Join Small Business Commissioner Liz Barclay for our next Twitter Q&A this Thursday, September 9 between 4pm and 5pm GMT. Liz will answer your questions about poor payment practices affecting your business.

Former campaigning journalist and BBC broadcaster Liz Barclay a long history of campaigning for social justice when it comes to consumer rights and personal finance.

• What can I do to speed up invoices being paid?
• What if it’s a large company who’s my sole customer?
• What steps can I take without going to court?
• How can the Small Business Commissioner help me and my firm?

Late payment putting British SMEs out of business

• The Federation of Small Businesses estimates that 50,000 SMEs are forced out of business each year because of late payment
• Small business are currently chasing more than £50bn of late payments
• The average UK SME is chasing five outstanding invoices at any one time, using up an astonishing 1.5 hours a day, with an average of £8,500 owed
• The Government’s own figures are that £23.4bn is owed in outstanding invoices to UK businesses

To join in, just follow @smallbusinessuk and get involved by tweeting your question with the hashtag #AskSBCommissioner.

Remember, you can only tweet your questions to Liz through the @smallbusinessuk Twitter feed.