...and don't mess with Mr In-Between. Too many business dither too long before calling in the turnaround experts. Andy Coyne finds out that corporate recovery experts salvage more businesses than they sink, if they're called in early enough.
The old fear that if you get an insolvency firm involved in your business then the closed sign will soon be up on the gates hasn't entirely gone away.
Which is probably why terms such as "turnaround' and "corporate recovery' are much more widely used now. They accentuate the positive.
Perhaps fairly so because, although statistics are hard to come by in an industry that is by its very nature secretive, anecdotal evidence suggests a much higher percentage of firms are "turned around' once the experts are called in than end up in administration.
Corporate recovery is a mixture of good accounting and common sense. Often departments of accountancy and law firms, turnaround specialists are often called in by a bank which has become alarmed at one or more aspect of the business to which it is lending.
Bob Bailey, a partner in the Birmingham office of accountancy firm Baker Tilly and regional chairman of the business recovery industry association R3, says: "Quite a lot of our work is carrying out independent business reviews (IBRs) for stakeholders. These could well be banks.
"These may not be turnaround because the hole is too deep and these companies fail.
"But it would be unlikely that more than 20 per cent of these IBRs turn into insolvency. It is a minority of cases where we say there is no way forward and they go into administration."
However, Bailey has some concerns about the prevailing economic climate and the so-called credit crunch.
"Tighter control of credit could have an effect in the short to medium term," he says. "It is a question of whether the banks will agree to credit now in the same way they would 12 months ago.
"I think the banks will still be open for business if the proposition is robust and prudent. But those propositions will now probably go under the spotlight twice."
What Bailey and fellow turnaround specialists are agreed on is that there is a major problem getting firms to ask for help. This could be because they are unaware of the extent of a given problem or, as alluded to earlier, they believe the introduction of insolvency specialists to be the top of a slippery slope ending in administration.
Steve Wood, a Birmingham-based business recovery group partner - and head of the national recovery team - at accountancy firm Mazars, says: "The first meeting can be a difficult one because they don't want to see us coming through the door.
"There is a fear of the unknown for people and part of our role is to help people through this. It could be the most traumatic time in their business life."
As Devinder Singh, a partner in the business recovery and insolvency department at the law firm Hammonds in Birmingham, suggests, there is both a fear of the unknown and a fear of what they think is known.
"Traditionally companies don't accept they are in trouble. And they might not trust anyone with their problems," he says.
"There was a feeling that when insolvency professionals got involved it became about what was salvageable, but that may not be the case any longer.
"It has changed a lot and there has been an overall increase in businesses saved."
Bailey suggests there is also a fear of banks. "There is a perception that if you tell the bank it will pull the plug. It simply does not happen. They will be supportive," he says.
"Directors get concerned. They think they will go from being a successful director to an alcoholic, lying in the gutter, who has lost his wife.
"But banks are used to dealing with these things as are people like me, who spend their lives helping companies."
Industry insiders agree that there are always warning signs when a company is floundering.
Bailey says: "The most obvious one is cash. If you have an overdraft limit of £3100,000 and you are always at least at £390,000 and sometimes go over, there could well be a problem. It is after all meant to be working capital.
"On a similar vein, invoice discounting is a good way of funding a business, but if you start to see a lot of disallowable debt there could be a problem."
Singh says: "Are your customers stretching you? Are they taking a long time to pay you? Are you finding it difficult to compete with your competitors in terms of price and quality?
"Is there a declining demand for your product? Can customers now get your product on the internet more cheaply?"
To this list of warning signs, Wood adds: "It could be order intake, machine utilisation - how much they are used -, working capital management - how the debt collection is managed -, margins or cost control."
It all adds up to taking the eye off the ball.
Stuart Jones, an associate at Secantor - a network of finance directors providing small and medium-sized companies with financial and business expertise - says: "Sometimes it is management. There could be either a lack of information or independent thought or a lack of experience.
"Often the finance director will know something is wrong but won't know how to put it right."
Bailey agrees. "R3 surveys into causes of failure show management is one of the top ones. It could be that they are not forward thinking enough or they are no longer up to the job," he says.
All are agreed that firms should have certain procedures in place that could stop them getting into problems in the first place - or at least allow them to identify those problems as early as possible.
Bailey says: "The thing to have is some measure of performance in your business. It is important to have timely management accounts and to look at what they say. A good accountant will react to information provided."
Singh adds: "The key is to recognise something is happening. If it is happening too regularly it suggests something underlying is involved.
"Companies should also look for underperforming bits of their business. If there is a group of companies most might be doing well. There might be one not making money."
"It's important to call in professionals at an early stage," says Singh. "You need someone who can take a detached look at it."
Jones believes not bringing expertise in during a difficult period can be a false economy.
"We talk to the management and tell them the best way to structure it. We can defer fees or talk about equity. It's about what the business needs," he says.
"Owner directors can lose touch. They may have expanded and employed managers and haven't kept their finger on the pulse. Yet is the owner who has the most to lose."