What do small business managers think about all day every day besides their actual products and services? Money
What creates more worry and stress for small business managers than issues relating to their products and services? Money
What worries wake small business managers up in the middle of the night? Money worries.
What sinks small businesses more than any other single factor? Problems with cash flow, meaning lack of money.
Small businesses feel the pressures of cash flow day in and day out, not generally having the large cash assets available in larger businesses to cushion cash flows needs. There are always things to be bought and bills to be paid. There are payments for rent or leases, installment payments due on vehicles and equipqment, payrolls to be met. There are surprise bills. The list is long but the certainty is that not a day will go by without the need for operating capital. Cash flow is a tricky animal for the reason that it factors into more than simply paying bills.
For example, cash flow determines whether your business can leap at opportunities when they arise. This might mean a chance to advertise in a key market, an opportunity to travel and display your product on short notice or perhaps a chance to partner up in a timely project that comes along only once in a lifetime. Cash flow can be a determinant in the due diligence evaluation a potential customer, client or investor performs in deciding whether to do business with you.
Cash flow determines how much inventory you can carry. Adequate cash flow is necessary to meet payroll and is a critical factor in determining how much compensation you can offer the people who work for you. Money talks: how much you can pay makes a difference in the caliber of your work force and in your ability to retain your work force.
Just in case you ever forget about cash flow your pocketbook will remind you that how much money goes into your compensation is determined by cash flow. That is a personal day-in and day-out reminder that never goes away!
From a stress management point of view money is the root of all evil. The challenge is how to manage the cash flow without letting it worry you to death. There are simple routines that can help accomplish this. Routines, to begin with, generally help us think about problems on schedule while putting them out of mind the rest of the time. That is the goal with cash flow: think about it and do something about it on schedule and, knowing that you have the routine established, forget about it in between times.
First routine: make review of your cash flow situation part of the beginning of each working day. For example, when you start the day check your messages, review any new reports, update the list of things needing immediate attention and check your cash flow status against anticipated expenditures.
Second routine: review your cash flow when closing down each working day. If there are problems, make a note about the problems and the needed solution and have a short worry session with yourself: a two or three-minute nervous breakdown to get the anxiety over with as you close down and prepare to leave work for civilian life. Under no circumstances carry the money worry in your yead out of your office at quitting time. Don't leave the office until you have put the worry out of your mind.
Third routine: organize bill paying to be always at the same time of your working day, just build that right into the schedule. It should be a point in the day when there are the fewest interruptions and the most peace and quiet so that you can get at the bills, get them paid and be done with it quickly. This might be every day or only on certain days, the fewer days the better. When bills arrive arrange them by due dates. Then carefully store them out of sight, always in the same place. Keep the bills, checkbook and any other cash0-flow information in the same place and out of sight. This eliminates visual money cues that can set in motion anxiety and interrupt your focus
These three suggested routines have the effect of compartmentalizing the focus on money without overlooking the very important management responsibility of tending to the company's cash flow. Cash flow is the lifeblood of the company. But the company itself is about product and service, not cash flow.
Get the cash flow routine under control so that you are free to concentrate on product and service. Much of your money stress will disappear!
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