Here you will find articles on various aspects of small business cash flow, from projecting in your business plan to managing the cash flow of your small business and tackling potential new business financial deal breakers.
Are You Starving Your New Business?
If you’re thinking about starting a business, you will need to ensure your basic living expenses are paid while the fledgling business takes root and grows to where it can support you. In a perfect world, your business would support you while you work to make it successful. Unfortunately, most start-up businesses do not earn enough for the owners to pay themselves. For most, this means planning to pay your personal expenses some other way until your business can afford you. Read the full article
Business Owners Need a Rock Solid Bookkeeping System
A reliable bookkeeping system is critical to the success of any business. Bookkeeping is too important to be put in the hands of anything less than a professional. Inexperienced entrepreneurs tend to avoid or overlook the importance of bookkeeping until disaster strikes. Too many new owners hand bookkeeping off to an unskilled buddy or try to do it themselves. Read the full article
Buying a Business? Sharpen Your Pencil!
You might hope that buying a business will fast-track you into being your own boss, ease you into an attractive lifestyle and maybe even make you some money. If your destiny is to be so rosy, you’ve got some homework to do before signing away your hard-earned equity. Here are some points to consider . . . Read the full article
Cash Flow is an Entrepreneurs Lifeline
Cash flow is a business’s oxygen. With cash, a business breathes, without it the business dies. Knowing this, smart business owners keep one eye on the bottom line at all times. When trying to solve a cash flow shortfall, many owners first inclination is to try for a bank loan. While some situations call for debt financing, an injection of cash is not always the best solution. Read the full article
Cheque’s In the Mail
The professionals who handle bankruptcies are among the busiest people in our part of the world. This is a sad reality. Financial trouble and bankruptcy visably turn a person’s life upside down. What is less obvious is when anyone suffers financial difficulty or bankruptcy, everyone is affected. Families, friends, employees and vendors – from the small garage down the street to the giant credit card companies, banks and tax collectors. The entire community is affected. Read the full article
Financial Skeletons Will Spook Potential Investors
Are you heading out trick-or-treating for a business loan? No matter how bewitching your costume, the following deal breakers will block your success and leave you with an empty pillowcase. . . Read the full article
Forecasting Isn’t The Same as Accounting
Many people assume that forecasting is the same as accounting, and that it should be left to highly skilled professionals, such as bankers, accountants and MBA’s. And yet, the process of forecasting is sure to be a healthy learning experience for owners and anyone thinking about starting a business. Read the full article
Seven Foolproof Ways of Going Broke
After years of getting cuffed around in the marketplace, it is my pleasure to share these foolproof strategies. No matter how well you are doing today, the following methods are sure to drive your small business into the ground. Read the full article
Seven Secrets to Forecasting a Rock Solid Cash Flow
Cashflow is the oxygen that brings your business to life. As surely as you cannot live without air, a business will grind to a halt if starved for cash. A cashflow forecast will include estimates of sales and expenses, and enable you to clarify how much money you need to operate your business. Read the full article
Six Sure-fire Strategies for Increasing Your Profits
Profit is the lifeblood of any business. Effective business owners have one eye on the bottom line at all times, and it’s no wonder—a business that doesn’t earn a profit will quickly wither up and disappear. In the interest of boosting profits or reducing costs, sharp business managers are always on the lookout for time and money wasters to eliminate. Here are seven strategies for increasing your enterprise’s profitability. Read the full article
Take the Guess Out of Your Sales Forecasts
“How do I tell you the amount of sales I’ll make next year, when I just don’t know?” For new business start-ups, projecting sales can be a frustrating, uncertain experience. To go into a business without having some idea of how much you’ll sell might be thrilling for a gambler, but if you stand to lose a lot, it’s just too risky. Read the full article
Thinking of Buying a Business? Buyer Beware!
For some reason, many people seem to want to spend too much money to purchase existing businesses. This is confusing, until you realize that buyers are trying to purchase solutions to a number of problems. Prospective buyers see an operating business and tend to think that they can simply buy it and it will continue to operate as it does under the ownership of the seller. Read the full article
Three Keys to Clear Financial Communications
Have you ever heard someone claim they made a great whack of money, only to have them go out of business a short while later? These days, the internet is rampant with claims of whopping amounts of money earned in less time than it takes to clean your glasses. There’s a lot of miscommunication when it comes to business financials, some of it deliberate and some out of ignorance. Read the full article