5 Hidden Ways Payment Delays Kill SME Profitability
TL;DR April 2025. The MSME Samadhaan portal, India’s government platform for resolving delayed payment disputes, hit a grim milestone. 2,31,975 applications filed. ₹26,414 crore in pending dues. 57,433 applications hadn’t even been reviewed yet. Another 41,782 were “under consideration.” The disposal rate? 10%. This means for every 10 MSMEs filing complaints about delayed payments, only […]
Why Your Manufacturing Business is Cash-Poor Despite Being Profitable
TL;DR Log9 Materials was a ₹200+ crore company. Venture-backed. Building the future of EV batteries. Then, in 2024, it ran out of cash. The company spiraled into a “borrow-to-repay cycle,” taking loans to repay previous loans at increasingly higher interest rates. By September, they laid off 180 employees out of 220. Employees went unpaid for […]
5 Billing Problems Every Manufacturing Manager Faces and How to Solve Them
TL;DR For more than ten years, a shipping company and a manufacturing company in Mumbai had a good business relationship. The shipping company had a fleet that served Southeast Asia, and the manufacturer made capital goods and plastic industry machinery mostly for export. The shipping company had built up ₹1,45,155 in accounts receivable from the […]
5 Cash Flow Problems in Manufacturing And How to Fix Them
TL;DR Let’s talk about “The Winner’s Curse.” In February 2018, a UK manufacturing company sought to integrate a pre-existing business to drive revenues. On paper, it was a masterstroke: they secured a diverse customer base with specialist requirements and projected massive cost synergies. Within six months, the company faced a severe cash flow crisis despite […]
90-Day roadmap to Improve Cash Flow in a Pharma Manufacturing Business
Pharma manufacturers often face 100–150 days of blocked cash due to long production cycles, delayed receivables, and faster supplier payouts.