With Australia slowly emerging from the COVID Pandemic and numerous lockdowns, one of Australia’s leading business restructuring firms says the time is right for small businesses in financial distress to explore a formal restructure.

Brent Morgan, the Director in charge of the Small Business Restructure (SBR) team at Rodgers Reidy Melbourne, says that since the SBR regime was commenced earlier this year it took a while to get the first formal SBR appointed, but now he has completed many successful SBR’s and has many more lined up for approval.

“The ATO is normally the biggest creditor for small businesses in financial distress,” he said, “and we are finding at the moment the ATO is being very commercial and we have been negotiating some really good outcomes for both the client and the ATO, and the directors remain in control of the business during the process.

“Many people running small businesses don’t think about a restructure, and they often feel overwhelmed with debt, but that doesn’t have to be the case. The number of businesses in trouble has increased during the 18 months of the pandemic and we know, for instance, that the ATO will not wait forever to recover the debts, so it is better to get on the front foot.

“We want to help free your business from debt and return you to running a solvent and profitable business.”

He said the team at Rodgers Reidy has been negotiating solutions with the ATO for small and large businesses for some time now, but the ability now for small businesses to have a cost-effective formal restructure put in place is making it easier for these businesses to keep trading and to recover from the setback.

“Small business is the lifeblood of this country; it employs more people than large and medium-sized enterprises and is responsible for much of the wealth creation in this country. There is no need to let the past 18 months get on top of you, we will work with your current advisors to get you back to doing what you love, to restore the profitability and solvency of your small business.”

He said many industries have been affected by the pandemic, lockdowns, border closures and supply chain issues, with construction, hospitality and retail being the industries that are showing the most financial distress.

Certain criteria need to be met before a formal SBR can take place, but in addition to that Morgan says small businesses need to look for the warning signs of financial distress.

“Small businesses need to keep an eye on their cash flow and work with their financial advisors to understand the warning signs, we find that restructuring works better when businesses come to us early. If it gets to the stage where you are getting a Statutory Demand Notice, ATO Debt Collection Warning Letter, Letter of Demand or a Director Penalty Notice you need to take urgent action and talk to one of our Small Business Restructure Practitioners.

“We want to help save your business, and a restructure can do that.”