Unpaid Invoices & Paying Suppliers

[nlbhoy]

Hey Guys,

I'm looking for a bit of advice from anyone who may have been in similar situation, at one time or another.

I'm a one man band, I've been set up as a limited company since I started in 2015. I had been
doing a lot of work for a big contractor at the tail end of last year, I have outstanding invoices
totalling £6500 which I may never get (apparently this has happened before). This has put me
in a bad spot with one of my suppliers as I have outstanding invoices due to them for about £2800,
which I'm struggling to pay back anytime soon. I tried to work out a payment plan with them,
but they seem to have blanked the request, as I keep getting letters about taking me to court etc.

I'm looking for a little advice on how to proceed with this.

Thanks

 

[Octopus]

He's not a sole trader - he said he has a limited company since 2015.

He's still a 1 man band - whether a sole trader or limited he's still owed far too much by a customer!

 

[Leesparkykent]

Could be 30day payments £2800 on material and the rest on labour which is about £900 a week. IMO its not loads to be owed if 30 day payments and supplying material for a one man band/small limited company. Feel for the OP though as a lot of money to be owed/lost. Hope he gets it sorted and his wholesalers should be ashamed of themselves if they know his situation and should be trying to help him pay them back over 3 months or so.

 

[netblindpaul]

He's still a 1 man band - whether a sole trader or limited he's still owed far too much by a customer!

Being a one person Ltd. Co., by this time tomorrow, I will have one customer owing me around £9k+vat, and that's without the other customer that I have work going on for, that is valued at over £4k, this is about 3/4 of the way through, and the other work that is going on totalling about £5k that is ongoing some without PO's yet.
So, £6k8 for a "one man band" is not necessarily a lot.

 

[Rpa07]

This is the benefits of staged payments on jobs or even weekly rate so that the client pays little and often. The guy I was 'mating' for wasn't very good at asking for regular payments when work went on a bit so ended up not invoicing for 6 months or longer yet your wholesaler bills still need to be payed. I had to step away and seek other experience and regular pay on agency until my NVQ comes through but he still owes me some until all his invoices get paid. We have to be hard working at our bills to enable the money to come in regularly. It is too easy to forget work that has been done when you leave invoicing until the last days and is not regularly updated.
My newbie two pence worth. Experiences of others is what business is all about and learning from each other is 'priceless'

 

[The wholesaler]

I run a wholesalers in Durham, when this happens to our customers we always help out with payment plans and keep supplying to help them trade out of a problem. In most cases it works and the good will we get from helping is never forgotten and repaid with loyalty. I also tried the pay up or court route but in my experience we never got a penny, so taking the helpful option works