A businesswoman is capitalising on the recession to boost her own business.

Natasha Strachan runs Debtor Solutions, a business which helps small to medium sized businesses avoid the problems of poor cash flow, poor credit management, bad debts and slow payers.

With many years of commercial credit control and collection experience, the company ensure these problems are not a drain on business resources or threaten profitability.

In the economic downturn, the timely collection of money is important to any business, and can be expensive and resource-intensive, particularly for SME’s, to employ and manage complete credit control functions in-house Miss Strachan said: “Right now everyone’s business is just trying to survive – cash flow is the lifeblood of a business.

For those businesses that give credit on their goods and services, it is a necessity and I believe vital, to have a credit controller in place to get money owed to you – especially in these current conditions.”

Born and bred in Croydon, Miss Strachan soon discovered the plethora of business support available in the borough, and no sooner had she started her business than she was on the phone to Croydon Enterprise.

She accessed a six-week programme designed to help those who have recently started a business.

The programme featured specialised workshops in a group environment, covering all elements of running a business, and helped the company to grow quickly.

Natasha also received ongoing, individual support from her business mentor, who assisted her with every aspect of the business’ operation.

She said: “I always wanted to run my own business and I knew there were terrific free resources within Croydon.

“I phoned the hotline seeking sound knowledge on how to sell my product. I have not looked back since.”

Like all astute business people, Natasha has a long term goal in mind.

While the majority of her client base is in the Croydon area, she acknowledges credit control is a necessity for businesses everywhere and is therefore keen to expand and go national in the near future.

• For more business news, click here