Amount Falling Due Within One Year
I’ve been self employed since 1990. At the time of writing this that’s 35 years.
I’ve learnt that over time markets change and when you’re running a small business you need to adapt quickly. What was once a trending product can soon become outdated or out of favour with your clients.
In my early years of business I was obsessed with sales. Starting a business from scratch means it’s easy to beat the previous year’s turnover (especially if you take virtually nothing the first year). When I had growth I felt indestructible and became over confident.
Now days when I get my set of accounts the first thing I look at is “The Amount Falling Due Within 1 year”. It literally says what it does on the tin and it’s the liabilities your company has to pay within the next 12 months.
These usually include:
- Money owed to Suppliers
- Overdrafts
- Payroll expenses & PAYE
- Rent/Mortgage & taxes
- Portion of long term dept due with a year
- Cars & Vans (& in the old days fax machines & photocopiers)
After a period of over confidence and growth my total amount falling due stood at £125,000 around the time of the millennium. I looked at this and realised that £10K a month was going out the door no matter what. I provide a product that is not essential and when the country takes a nose dive (like 2008 banking crash & 2020 COVID) my sales take a hit.
I decided that over a period of time I’d concentrate on this number and focus on substantially reducing it on every year’s accounts. Some years I failed but ultimately I believe this mission kept me in business when things got tight and other well established party companies fell by the wayside.
From 2007 I kept a spreadsheet of the number:
- 2007 - £79,684
- 2008 - £68,923
- 2009 - £73,919
- 2010 - £77,424
- 2011 - £38,956
- 2012 - £35,955
- 2013 - £49,977
- 2014 - £62,735
- 2015 - £59,158
- 2016 - £49,174
- 2017 - £43,060
- 2018 - £22,144
- 2019 - £17,746
- 2020 - £15,521
- 2021 - £13,835
- 2022 - £36,792
- 2023 - £37,110
- 2024 - £24,123
I find a set of accounts fairly confusing and despite 35 years of business I still get confused between creditors & debtors. Focusing on the “Amount Falling Due” section gave me a simple target to beat. I became less obsessed with turnover and profit & loss. I decided that if I made a loss in some years I could ride the wave as long as I kept control of those direct debits.
Deleted Instagram
After deleting Instagram from my phone (due to junk in the timeline). I’m now using micro.blog to automatically post to Bluesky, Mastadon, LinkedIn & Threads (the Fedivese). This means posting only once & zero junk in my timeline. I’m using Tapestry iOS app to follow my interests which feeds zero junk & zero adverts. If you’re reading this it was posted at micro.blog
