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Pre-pack administration is often viewed by business leaders and their advisors as a last resort, to be avoided at all costs. While nobody sets out to fail in business, running into difficulty in today’s economic climate is a genuine problem for many companies.

Chasing outstanding payment is a difficult part of working life that virtually every small business needs to accept. Whether they are big or small, keeping track of invoices that could boost the company coffers is one of the first rules of good business practice.

SME’s growth prospects are being hampered by a number of factors in the current climate. This includes a lack of credit availability, skills shortages and wavering consumer confidence.

The idea that the summer can be relied upon to kick-start a revival for struggling high street stores is a common theme that can be heard at this time of year.

When the government made a huge effort to propel SMEs in the UK to the forefront of the general economic recovery by throwing their weight behind the Funding for Lending Scheme, they will have hoped that companies everywhere will have received a boost in confidence.

While the UK recently avoided plunging into a triple-dip recession thanks to a 0.3% lift in GDP in the first quarter of the year, the fear that the economy is always teetering on the brink of collapse –think quantitative easing, tight lending conditions and more – is ever present.

While many businesses do not relish the prospect of raising further finance against their assets, the reality is that for a business to continue to operate successfully it needs access to working capital to effectively oil the wheels of its operation.

In an ever-changing economic landscape the need for businesses to be responsive and adaptive to market movements is essential.

At a time when the economic outlook still appears to be relatively hazy, businesses are pulling out all the stops to ensure that their portfolio of products and services stay on consumers’ radar to ensure that they avoid becoming yet another casualty of the economic downturn.

It is important to take stock of things every now and again in the business world. This could involve stepping back and looking at whether your employees are sufficiently motivated, or even assessing what your client turnover is.

A director in any SME can often be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of tasks that eat into their day. Meetings with existing or potential clients, keeping on top of paperwork and keeping an eye on payments (both in and out of the business) can often leave very few hours in a director’s day.

As the age of technology has developed at such a rapid pace over the last decade, the number of new online companies starting out has been staggering.

There have been a number of mixed reviews available on the relative success of the Funding for Lending Scheme. George Osborne and incoming BoE governor Mark Carney have both suggested that the scheme has attracted international acclaim recently.

A winding up petition (WUP) is a significant form of action taken against companies that have failed to make payments or who are unable to repay debts. Typically considered as a last resort, the use of a winding up petition suggests that a company’s creditors have lost all confidence in its ability to pay and have had to resort to the petition as a means of recovering their money, putting a company out of business, or both. Certain methods, such as a Company Voluntary Arrangement, may have been discussed without all parties feeling this was possible. The use of such a petition can easily spell the end for a business and action needs to be taken as quickly as possible to try and remedy the situation.

Becoming a successful entrepreneur is always going to entail risk. While every company and industry will have individual challenges which may prove daunting, there are three key pitfalls which first-timers can fall into:

Maintaining a healthy cash flow is essential to the success of any business, particularly those just starting out or looking to expand. However, it is also an incredibly misunderstood concept that causes problems for a great number of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), often leading to the ultimate failure of the business.

Attempting to identify whether or not your business is suffering from stagnation is probably not the most enjoyable topic for an entrepreneur of any kind.

As the coalition government and the BoE continue to make positive noises about the current state of the economy, anybody who is located right at the centre of it knows the truth.

On 23 May 2013, Simon Thomas and Shelley Bullman of leading insolvency and restructuring firm, Moorfields Corporate Recovery LLP, were appointed joint administrators of specialist charity, The Pride Foundation Ltd.

The importance of the housing market to the British economy, both as an indicator of economic health and a means of economic stimulus, cannot be underestimated. Since the beginning of the current economic crisis, which had some roots in the housing market but also had a drastic affect on that same market, much has been made of the importance of ensuring a swift recovery. So, where exactly is the housing market heading, will the recent rise in prices continue and are we just heading for another bubble that, eventually, is bound to burst?

Shelley Bullman of leading insolvency and restructuring firm Moorfields Corporate Recovery LLP was appointed Provisional Liquidator over the data company Safehosts (London) Limited on the 17 May 2013.

As Local Business Week has now drawn to an end, it seems appropriate to take a look back at what the campaign has taught us about the state of local business and SMEs in the UK today. Running from the 13th – 19th May, the campaign aimed to promote local businesses in the community with the aim of both increasing the number of customers coming through their doors and providing additional help in areas that smaller businesses traditionally struggle with. The week also gave analysts an opportunity to try and establish exactly how well local businesses are doing in the current economic situation and how they may improve.

A Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) is a solution which the directors of an existing company may potentially propose if the underlying business is viable but the company has suffered from specific issues that can be remedied, perhaps an unforeseen, large bad debt. In many instances a CVA will not be feasible, particularly if the underlying business is not profitable or there are issues requiring investigation, however, where it is an appropriate strategy a CVA can be an effective rescue tool.

There are certain sectors where the big companies enjoy a monopoly that is unlikely to ever come under threat. This may be due to a lack of competition or simply a specialised and structured way of doing things, with the construction sector standing out as an example where cases of company administration mean that only the major companies have survived in many cases.