If your business is in trouble, the signs are pretty obvious: falling sales, repeatedly breaching your overdraft limits, getting on stop credit with suppliers, losing credit–that's often because suppliers' credit insurance leads them to take a sterner view of overdue payments. Companies reliant on exports are particularly vulnerable at the moment. Margins drifting lower, little or no sales force to win new business, reliance on a small number of customers, lack of quality initiatives and staid management are also problems. If you're seeing these things in your own company, you might need to be thinking about a turnaround of some sort. The MBO and MBI markets are feeling the downturn particularly badly because a lot of them are highly geared.

Is there an inability to see the big thing that is causing the business to stall? Call it a 'white elephant.' It's huge, it's consuming all your resources, and usually nobody in the organisation can see it. Does the finance team make information available in a way that lends itself to decision-making? Even if you're not a commercial FD, you have to be commercial enough to present the rest of the board with clear information that describes the problem. Be prepared to cut turnover. Many managers think that building it is a good change, but you can easily end up being a busy fool. Drive out the products where you're losing money.

Timing is everything. If you're on top on the game, it's far easier to survive, and that means you're constantly looking atwhat to do next and how to change things. Staid management can also have a negative impact on com¬munication with staff. That's where things can go badly wrong. Afresh set of eyes is always good. Put up the prices on loss-making lines. Changing suppliers can be a major headache for the customer, and if they value the quality you're providing, they'll pay the increase.

Sell off your poorer businesses. There is still money around: VCs look for poorly performing businesses because they'll show a better return than a business that's already highly profitable. Look at other markets around your core offering. What else could you be offering your best customers? Look at your incentive package. Talk to your employees about the performance of the company in some detail and get them to agree to a reward system that is related to that performance.

There are a lot of debt consultants out there. You should beware. Some will make a high valuation on plant or property to get you excessive finance –they're just after a higher fee. Don't be afraid to tell your bank bad news. They can often contribute a lot to a turnaround situation. We usually work out A, B and C suppliers. 'A' suppliers could kill the business that day. 'B' suppliers could kill you over a month. And 'C' suppliers couldn't kill you at all, so you ignore them. The 'C' suppliers will understand they'll never get anything if you go bust.