Those who have a small or medium enterprise know how it feels to be worried about their cashflow. If you haven’t got a positive cashflow, this could mean some drastic consequences – from not being able to pay your bills on time to not having enough cash to expand your business when there is a unique opportunity in sight.
If you are having difficulty managing your cashflow for your enterprise, you may need to make some changes – and fast. Below are a few tips to boost your business cashflow in no time:
1. Assess your cashflow management situation
To start, you must assess your current situation regarding cash flow management. Knowing where you are today can help you choose your future financial direction, which may make a significant impact. To have a better idea of your business cash flow situation, you can begin by examining all your accounts payables, receivables, stock, and credit conditions using cash flow management software. Look for any imbalances in the flow of money into or out of your business.
2. Be prompt with your invoices
Yes, this may be easier said than done, but if you make it a point to send out your invoices promptly, then your customers will more likely pay you before your cash runs out. You’d be surprised how many business enterprises today neglect to do this basic thing. What you can do is set a specific time every week where you can create and dispatch your invoices, so you will not be guilty of sending out invoices at the last minute.
In line with this, you can also take steps to encourage your customers to pay promptly by giving them discounts when they pay early. Even a small discount of about 5% can be enough to make a difference in your cashflow.
3. Keep it easy and simple with different payment methods
Sometimes, customers end up not settling their accounts on time simply because it is difficult to send you their payments. What you can do to avoid this sort of problem is to make it easy for your clients to send you their payments. Offer various payment methods such as bank transfers (which are already a standard), cheques, cash, credit card, and debit card payments, and money transfers both online and off. You can get an integrated payment suit like Paystand NetSuite (check https://www.paystand.com/integrations/netsuite to learn more) to process all major credit and debit cards, ACH, and eCheck to create an easy and secure payment experience.
4. Assess your customers’ payment habits
This takes some time and effort, but it is more than worth it in the end. Be more aware of when you are receiving payments from various customers so you will be in better control of your cashflow. Keep track of when your customers settle their accounts, as every one of them will have different schedules for this. This will also help you determine which customers need more prompting to pay on time. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from a nationwide collection agency if customers are continuing to not pay on time.
5. Take advantage of a cashflow financing service
But if, at the end of the day, you are still having difficulties with managing your cashflow, there’s another handy solution: enlisting the help of a cashflow financing service. Cashflow solution providers like Ultimatefinance.co.uk make it easy for you to have a continuous cashflow by providing you with the cash that you need, when you need it the most. The service works by allowing you to draw funds based on your invoices, either through services like factoring or invoice discounting or more. Cashflow financing is a better option than getting a loan from a bank, for instance, because you only get cash based on your invoices. With this type of service, you need never worry about your cashflow again.
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