For many small businesses, slow payments are a fact of life.

We surveyed small businesses in the U.S. to understand exactly how unpaid invoices affect their growth. For example, nearly a quarter of American SMBs freeze hiring when cash flow is slow.

The opportunity cost is huge:

• If all small businesses were paid for all of their unpaid invoices, they could hire 2.1 million incremental employees.
• 79% of small business owners choose to cut their own pay when customer payments are slow.
• If small businesses were paid for all of their unpaid invoices, business owners could pay themselves an incremental $31k on average.