Feeling overwhelmed? Running your own business can be stressful to say the least. Yes, to the public you may look like that beautiful swan gliding across the pond, but we know the reality in that underwater you’re paddling like hell upstream whilst protecting your family, team members and sanity!
As you busy yourself with the ins-and-outs of daily management, logistics and paperwork, it’s easy to lose sight of where you are in your business journey and indeed, why you setup on your own in the first place.
Don’t lose the love. Act proactively.
By keeping on top of your finances in real-time, you equip yourself with the power of knowledge so you can make informed business decisions to navigate the storm in confidence. You can do this.
If you can recognise that your business is in hot water or struggling with any of the issues below, you have the opportunity to act now.
More often than not, you:
- Can’t pay your creditors on time
- Don’t know the total of what you owe to creditors is
- Don’t have enough stock due to not paying creditors on time
- Don’t have good relationships with your creditors that enable extensions on credit terms
- Are starting to be threatened with legal action
You’re finding that:
- You aren’t getting paid on time by your debtors
- You don’t know the total of what is owed to you by debtors
- You don’t have a press for debt collection
- You don’t invoice your debtors regularly
You’re noticing that:
- Your sales are down substantially
- Attracting new customers is a real struggle
- Existing customers are starting to go elsewhere
- Reviews of your product are poor
- Your customers aren’t loving your product as much as you!
Are any of these ringing true?
It sounds like you may have a cashflow issue. Cashflow is one of the hardest things to master as a business owner and director, but mastering the craft you will give your business the stability it needs to be sustainable. You can then go on to use your financial data to inform your business decisions in confidence.
Here are Our 8 Top Tips on How to Improve your Cash Flow.
- Map out weekly and monthly cashflows so that you know exactly what has to be paid (in or out) and when.
- Be Prepared. If you spot an issue on the horizon, take action to rectify it before it happens. Communicate with your creditors and negotiate extensions if possible. Seek new business or sell old stock to generate new income. Potentially talk to your bank re a temporary loan or overdraft.
- Invoice promptly. Don’t put if off. People can’t pay you if you don’t enable them, so ask for payment – receive it swiftly.
- Have a Debtors Process. Be strict with yourself and your debtors re sticking to payment schedules and follow your debtors process to the t.
- Offer discount to clients for prompt payments
- Don’t offer your customers greater payment terms than you are receiving from your suppliers
- Be cautious about advancing credit to customers and consider their ability to pay
- You may wish to consider increasing prices, although you need to take into account many factors including what your competition are charging
Don’t bury your head in the sand, we’re here to help you ride the storm. Reach out to us and we’ll help you to see clarity and gain cashflow confidence.
