How to Plan Cashflow
Cash is king and you need to ensure that your business has a steady flow of it coming in, your business may have record sales, but if your customers are paying on credit that money won't be flowing straight in.
You need to keep a tight check on your large clients credit lines, and also use 3rd party facilities such as company credit reports to ensure your credit limits reflect the state of the customers business. Its very easy to extend a large credit line to win business, but at what cost, if the client doesnt pay for 60/90/120 days where will that leave your company finances? Do you have to pay up front for the goods and services being offered to your own suppliers, or are you having to buy in raw materials to make the goods, even salaries for consulting fees need to be taken into account.
Thinking worst case can be the best option when planning your cashflow and regular checks of your aged debtors and creditors helps you plan around blips and non payment without having to run to the bank at the last minute.
Based on personal experience here are a few simple tips to help improve your cashflow and let you concentrate on other areas of your business.
1. You can credit check your clients before doing work for them, giving you an idea of their credit worthyness.
2. Be proactive with invoicing and debt collection, regular statements should be sent to ensure you clients have an up to date idea of their account standing.
3. Ensure you meet your deadlines to the client, this lets you invoice earlier and get paid quicker.
4. Make it easy for your customers to pay you, online payments by credit/debit cards are quick and easy.
5. Get as much payment as possible up front.
6. Keep your costs and general outgoings as low as possible, its much easier to lower costs down the line.
7. See if you can increase your credit / payment terms with suppliers.
8. Be proactive on sales leads and chase up potential clients every so often, more sales means more cash!
These are just a few simple things you can do to help improve your cashflow and your business overall. A healthy cashflow means you can focus on sales and new products, instead of trying to find additional sources of credit to tide the business over.
About the Author
Written by Sales Director at CheckMyClient - This article is based on 11 years experience of running small businesses with sustained growth over that period. These tips are based on personal experience, business credit reports have been very helpful in managing clients credit lines, you can get an instant company credit report online at http://www.checkmyclient.com
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