Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small business are currently chasing more than £50bn of late payments, according to research.
Digital banking platform Tide revealed that the average UK SME is chasing five outstanding invoices at any one time, using up an astonishing 1.5 hours a day, with an average of £8,500 being owed.
If you are self-employed and working alone, you have an average of four outstanding invoices at any one time, amounting to almost £1,000.
And businesses with anything between 10 and 50 employees have an average of eight invoices outstanding, racking up £13,000 being owed on average.
Businesses in London have the toughest time in terms of late payments, with SMEs in the capital having an average of seven invoices outstanding, spending over two hours a day chasing.
London is closely followed by Scotland, with businesses there having an average of six unpaid invoices, eating up an hour and a quarter each day chasing.
The South West has the easiest time of it, with businesses there waiting on just three invoices to be paid.
Getting worse
The late payments crisis appears to be getting worse with a quarter of SMEs reporting things are worse than a year ago. Although the government pledged to clamp