Cash flow. One of those accounting terms you hear all the time. But what exactly does it mean?
Cash flow in a business simply refers to the money coming in and going out of your business.
The biggest concern of SO MANY businesses is getting paid on time so they can pay their own bills on time! It can be a constant juggle and take planning to make sure you’re not going into the negative!
But how can you keep your cash flow positive and not stress about making sure you’ve got the money ready to keep on top of your own expenses? No one likes to stress about money, and honestly. Isn’t that why many start their own business so they have more financial freedom??
Here are my top 5 tips to keep your business cash flow steady and stress free!
Invoice straight away! Do not delay! Do not think “Oh, I’ll send that later. I’ll just get this done first.” Just do it. The sooner you invoice, the sooner you will receive payment.
Make it easy! Have your invoices set up to make it as easy as possible for people to pay you! Make it clear HOW you want to get paid and WHEN.
Plan. Keep track of your regular expenses and know when they are going to be due so you can plan your payments. You just received a payment in, but you also know you’ve got a big bill due at the end of the month? Put it aside to pay that! Do not spend it on something else.
Negotiate payment plans. Do you have insurance due annually, but it’s actually not going to cost you any extra to organise to pay by the month? Then pay the month. Smaller amounts on a regular basis are much easier to manage on a tight budget if there’s no benefit to paying in a lump sum.
Automate your invoice follow ups. No one likes having those uncomfortable discussions asking for your invoices to be paid. The beauty of most of the latest accounting software is that you can set them up to automatically send out follow up emails for any unpaid invoices. You can also select for any particular client to not get them if you have a special agreement with them.
These 5 easy actions can help to get your cash flow to work better for you!
For more information on how to get paid faster you can grab my FREE Ebook 4 Steps To get Paid Faster! Included in this ebook are my tried and tested invoice follow up emails to make sure you get paid quickly!
You can also follow me on Facebook for regular tips and tricks to keep your bookkeeping easy and BRILLIANT!
Want to have a chat to see how we can work together to keep your business cash flow steady? Contact Me today!