In today’s world, we constantly deal with uncertainties and an ever-changing operational landscape, making cash flow management a hurdle for small business owners and companies. It is an uphill task, even for seasoned entrepreneurs, to consistently maintain revenues in the face of increased inflation rates and changing market forces.
It is no secret that a healthy cash flow system is the foundation for a successful business. It helps you stay on track with daily operations, pay your employees on time, procure supplies and ensure smooth overall functions.
Simply saving money and cutting corners doesn’t ensure a healthy cash flow in business. Besides, you also need to ensure that you are investing in the right technology and marketing to boost business growth.
So, how do you strike the right balance in managing your cash flow? In this article, we’ll help you understand exactly that. Read on to find key cash flow tips to add to your list for efficient business management.
What is Cash Flow Management?
In simple terms, cash flow management is managing the money coming into your business with respect to the money going out, In technical terms, this means ensuring a balance between accounts receivable and payable for the business. You must ensure that this equation is reflected positively wherein you have more money in the business to keep it afloat.
Setting up an effective cash flow management system helps you keep track of and record all your transactions in one place. Tracking all your payments and bank statements in a streamlined manner ensures that you remain on top of your work. However, do watch out for bills payable such as supplier bills, vendor invoices and payrolls to maintain a consistent balance.
Why Is It Important for Your Business?
But why go through all this hassle? Why is managing your cash flow so important? As a business owner, you will often face challenging market conditions where uncertainties are high. Maintaining a strong cash reserve for such bad times helps in the smooth functioning of your business.
For instance, the recent COVID-19 outbreak across the globe has massively impacted businesses worldwide. Failure to keep up with these adversities has led to the closure of several business operations.
While one can’t predict unforeseen circumstances, keeping a realistic and practical outlook in terms of managing your cash flow streams can help the business grow smoothly. A solid cash flow system can improve your business performance and foster growth in the early years.
How To Manage Cash Flow Effectively?
Managing cash flow is no easy task. But there are significant steps that can help you minimise the burden and get an upper hand in the process. Here are some tips to help you understand how you can reap benefits from effective cash flow management.
- Get Started With Cash Flow Forecast
A key tip to effective cash flow management is creating accurate projections for your cash flow as it helps you stay ahead of problems. Cash flow forecasts usually are based on estimates and market forecasts meaning they could be relative in nature. However, this is a good place to start if you intend to understand the working of your business in the near future.
You can start by making a list of assumptions related to their business and use these as a benchmark for your forecast. While at it, only focus on manageable factors such as an increase in raw materials, change in customer preferences, and supplier projections.
You can also include projections related to the growth and sales of the business as markets are usually volatile in nature. If this sounds like a fairly new domain to you, you could also consider reaching out to commercial financial consultants who actively help businesses sort out their operational challenges and fuel investment opportunities. They are an effective means to leverage a competitive advantage whilst maintaining strategic growth and profitability.
- Understand your Expenses
Being aware of your expenses can help you maintain your cash flow effectively. Typically, business expenses include salaries of employees, rents and rates, supplier or vendor costs and purchasing new assets. These can vary depending on your business type and size.
Business expenses often include insurance premiums and interest payments too. Tabulating these and using last year’s bank statements as a foundation can help you project your upcoming expenses. Also, staying on top of your opening and closing financial statements on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis helps in fine-tuning your understanding of business expenses.
- Rolling out Invoices Quickly
Small business owners are often so caught up with logistical and operational difficulties that sending out invoices to customers often takes a backseat. While it’s understandable that businesses can often face roadblocks leading to delays, waiting to send out invoices will postpone the process even further.
Most small businesses are run by a small team that often multitasks on different activities. Hence, more often than not, you may miss out on sending invoices and following up on them. To stay ahead, set aside a day during the week to send out invoices while keeping track of payments. Another tip is to offer clients a discount in exchange for an earlier payment made from their end.
- Different Payment Options
Offering different payment options to a customer ensures flexibility in work and helps you close invoices sooner too. Gone are the days when businesses would depend on cheque payments. Making payments through cheques is highly inflexible and one needs to wait till the cheques are cleared too.
A better alternative would be to consider online payments through debit/credit cards. Different modes of payment offer ease of doing business and flexibility with customers. In fact, a smooth payment experience ensures repeated sales for your business.
- Consider Flexible Work Loans
Managing cash flow effectively through flexible work loans can ensure your business gets access to funds in a timely manner. Small businesses need immediate cash to fund their daily operations, scale requirements or invest in better technological infrastructure. Opting for work loans, company credit cards and short-time business loans can ensure your business has access to cash on an immediate basis. One must ensure to opt for a source that best fits the business type so it’s flexible to pay for interest charges.
- Keep an Emergency Fund
Businesses operate in a volatile and dynamic environment thereby prioritising the need for an emergency fund. Even when your business is doing good, keeping aside some money always does well. This contingency plan can be an effective remedy to combat potential cash flow issues.
In the face of uncertainties, your emergency fund can help you stay afloat and cover your bills. We highly recommend that you calculate your average monthly cash flows and outgoings. Once estimated, you can aim to save around one-fourth or three months’ worth of cash, whichever is feasible. Over time, this can help fix cash flow problems and optimise your business performance.
- Cutting Costs
It is always a good practice to cut down costs that hamper your business’s daily operations. Irrespective of the size of the business, eliminating costs that do not lead to any gains in the business is far better than continuing to account for it. The key to effectively managing your cash flow is to stay on top of your expenses, irrespective of how well your business is operating. Carry out a detailed and focused financial analysis to understand where your money is spent.
Is there any way you can eliminate certain costs that aren’t reaping the expected benefit? A few cuts can ensure your business operates efficiently and performs well. For instance, you can go paperless at work. Paper, postage supplies and ink all add up to cost. Avoiding this is not just great for your business but also for the environment.
In the initial stages of your business, you can do away with a swanky office space or perhaps housekeeping. These nonessential costs often add to the burden of rising expenses. Regularly auditing your overhead expenses such as rent and utilities can help you watch out for loopholes and how you can tap into them to get better rates and negotiate viable contracts.
- Experiment with Price Offerings
Increasing your business sales and price offerings purely depends on the product or service you offer. When working on your price strategy, keep in mind your cost and how you can make a profit. Keeping a close eye on your competitor’s pricing and how much the target market is willing to pay can help set a baseline. Initially, you might have to experiment with your prices and also offer discounts before you find the sweet spot that is apt for your business. Consider conducting a thorough analysis and research before you estimate your pricing strategy.
- Negotiate Favourable Credit Terms With Vendors
A key step in improving your cash flow management is to negotiate better credit terms with suppliers you actively work with. Finding the right balance between the duration you get paid by your customers and the vendors can help you maintain your cash flow. Planning this journey from the supplier to the customer can help in avoiding cashflow shortage.
Moreover, you can consider getting help from a debt collection agency if your funds are stuck in the market. This can help you accumulate the daily operational expenses and run your business more smoothly.
Aim to create a good payment history with your trade partners and suppliers. Sometimes, they might be open to extending your payment terms and letting you hold onto the cash longer. Hence, reduce the risk from your end while working. In fact, vendors often offer flexible payment terms that match one’s needs as they would rather hold onto the customer than lose the entire deal.
- Free Up Assets in Business
Small businesses are often known to be asset rich but poor in cash. Investing early in heavy and expensive assets can lead to potential cash flow problems. One must critically analyse the situation and consider selling those that aren’t essential to the running of your business. This exercise will in turn help in increasing your working capital.
One can also consider leasing them as this ensures you still retain ownership of your assets and bring in additional income too. Assets could depend on the business you are into. However, careful consideration of nonperforming assets could help in strengthening your business performance. Freeing up these non-performing assets can strengthen business operations and positively impact cash flow influx too, especially during the early years of business.
To Sum It Up
Cash flow is the very crux of every business as it ensures smooth and flexible business operations. Small business owners often struggle to manage their cash flow due to a lack of knowledge and experience. If your business is regularly struggling with cash flow management, then it is vital to evaluate your business decisions and critically inspect business operations. Reaching out to well-experienced and qualified commercial finance consultants can help your business streamline its cash flow.
Creating a cash flow forecast and understanding your expenses, can help in fine-tuning cash flow management. Frequent attempts to cut costs, free up non-performing assets and negotiate a better payment window with vendors can drastically reduce cash flow problems. In the face of uncertainty and adversity, maintaining an emergency fund can help small businesses stay afloat.
Opting for work loans is a great cash flow tip when looking for scalability and the development of business operations. Additionally, opting to use intelligent software that keeps track of financial performance can help in staying ahead of the game and making better-informed decisions.
A genuine attempt must be made by business owners to look out for their finances by scheduling an hour to two each week. Regularly keeping up with your financial forecasts and closing invoices quickly is the foundation for long time success in business. Management of cash flow is essential for the daily working of a business and can often be the driving force of its performance.