The Federation of Small Businesses has just released data that should stop all of us in our tracks. Up to 340,000 small businesses across the UK are at risk of closure. Behind that number are 1.4 million potential redundancies, 250,000 business owners who are seriously considering walking away, and a quiet but growing crisis in cashflow that too few people are talking about openly.
The causes aren’t a surprise, but the combination of them is brutal: business rates rising, the minimum wage increasing, and the ongoing economic disruption caused by the war in Iran all landing at the same time. Each of those things, on its own, is manageable. All three together, when margins are already thin and working capital is already stretched? That’s a different conversation entirely.
What strikes me most about the FSB’s findings isn’t the headline figure — it’s what’s happening underneath it. Cashflow pressure is “increasing significantly.” Profit margins are being eroded. Fixed costs are rising substantially. Working capital is being squeezed.
Those aren’t just financial metrics. They are the warning signs that, if left unaddressed, lead to the kind of decisions that cannot be undone. When cashflow tightens, the ripple effect moves fast — through supply chains, through payroll, through supplier relationships, through the owner’s own peace of mind.
I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I can tell you: the businesses that survive these kinds of pressures are almost always the ones that acted early. Not the ones that waited until the bank was calling, or until HMRC had issued a demand, or until a key customer had walked. Early. When there was still room to manoeuvre.
It means different things for different businesses, but in our experience it typically involves:
• A proper cashflow forecast — not a back-of-an-envelope one, but something that actually models the next 12–18 months with your real numbers in it.
• Understanding your options before you need them. Whether that’s restructuring debt, renegotiating supplier terms, accessing funding, or even exploring whether the business structure itself needs a rethink.
• A frank conversation about exits — because for some owners, the right answer isn’t to keep pushing. The FSB report that 250,000 owners are considering leaving. That’s not failure; it’s a decision that deserves proper advice, proper planning, and the best possible outcome.
• Knowing where you stand with HMRC, with lenders, and with your own working capital position — clearly, not approximately.
At CBSL Accountants, we work with business owners across Shropshire, the Midlands, Wales and the North West — most of whom run exactly the kind of businesses the FSB is describing. Businesses with real people, real overheads, and real pressure right now.
We’re not here to give you a generic checklist. We’re here to sit down with you, understand your specific situation, and give you a clear picture of where you stand and what your options are. That might be management accounts that actually tell you something useful. It might be a cashflow model. It might be a conversation about restructuring, or about whether now is the right time to sell. Or it might simply be the reassurance that you’re in better shape than you think — because sometimes that’s true, and no one has told the owner.
CBSL Onyx, our leadership and advisory community, is also available for business owners who want to think through the bigger strategic questions with peers who understand the pressure they’re under. Sometimes the most valuable conversation isn’t with your accountant — it’s with someone who has been exactly where you are.
The FSB put it well: businesses must act early before options run out. I’d add only this — if you’re reading this and recognising your own business in those numbers, please don’t put it off. A short conversation now is worth infinitely more than a difficult one in six months.
340,000 businesses face closure. I’d rather that number were smaller. And I suspect you would too.
If you’d like a confidential conversation about your business, please get in touch.
