One of the most important parts of managing a business is making sure there is enough cash to keep the business going. As a business owner, you probably have a very good idea how much cash you have in the bank at any time. The smaller your business is, the more likely you are to keep a close eye on cash.

Checking your cash balance is a daily function that you should be on top of. There is another often-overlooked responsibility that many business owners don’t spend enough time on, and that is managing your future cash, especially in light of unplanned situations. Looking ahead helps reduce your business risk and allows you more time to correct any upcoming dip in your cash balance.

Having enough cash is akin to having a safety net for your business. It can sometimes even mean the difference between staying in business and going out of business. To plan how much you might need for your safety net, you can use a few different methodologies.

One way to plan your safety net is to prepare for the worst-case scenario. What is your burn rate? How long would your cash hold out if no revenue were to come in but all expenses kept going out? Some questions you might ask:

• At what point will your cash run out? How many weeks or months of cash do you have?
• Do you have a line of credit you can tap at a bank?
• Do you have other loans or sources of cash that you can tap quickly in case of emergency?
• What expenses could you shut down without hurting your business if you had to?

Another way to plan your safety net is to do what the average business does: acquire the amount of cash you need for two to three months’ worth of operations and keep it on hand. Alternately, you can make a plan to liquidate that much cash on a very fast basis and only put your plan in place if it’s needed.

An easy way to get these numbers is to look at your bank statements in conjunction with your average accounts receivable and accounts payable balances. If that’s all Greek to you, no worries. Feel free to contact us and we can help you figure out a safety net number that you’ll feel comfortable with and that will keep your business risk low.

Once you have a safety net in place, you’ll gain peace of mind for your business. It’s one step in an overall disaster preparedness plan that you can make for your business.

As an entrepreneur, you likely place a high value on freedom. When the word “budget” is mentioned, you might cringe and feel like it hampers your freedom. But it’s really the opposite. Here’s why.

According to a 2019 article in Small Business Trends, “Startup Statistics – The Numbers You Need to Know,” 82 percent of businesses that fail do so because of cash flow problems. Even if your business is no longer a startup, the failure rates for businesses started in 2014 were as follows:

• 20 percent failed to make it to their second year,
• 30 percent failed to make it to their third year,
• 38 percent failed to make it to their fourth year, and
• 44 percent failed to make it to their fifth year.

Many of the reasons for business failure can be prevented with good budgeting and planning. Here are some benefits of making a budget and managing it.

• A budget helps to control spending by seeing what’s available beyond your cash balance at the time.
• Impulse spending can be curbed by avoiding spending on anything that is not budgeted for.
• If a loan is needed to finance the business, you have a better idea of how much you need and how to best schedule the loan payments.
• Your chances of business success increase with a budget.
• You can see future revenue shortfalls so that you can take proactive steps to boost sales.
• You can better manage growth.
• You have a better idea of your profit level so you can make pricing changes, tax predictions, appropriate compensation, and other strategic changes.
• You can plan for large expenditures such as asset purchases and time them better for cash flow, loan acquisition, and other considerations.

Getting started with a budget is easy. If you’ve been in business for more than one year, you can start with last year’s actual figures and then adjust for the growth and changes you want. The numbers can be input into your accounting system so that you can get reports that measure actual progress versus the budget numbers. You can then make good business decisions based on your variances.

When you take a little bit of time to create a plan, you really can enjoy the freedom of knowing you’re on track to make your numbers. If we’re not already working with you on your budget, feel free to reach out to find out more.

Every business has customers, and while they all are important, most entrepreneurs will agree that some customers value your business more than others. This may be due to the amount of revenue they bring in, their ability to refer new customers to you, the interesting challenges of the business, or another factor. It makes sense to identify these people so you can spend more time with them or at least acknowledge them in some way.

How do you find out which customers have generated the most revenue with you? If you store data in your accounting system, you can run a report to generate the data you need.  In QuickBooks, the report is called the Income by Customer Summary Report.  In Xero, it’s called Income by Contact. If you do not store data in your accounting system, you may be able to generate a report from your billing system, shopping cart, or point-of-sale system.

The reports look like this: each row holds the customer name and the Income column holds total revenue. If your system allows you to sort the revenue field, do this in descending order. If not, you can export the data to Excel and then sort it.

Once you’ve sorted the data, the answer is right in front of you.  Your top customers based on revenue will show in order. These are the people you may want to consider spending more time with. Schedule periodic lunches with them, give them a call on a regular basis, and send them a gift or handwritten thank you note once in a while.  The report helps you organize your connection points so you don’t miss an opportunity to reach out to an important customer.

Run this report on a regular basis so that you’re focused on nurturing the most important relationships in your business. You can also look at trends to see if you’re losing revenue over time or gaining revenue with new customers. You can reach out to customers who are spending less with you to try to save the relationship before it’s too late.  And you can get to know new customers who are growing with you so that you can acquire even more business.

Make this report a regular activity in your business to stay close to what your customers are doing with you.

Having repeat customers is essential to many businesses, and the key to keep customers coming back is to provide them with great service. Here are five ideas to rate your business’s savvy when it comes to serving customers well.

1. Make a great first impression.

When customers make a purchase from you, make them feel great about it by sending them a series of welcoming and onboarding emails. Congratulate them on the purchase, let them know how to get the most out of their new purchase, and encourage them to connect with you on social media and your mailing list. Thank them for their business.

1. Measure response time.

How fast do you answer prospect and customer questions? Social media has changed the game. Customers who reach out via social media platforms, their phones, chat, or messaging apps expect an immediate answer.  Facebook even gives a badge to businesses who respond quickly and consistently.

Not only do businesses need to monitor messages coming in from a record number of places – email, phone, web forms, chat, social media, and more – they need to respond faster than ever.

Without measuring your response time, it’s hard to know how you’re doing, so putting measures in place is the first step to improving this customer service metric.

1. Publish clear policies.

Good service starts with setting clear expectations. Before a customer buys from you, they should be able to know what your return policy is in case something goes wrong. Some of the policies that should clearly be published online as well as at all customer-facing business locations include:

• Returns policy: If the product or service is not as expected, can the customer obtain a refund? Is there a re-stocking fee?  What about shipping?  Cash back vs. store credit?
• Shipping policy: Most people expect free shipping these days. They will want to know what it costs and how long will it take to get the item.
• Terms of service: Are there any limitations to the product? Or legal items that need to be communicated?
• Privacy policy: All customers will be giving you private data. They will want to know if it’s secure, if you share it with anyone, and if you are compliant with laws like GDPR (Europe), the CAN-SPAM act (US), or CASL (Canada).

1. Encourage feedback.

Your best ideas for new products and services can come from your existing customers. Ask for feedback by sending satisfaction surveys and requests for testimonials and reviews. Read what they have to say about your service so that you can make improvements as needed. Respond and thank them for the feedback

1. Check your ego at the door.

As small business owners, sometimes we need to be humble, especially when things go wrong. Be generous with apologies; it will go a long way toward improving relations. If you’re at fault, admit it and make it right.  Even if you’re “right,” find a way to explain so that they feel good about you and your business.

Delivering great customer service can be a huge competitive advantage for your business. How does your business stack up against these five ideas?  Try them, and watch your business grow.

Can you believe that half of 2019 is gone already? That means it’s a great time to take stock of how your business has done for the first half of 2019 so that you can meet your financial goals for the entire year.

On Track for Sales

Are you on track to reach your 2019 revenue and profit numbers?  The first step is to check your 2019 budget numbers for total revenue. (Don’t have a budget? – Check with us; we’d be delighted to discuss planning with you.)

Next, get your Income Statement for June 2019 Year-to-Date and check the revenue figure. Are you on track with your budget, or are you halfway there revenue-wise, accounting for seasonality? If so, pat yourself on the back!  If not, what promotions will you put in place to boost your growth for the rest of 2019?

On Track for Profit

Looking at the same Income Statement, check your net income figure. Are you on track with what you planned?  If so, great!  If not, the reason is simple: it will be either lower sales than expected or higher expenses than expected.

If your expenses are too high, you’ll need to drill down into each of your expense accounts, including cost of goods sold, to see which ones are higher than expected. Were there some unanticipated costs?  Does your pricing need adjusting? Do you need more volume to cover your costs? Do you need to get your costs under control? This is where we can help you with an analysis of where your opportunities are to increase profit.

On Track for Cash

One more place to look is your cash balance. It can be uncomfortable when you are running short of cash for your business. If your balance is lower than you’d like it to be, it could be because of some of the factors mentioned above.  It could also be because you just purchased an asset like a truck.  If you need help with improving your cash flow, that’s another thing we can help you with.

Mid-Year Review

This mid-year review can help you head off any small problems before they grow into big ones throughout the rest of the year. And it can keep you on track so you can meet your 2019 business goals.