Cashflow and credit management are so important for businesses that it’s no wonder we’ve been blogging on these two subjects for ages.
There are two types of business – those that don’t need to focus on cashflow………and the rest.
For the rest, I hope these blogs on how to build and use a cashflow model and how to get solid credit management practices in place will be practical and helpful.
Your cashflow forecast may be the most important document in your business. Haven’t got one? You’re not alone but you should build one now.
Most business owners, most Managing Directors are not accountants. Yet most businesses get by, survive and thrive.
So what is it that these people running most businesses know or need to know if they are to be sustainably profitable and successful?
Six financial things.
none of these steps will be very effective if you don’t have the people or the accounting software in your business to produce the information you need when you need it, so make sure that you have these basics right and seek help if you don’t.
Knowing your costs and your gross profit is essential but many businesses destroy value simply by selling in to the wrong market, or by positioning their products / services in the wrong place.
I can’t have the business I want…….because of the business I’ve got!
This was the odd but striking conclusion of a meeting with the MD of a ten year old business who was looking for help with the financial management of his company.
We were looking at an analysis of revenue by client and he was describing the work done for the larger clients, the time taken to do it and the level of fees charged.
Then we compared these clients against the characteristics of the “ideal” clients he was looking for.
It could be worse, I suppose. Your accountant might not even try to understand your business, seeing it as sufficient to simply process all your financial transactions and then tell you the outcome.
Like any dependency, first you have to acknowledge the dependence. That one big client may account for a massive proportion of your profit. What does it look like, that one big client? On the plus side: Large, regular billings Large cash inflows Business that everyone wants to work on A…
The business side of running your business is not easy and not always comfortable, but it’s worth a little pain to get to where you want to be.
If you want to build a business from the ground up then hiring your first employee is a rite of passage, one of the phases you go through where the business takes a quantum leap forward.
