Invest time talking to new sources of finance. You might need them if your current providers prove difficult

I understand the point but this is where I diverge from Clive Lewis, if only in terms of practicalities.

There are only so many hours in the day and if you are spending more time on finance control issues and making sure that your business does everything it can to avoid financial difficulty, where is the extra time to come from?

From a marketing perspective, I want you to be strengthening relationships with your best customers to take advantage of the “flight to quality” where customers want to have confidence in their suppliers.

It is certainly worth finding out names and contact details through your network of contacts so that you are ready but I don’t really see the value for you or the other financiers in spending time in speculative relationship building.