When Invoices Are Paid Late: the Crippling Effects Small Businesses Suffer (Infographic)If SMBs were paid on time, they could hire an additional 2.1 million employees -- and reduce U.S. unemployment by 27 percent.

拥有和经营一个小企业f不是那么简单eat. There are so many moving parts, and you are essentially the head of all departments: IT, marketing, accounting, HR, sales and customer service.

Related:U.S. Small Businesses Owed $825 Billion in Unpaid Invoices (Infographic)

And then even when everything is running smoothly, and you and your team get a job done, the realization occurs that you may not be paid on time for that service. Worse, you may not get paid at all.

If you were to analyze all the unpaid invoices across the U.S. economy, you would see how dramatically those delinquent payments harm small and medium-sized businesses and the overall economy. At Fundbox, we recently did something similar: Our team conducted a nonscientificsurvey of over 200 customersin order to better understand the microeconomic impact of unpaid or late payments.

Our central finding was the massive trickle down effect that takes place -- in terms of forced spending cuts and effects on employees. We were also able to analyze the good things that would happen if all those small and medium-size businesses out there were paid on time.

Key findings included:

• 79 percent of small business owners can't pay themselves
• 23 percent can't hire new employees
• 23 percent can't invest in new equipment
• 20 percent stop marketing efforts
• 18 percent hold back on pay increases or bonuses for employees
• 17 percent cannot build up inventory
• If paid on time, Fundbox estimates that SMBs across the U.S.could hire an additional 2.1 million employees, which wouldreduce unemployment in the U.S. by 27 percent

We then extrapolated our findings nationwide (again, nonscientifically), finding that, if paid on time, SMBs across the United Statescould hire an additional 2.1 million employees,which would reduce unemployment in the United States by 27 percent.

Clearly, when a small business is not paid on time, it can't grow. It can't take on new projects; it can't hire a new employee (or employees) to allow it to scale. It is unable to fill large orders; revenue stagnates; employees leave; and the company loses its competitive edge. Additionally, nonpayment can affect the company's personal finances, and it may fall behind on bills and mortgage payments.

Related:Have a Client Who Is Not Paying? Sue.

This scenario, however, would play out much differently were small businesses paid in a timely manner. Our team estimated that if paid on time, eachSMB owner could pay himself or herselfan incremental $30,990, purchase $9,207 in new equipment, invest an incremental $8,308 in marketing, spend $7,411 in pay increases or bonuses to employeesandbuild up an incremental $6,737 in inventory.

The below infographic highlights the cause and effect of late payments on the entire supply chain.