About us

We launched the Good Business Pays campaign on the 14th May 2021 to encourage the UK’s largest companies to fast track payments to small suppliers, helping them bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic and injecting vital capital into the economy. This is a problem that has existed for many years. But despite the great efforts of many people and organisations, the problem for small businesses waiting a long time to get paid still exists. We aim to bring an end to slow and late payments.

Small businesses are a growth engine for the UK economy, employing 61% of the private sector workforce (16.8 million) and generating 52% of turnover. Yet 50,000 go out of business each year due to cash flow problems. The Federation of Small Businesses has estimated that as many as 400,000 small businesses could fold in 2022 alone as a result of cashflow problems.

Developed initially with the Federation of Small Businesses, the Good Business Pays campaign has the support from the country’s other leading business groups including the CBI, Make UK, British Chambers of Commerce, Institute of Directors, Creative Industries Federation, National Enterprise Network, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed, Forum of Private Business, UK Finance, NEDonBoard, International Association of Book-keepers, and the UK Small Business Commissioner.

Between them, these groups represent hundreds of thousands of UK businesses who in turn serve millions of customers. The campaign has been set-up with financial support from the Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) fund, Previse, Mastercard, Go Cardless and Natwest Group.

This is a time for leadership – a time to put in place everything we can to ensure an inclusive recovery. The solutions are there to make this happen, so we believe it is purely a question of whether the will exists in leadership to make this commitment real.

We will call out poor payment performance and celebrate the best. In late 2021, we introduced the annual Good Business Pays Fast Payer Award which was be awarded only to companies who demonstrate good practice in fast and on-time payments to their smaller suppliers over time. But all companies can and should make a commitment to work towards this goal – it’s the right thing to do.

Join us on this journey to make a positive change. On this site, you can see how most large companies perform in terms of prompt payment. As a small business, you can also sign up to support our cause and have your say by texting paydontdelay to 60095.

If you are a large company interested in supporting us, please contact me directly at terry@goodbusinesspays.com

Terry Corby, CEO & Founder
Good Business Pays