LOSS of income and customers not paying are the biggest threats to small businesses in the UK, according to a survey from Barclays Business Insurance.

More than a third of businesses rank cash flow problems because of creditors not paying as the biggest worry for their company.

These owners, it would seem, have good grounds for their concerns because it emerges that more than a half suffered from customers not paying for equipment.

IT and vehicle breakdowns were also frequent occurrences.

Despite this, many businesses still have little more than public liability and basic insurance to protect them and their company.

Life is full of twists and turns and running a business is no different.

There are always going to be things that happen that you cannot fully prepare for, but there is help available for many of the issues, often at relatively little cost.

Barclays Credit Manager is an online service that helps customers to protect their business from the risk and pain of late and unpaid invoices.

The product includes unlimited credit checks from leading credit agency Experian so customers can decide who to do business with and how much credit to offer.

It also monitors and notifies clients of important changes to their customers' credit ratings so that they know who they can extend more credit to and who is likely to have problems paying.

In addition, it allows businesses to instruct a solicitor to send unlimited debt recovery letters to bad customers.

Barclays Credit Manager is available for £15 per month (excluding VAT).

Barclays also offers business insurance to cover a range of things from burglary to weather damage.

For advice and a quote contact 0800-051-2790 or visit barclays.co.uk/ businessinsurance ■ David Slane is Barclays Local Business' regional director for the North-East