Most small businesses have at least one supplier they could not replace quickly, and have never tested the price they pay them. Both are worth an afternoon, and they are the same afternoon, because the conversation that finds you an alternative is also the one that improves your existing terms.

The saving is usually larger than people expect. Suppliers rarely volunteer a better price to a customer who has never asked, and a long relationship is as likely to mean you are paying last decade’s terms as it is to mean you are getting a deal.

Pull twelve months of spend by supplier. The ones worth your time are the few at the top, not the long list underneath. Most businesses find that three or four suppliers account for the bulk of it.

Separate two questions before you start: is this costing too much, and what happens if they stop. They need different conversations and the second one is the more urgent of the two.