9th July 2008, 05:57 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Paul Belford
The smaller units, several of whom are already out of business in the last twelve months, and most of whom are now struggling. Bigger units may lay staff off but will still survive, but smaller units have less room for manoeuvre in this regard.
In many cases it's not the lack of fieldwork (or DBAs) it's the cashflow issues due to waiting months (years?) to actually get paid. Big units/those that invoice through other big organisations (councils, universities etc) have a slightly less bumpy cashflow situation and people who are paid to chase the money.
Many developers are going to 90 days on their invoices at the moment (rather than 30), and bearing in mind that on most smaller jobs alot of units don't invoice until they produce the report, that's a long time with the money for staff and plant out of your bank account.