6 Practical Tips to Manage Your Small Business Finances

Even experienced business owners can benefit from improving the way they manage their finances. This is especially true if your expertise in your product or service doesn’t extend to managing business finance. It would be a shame not to realize the full potential of your company, so we’ve assembled six practical tips to help you stay on top of your business finances.

1.   Remember to Pay Yourself

Especially in the early days, your desire to make your company a success can cause you to plow every dollar back into the business. While the impulse is admirable, it is also unsustainable. The fact is, you need to ensure that your personal finances are adequately handled so that you aren’t distracted from your business. You are central to your startup and deserve compensation for your efforts. Remember, if for some reason the business fails, you don’t want to be in a position where you never received any pay for all your hard work.

2.   Budget for Growth

After paying yourself, it’s crucial to plan for the growth of your company. For many businesses, if you are not growing, you are dying. So put aside some money to fund growth opportunities and to take advantage of favorable circumstances. Besides increasing the scale of your business, your commitment to growth will have beneficial side effects. For example, it might be easier to recruit quality employees if they see your willingness to invest in the future. Your customers will welcome improved service, and your business will realize additional value.

3.   Optimize Your Billing Strategy

Billing is part of your central accounting package, but unlike some other areas, billing can involve extra operations beyond bookkeeping. We’re talking about dealing with those occasional clients who are slow to pay. These semi-deadbeats put a dent in your cash flow, and if the problem gets out of hand, your business could be jeopardized. You can improve your billing strategy by adopting discounts, such 2/10 net 30. This gives your customers a 2% discount if they pay within 10 days. Another strategy is to sell off your problem accounts to a collection agency. You’ll take a small loss, but you’ll free up your time to concentrate on more important tasks.

4.   Be Ready to Pounce

Ideally, you will have sufficient funds put aside to take advantage of unusually favorable opportunities. For example, one of your wholesalers might offer you a special discount on inventory. Or perhaps a desirable piece of equipment suddenly becomes available at a good price. It would be a shame to lose out on these opportunities simply because your money is tied up elsewhere. Therefore, be ready to borrow money on short-notice from a convenient and fast source, such as IOU Financial. Typically, the profit opportunities from a good deal far outweigh the interest costs of a short-term loan.

5.   Stay on Top of Your Tax Payments

Taxes might be the bane of your existence, but you had better keep current with your tax obligations to avoid disastrous consequences. You will owe income tax, sales tax, maybe even property tax, that must be remitted on time. If you have trouble making quarterly payments, then switch to monthly payments. In this way, taxes become a routine monthly expense, just like all your others.

6.   Monitor Your Books

You should review your books and records at least weekly. This is your best bet for quickly becoming aware of potential problems. Part of monitoring your books is being able to diagnose any weaknesses in several important areas, including liquidity, efficiency and return on investment so you can respond quickly as problems arise.

Conclusion

There are many ways to improve your business finances, but they require vigilance and prompt action. Ensure you have enough resources available, including access to working capital, to help you fund your efforts to grow your business and remove impediments to growth. If you’d like to discuss a strategic loan from IOU Financial, we’d love to hear from you.