The hits just keep coming for many suppliers — and it’s not the ones you find on the Top 10 chart.

In fact, most suppliers will tell you the hits are more like body blows than toe-tapping tunes.

Chances are, you’ve already formulated back-up plans for key suppliers, by scoping out and maybe even contacting alternate sources.

But the suppliers you rely upon for more specialized goods or products aren’t so easily replaced.

In some cases, it’s in your best interest to lend a helping hand, to keep your own lifeline open.

There are five strategies you could consider, and determine what might work best for you:

• Offer a troubled supplier a bridge loan, which must be secured by a tangible asset like real estate or equipment. If this is the path you choose, tread carefully — you don’t want to obligate your company to end up with a supplier’s white elephant.
• Become a supplier for your supplier. See if you can purchase the raw goods or materials your supplier relies upon, and feed them to the supplier. In return, you get credit or discounts on your own transactions with the supplier.
• Speed up your payments to a supplier. Instead of taking the full net 30, mail the payment sooner, so the supplier can pay its own bills more quickly.
• Offer your company’s expertise, to help advise the supplier in ways to improve business practices. Your people might be able to quickly spy weak spots the supplier might have historically overlooked.
• If nothing else seems  to be working, it’s likely the supplier will consider a price increase. Spend time weighing this against the cost of finding a new, specialty supplier. Many companies opt to pay the new price and stick with a reliable business partner.

Tags: goods, payment, price, product, supplier, suppliers