News

The Hidden Cost of Waiting Too Long to Increase Your Prices
At Lombard we believe that pricing is one of the most powerful and most neglected financial levers available to SME owners. Many businesses review their costs regularly, negotiate hard with suppliers and watch their overheads clos…

How Poor Capacity Planning Can Reduce Profit Long Before Sales Slow Down
At Lombard we believe that many profit problems in growing businesses begin long before they appear in the accounts. One of the most common and least understood causes is poor capacity planning. Capacity is the amount of work a…

At Lombard we believe that the quality of decisions made in any business is directly linked to the quality of the information behind them. Every day, SME owners and managers make choices about pricing, hiring, investment, stock levels and customer relationships. Some of these decisions are minor, wh…

At Lombard we believe growth should make a business stronger, not unnecessarily more complicated. As SMEs expand, additional customers, employees, products and systems naturally increase the level of financial management required. However, there is an important difference between necessary complexit…

At Lombard we believe one of the biggest challenges facing growing SMEs is not generating more sales, but managing the cash needed to support those sales. Many business owners assume that if revenue and profits are increasing, the business will naturally become financially stronger. In reality, grow…

At Lombard we believe one of the most dangerous assumptions in business is that more sales will solve underlying financial problems. For many SME owners, the instinctive response to pressure is to chase additional turnover. If cash is tight, the answer seems to be more customers. If margins feel wea…

At Lombard we believe many SMEs underestimate how closely operational reporting and financial performance are connected. Reporting delays are often seen as an internal inconvenience rather than a commercial risk. If stock reports are late, project updates are incomplete or management information arr…

At Lombard we believe growth can be one of the most exciting phases in a business, but it is also one of the easiest times to lose financial control. When an SME is expanding, attention naturally shifts towards sales, recruitment, delivery, systems and customer demand. That is understandable. Growth…

At Lombard we believe one of the most frustrating situations for an SME owner is to look back on a year of hard work, strong activity and steady sales, only to find that the business has very little cash to show for it. The team has been busy, customers have been served, invoices have gone out and t…

At Lombard we believe one of the easiest ways for an SME to lose profit without realising it is through underpricing repeat work and long-term client accounts. These relationships often feel stable, predictable and commercially valuable. They may have been with the business for years, provide regula…