You've jogged my memory - wasn't an unreasonably long settlement period the cause of Au Naturale's collapse?
I believe it was a symptom of their troubles. And if you look at some of the characters behind that particular drama it may well have been a matter of policy......
Again, WAY back in the day, I recall being warned off a retail company called "Razzle Dazzle" by a client of mine who ran a little clothing firm. They apparently had the reputation for being slow payers. Duly warned, when the call came I politely declined to quote for the job...
But then slow paying WAS common practice back then and even something that some accountants would advocate. But it's a practice, if tolerated, that leads to unnecessary exposure, company collapses and can ultimately (when extrapolated out) contribute to recession.
Personally I view it as dishonesty. And I've a zero tolerance attitude to slow payers. I seen too many friends and acquaintances go to the wall because they've been effectively carrying the credit risk for larger clients.
Part of the reason my business now focuses on servicing small businesses is that the stress of trying to keep financial control of larger scale projects is much reduced. In the late 80's to mid 90's I WAS very much going after the high-end side of the market. And had to carry the premises and equipment to do that as well as the liabilities in the form of large amounts of customer debt.
At one point we were exposed to over
lol
