Cash Flow Management

You’re not alone on the seasonal Business & Low Cash-Flow roller-coaster! More importantly, if you’re running a seasonal business, you’re not alone on the cash-flow roller-coaster. The cash flow for a seasonal business is quite unlike the others and a very imperative aspect of sustenance. A seasonal business is very common if you’re in a region where travel and tourism are popular. If you are well acquainted with the holiday highs and bad weather lows, there are a few things you can do to radically change the situations of uncertainty and predicament. Since a season peak is right around the corner(Christmas), we decided to roll out these tips which can help you prepare for the next months.

Cash flow in all kinds of businesses can be a reason for anxiety and rightly so. But when it comes to running a seasonal business almost every business owner knows that while sometimes cash flow could be at pleasant peaks, it also drops swiftly and sometimes suddenly, leaving business owners wondering what’s next!

As stressful as it is to ride the seasonal cash flow roller coaster, it is a part of every business but it pays to be smart when things are running perfectly. That way, you’re ready for the sudden shift from greener times to leaner times.

5 Techniques Businesses like yours employ:

• Alternative business options: Not easy but a very practical option would be to find a business alternative for the slower part of your year. The change could be a welcome move for your brain and your lifestyle. This could help cash flow remain at balanced levels.
• Flexible employee hiring patterns: While this isn’t a great idea for the economy, it certainly would do well for you. Hire employees on-contract and during the season only. The aftermath of this could be that you may get incessantly stuck in the hiring process, every season.
• Robust banking relationships: Some banks are flexible and provide great support for seasonal businesses.
• Save for the rainy days: Save a part of your revenue during the greener times, to cover up for the leaner times.
• Flexible vendor agreements: To your vendors, request for a flexible payment pattern wherein you pay larger chunks of the outstanding amount during the season and smaller chunks in the off-season.

Tried, Tested & Proven Cash Flow Tips For Seasonal Businesses

Here are some cash flow tips to implement into your business so you can weather any type of storm that comes your way throughout slower periods:

• Forecast, review & revise– Tracking your business is a good practice and it could also help you determine the slow periods. Most businesses know for a fact that holiday sales directly mean peak cash-flow. January and February generally show a dip in business. Planning ahead for these slow periods and employing the aforementioned techniques can help in balancing your cash-flow crisis.
• Stay on top with savings– We’ve heard quite often that we should save for a rainy day. A seasonal business stands testimony to the worth of this proverb. You know your fixed monthly business expenses and the delta required to sustain – don’t get caught in a slow period with no money to spare for expenses you always knew about.
• Boost peaks – Peak season is when you can boost your cash flow without much effort. So go the extra mile, hire that extra staff, build that extra inventory and give that extra coupon/discount! This will help you propel sales and push beyond expected margins.

Every business is a sine-wave. Highs and lows are never a surprise and all a part of the game. Stay on top and build better cash flow with these useful tips. Are you a seasonal business owner? Did you find these tips useful? Do you have tips that we should include in this list? Let us know in the comments and let’s together educate the troupe of seasonal business owners. Meanwhile, prepare yourself for the holidays! May this post help you in the right time!

Adequate cash-flow is significant to running a healthy business and anybody running their own business will know it. It is a taboo that healthy cash flows in any business come from equity funding or income from other investments and not their original business operations. The OCF or Operating Cash Flow unfolds what revenue is generated by ongoing business operations like sale of goods or services.

Importance Of Tracking Cash Flow

There are quite a lot of advantages tracking your cash flow. Tracking cash flow helps in:

• Improving your current performance
• Enabling your investors to know of your status and in positive case bring in more investment
• Foreseeing your long-term business value based on the current cash flow metrics
• Enabling potential buyers to judge your business, if you are looking to sell your business
• Enabling you to know the cash at hand to make any short-term finances, if need be
• Enabling you to manage your cash flow better

How Can You Track The Cash Flow Metrics

Tracking your cash flow metrics is fairly simple. There are two ways to do it:

1. Direct method

Direct method to finding OCF basically involves finding the Earnings Before Interest and Taxes or EBIT. Next, you need to find the depreciation or the declining value of the company’s assets due to wear and tear.

Now, OCF= EBIT + Depreciation – Taxes.

2. Indirect method

If you use the indirect method to calculate your cash flow, you must ensure that you abide by the GAAP or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, established US Accounting standards. That said indirect method is the most preferred method by most business men. This is because of the fact that it provides reconciliations from net income to the cash rendered by operations.

Steps to finding OCF:

1. Find your net income
2. Add the non-cash expenses back in – like amortization & depreciation
3. Adjust the profits and losses on the sales of assets
   • Subtract the profits
   • Add the losses back in
4. Account the variations in current assets and liabilities
5. Account the variations in non-cash current assets

Generally, business with positive OCF means that the business has net incomes that are reliable and can stand the test of time like any economic downturns or undesired situations. Negative OCF means the business has to work strategically to cover the shortfalls and get back on track to withstand any seasonal business shortages and also thrive in the long run.

Call at +1-860-215-4997 for outsourcing or any queries on cash flow management.

Happy New Year everyone!

Can you believe it’s already 2017? Many of you would have come from vacation feeling all motivated and Interesting Ways to Gear Yourself geared up to strike 2017. Now is the perfect time to plan and implement your new ideas. Below are some simple and highly effective tips for you to make your work life a lot less stressful and much easier.

1. Lay your roadmap

It’s about time you prepped your roadmap for the year and planned your budget. Your target and budget planning are the most crucial parts as they are precise and give you real numbers to ponder on. It is wise to fix monthly targets and keep tracking your progress. This way you will know when you are not performing well enough. When you look back on the numbers you are sure to realize some expenses which were totally unplanned but essentials. Bear in mind, without a definite goal, you won’t know what you are working towards.

2. Bank account for your tax

Take away a few minutes of your time to open separate bank account for taxes. This small move would have a huge positive impact on your cash management, and needless to mention your stress levels too. Many small businesses collect their tax money and use it for other purposes. We will never know what the future has in store for us and definitely nobody likes surprises in this aspect. Therefore, it’s better to have the tax money in a separate account and not get tempted to use it up.

3. Use Bank Feeds- the best time saver

We all know time is something which can’t be reversed or bought. But by using Bank Feeds you can save at least 10 hours per month. Wondering how? Bank Feeds is the place where all your bank transactions are sent automatically. This is done directly by your bank. Bank feeds saves a lot of time you spend on data entry. On top of it, you can also set rules like when and what transactions must be sent. Try it and save your precious time.

4. Use today’s technology wisely

There are quite a lot of annoying mundane things which we do as small business owners. Cash management is a pain point for most of the small business owners and the most annoying thing you would have to do is ask your customers for money they owe you. Big thanks to the contemporary technology, which has automated this dreadful task. You can now automatically chase the unpaid invoices with the help of umpteen softwares which do the task efficiently for you. Debtor Daddy is one of the best apps out there. It automatically sends out emails to customers whose invoice is overdue by two days. What’s more? You will not sound like a robot as you can feed your own text for the emails. By using this app, you will get amazing responses from the customers and you are more likely to collect all the receivables.

5. Try outsourcing

When you are a small business owner, you will find yourself doing most of the work in your business right from developing your product to marketing it to accounts. You will do everything but with limited knowledge and experience in each domain. There are a few areas which you can outsource at relatively lesser cost.

6. Outsourced Bookkeeping Services

Let’s say you are outsourcing your bookkeeping, you will not have access to the expertise of the bookkeepers you will also save a lot of time. Bookkeepers will tell you ways and means to save your hard earned money. Plus, you can effectively use your time to concentrate on things that fetch you more cash inflow rather than frittering away with unproductive things.

Do contact at +1-860-215-4997 for all your outsourcing needs.

Have you just started up your own business? Are you looking for tips to manage your cash flow? Does the cash flow management intimidate you? Worry not and Read through….

Keep track of your cash flow:

This would be the easiest tip of them all. Everything you need to do is constantly monitor and measure your cash flow. Here are some tips you can follow to do the same:

1. Start measuring your cash flow
2. Make a worksheet based on the cash flow
3. Have a trustworthy person to monitor your cash flow

To start doing this, you must know your numbers of the cash flow precisely.

Maintain a good relationship with customers:

Your customers play a very important role in your business and your cash flow management spree. Do improve your rapport with your customers; this will help you collect your receivables without any hitch and if you are lucky you can collect more cash for your inflow, should you require.

Conflicts between the customers and you are natural phenomena in a business. You can always steer clear of them by having a definite & agreed system for payments and other things. Be specific on what is acceptable by you and what is not. Getting rid of these small conflicts can help you have happy customers. Having happy customers means your retention rate is high.

Ensure your safety

Bear this in mind, “CASH is the king.” It is necessary to maintain a cash reserve. As we all know the future is uncertain and you will never know what problems are ahead, be prepared for the worst. Maintaining a solid cash reserve will help you overcome the pitfalls. No cash at hand equals danger & unnecessary risk.

Recognize and Reward your employees

Introduce some sale incentives for your employees. Have your employees work for you willingly; this will boost their performance and in turn your cash inflow. The same applies for your customers; incentivize them to get your payments early. 

Use the technology effectively

The technology available today saves costs hugely and makes you more productive and efficient. That said you must be cautious. Frequently updating your computers, software, or mobile phones can be a very costly affair and affect your cash inflow. When it comes to the latest technology, you must be discreet.

Here’s a bonus cash flow management tip for you: if you need a machinery upgrade or any other equipment, always buy used ones. The price of the goods slashes by at least 15% after they are sold. And, sell your old machinery or equipment before buying a new one.

These are just a few tips that you must follow to streamline your cash flow, but there’s more to this. Managing your cash flow diligently can help you be successful in your business and financially.

Hire a professional to provide you always with good recommendations and suggestions. Contact at +1-860-215-4997 to touch base with an accounting expert and help you with all accounting activities.