Business turnaround specialists Vantage Performance and technology and credit agency CreditorWatch have joined forces to create a new guide: the Guide to Building a Resilient Business.
The free resource has been launched to help businesses deal with tough conditions as insolvencies continue to rise.
Vantage Performance chief executive Michael Fingland said ASIC data out this month reveals 5,643 companies have already entered external administration or had a controller appointed for the first time in the 2023-24 financial year, an increase of more than 1,400 compared to the same period in 2022–23.
“The goal is for businesses to put resiliency plans in place that will help reduce Australia’s insolvency numbers,” Mr Fingland said.
“This is crucial in 2024, with cost-of-living hurting businesses across all sectors, while discretionary retail is in dire straits, and we’re seeing a lot of distress in the agricultural sector, construction and manufacturing with more tough times to come.”
CreditorWatch’s Business Risk Index data also shows the average value of B2B invoices to be at record lows.
“This has a ripple effect throughout the supply chain, affecting businesses in multiple industries and of all sizes. We are also seeing trade payment defaults trend upward, with a 55 per cent year-on-year increase,” CreditorWatch chief executive Patrick Coghlan said.
“We’re grateful to Vantage Performance for creating the guide which gives Australian business owners and leaders valuable insight into how to strengthen their business and take the proactive measures now to weather the storm and be in a much stronger position when conditions eventually improve,” he said.
The guide shares insights Vantage has learned from working to turn around and strengthen hundreds of Australian businesses over the past two decades.
The guide is a summarised version of Vantage’s unique Fast-Track program, which outlines eight pillars and 50 critical management tools, habits, systems and processes that all long-term highly successful businesses have in common.
It covers creating a strategy, finding purpose, habits for success, effective sales, putting in place the right business intelligence, working capital management, leadership and culture and finally governance and accountability.
“It’s not brain surgery, but in the day-to-day busy-ness of growing and surviving in business, it takes discipline to continuously improve,” Mr Fingland said.
“Even if businesses focus on one of the eight actions at a time, rather than taking them all on, they are taking a step in the right direction towards overall performance and sustainability.”
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