MORE UK companies could be saved if “company doctors” were consulted earlier.

Quantuma has been able to save three business – the most recent being Hertfordshire engineering firm PaveTesting Ltd, which went into administration in August 2016.

Other successes announced in March this year included Caged Laser Engineering (Frome) Ltd and Repair and Calibration Ltd.

It is rare that we, as restructuring professionals, are allowed to take an early look at the finances of a business.

A survey conducted by npower Business found that one in five SME owners is missing a payday in order to survive, and one in five are also using personal funds to meet costs.

This, combined with research last year that showed that within five years some 60 per cent of new businesses will have failed, suggests a fairly gloomy outlook for all SMEs.

Failure is not the only inevitable result if directors took an early decision to seek help.

All too often we are only involved with payday looming, staff demotivated and with the better ones looking elsewhere. This means the opportunities to turn around an ailing business are significantly reduced.

What options are no longer available because we were not consulted earlier?

Quantuma’s early advice is invariably not to put in personal funds before understanding the nature, and size, of the problem.

It is common to find directors investing personal money, where this only serves to defer wider problems, rather than provide a cure.

  • Simon Bonney is a partner at Quantuma, a leading restructuring and insolvency practice based in Brighton