3 instant ways to improve your cashflow NOW!

07 Jan 3 instant ways to improve your cashflow NOW!

Posted at 10:26h in profits by

Are you constantly scrutinizing your bank account to check the latest balance or, do you prefer to ignore it in the hope it will all be okay if you don’t look?

Whatever your attitude to managing your money, as a business owner you absolutely cannot afford to bury your head in the sand.

I know you may have started your business to follow your passion, or maybe create a more flexible lifestyle, but this shouldn’t detract you from the fact that the primary objective of every business is to make money.

It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

You should be proud about wanting to make money from your business – after all, this is likely to be funding your reason why you started your business.

The cold truth is that if you ain’t making money, then it’s not a viable business.

One of the admin jobs I still relish doing in my own business is sending out invoices. I use accounting software so it’s really straightforward and doesn’t take too long each month, but I could easily outsource it someone else. I choose not to however, as I find it really satisfying and it reminds me of why I’m doing this.

It’s not about making money for the sake of it (though this is fine too), but it’s about what it enables me to do: run a business around my family and maintain the lifestyle we have.

If you’re in a position where money isn’t coming in to your business fast enough, then I understand how stressful this can be. But DON’T PANIC! The worst thing you can do is make knee jerk decisions and come from a position of panic.

Instead, stay calm, and follow these top 3 tips to improve your cashflow this month:

1. Pick up the phone

Make a list of your previous customers and give them a call. Find out how they are and see if you can help them any more. This isn’t a ‘sales call’ it’s a ‘catch up call’, but you just may well remind them about some more work they want to do with you.

Make a list of people who have said they are interested in working with you, but didn’t make the final decision yet. Your leads! Call all of them to see if they are ready to start working with you now.

NOTE: Under no circumstance should you change phoning them for sending an email. You will always bring in more money by having conversations on the phone (or face to face if you can), than by sending an email.

2. Follow up any outstanding invoices

Do you know how much you have owed to you right now in unpaid invoices?

If nothing, fantastic, you can skip onto the next tip. Otherwise pull together a list of who owes you what and get on that phone again.

This is not a time for being embarrassed and not wanting to offend. You have the done the work and not been paid. This is not acceptable.

Phone them now and arrange when and how they are going to pay you.

NOTE: If you are thinking ‘I don’t want to upset this customer in case they want to work with me again’, then I have 2 things to say to you. 1. If they are a bad payer you do not want to work with them again. 2. If they are genuinely a good customer who has just made an oversight in not paying you, they will appreciate you reminding them.

3. Reduce your overheads

What are you paying for this month that you will not miss if you cancel it? Go through your outgoings and eliminate anything you don’t really need before that monthly payment comes out of your account.

You can always re-instate it a later date once your cashflow has improved.

So, there are your 3 areas to focus on when cashflow is looking as bit dire. Remember, don’t panic, stay calm and follow these 3 tips.

It can be common for businesses to experience peaks and troughs in their cashflow, but this doesn’t make the troughs any less scary eh?

I work with business owners like you, to eliminate the troughs in their cashflow, leaving just the peaks! If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can arrange a 30 minute strategy session with me here, in my online diary.

Make sure you have downloaded your free checklist, ‘6 quick and easy ways to boost your profits’ too!

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy LinkedIn profile

Alison Bradford

Alison Bradford is a business coach who works with smart, ambitious business owners to get clarity about how they can grow their business and increase profit. Sign up here to learn 6 easy ways you can boost profit in your business today.
No Comments

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.