about moving fast and making hard decisions.

For a while, the only number that matters is cash in the bank.

Profit can wait. Strategic planning can wait. New opportunities can wait.

But stability? That can’t.

Get through this period. Stabilise. Build a cash buffer. Then, and only then, can you start thinking about the future again.

The businesses that survive aren’t the ones with the best ideas or the most ambitious plans. They’re the ones that face reality quickly, act decisively, and do whatever it takes to make it through.