You’ve done it! You’re in business, and now the sky’s the limit, right? It could be – but which metrics should you measure? Your profits? Revenues? New sales? Well, it’s not exactly that easy. While it’s definitely a good idea to monitor what you have coming in and going out, if you don’t keep an eye on your cash flow, you could be over your head before you realize you’re heading for the deep end.
When it’s time to learn how to increase cash flow in your small business, and how to maintain it during your company’s growth spurts, these suggestions should help. They fall into seven major aspects of your company as a whole:
- Sales
- Revenues
- Business structure
- Payment methods you accept
- How you negotiate
- Offering subscriptions
- Settling debts
Before tackling these, though, the best suggestion of all is: Don’t spend your money. Cutting expenses seems simple to say but hard to do, right? Especially if you think of it in terms of how fast your money can go compared to how long it takes to earn in most cases. And if you’re in the opening stages of business, you first have to learn how to earn money – and fast. In fact, as soon as you learn how to make money by simply putting in some time and controlling your short-term cash flow, your earnings can grow into an actual budget that allows you to spend where necessary.