e-lifeandwork: Learn New Skills Online | Online Courses & Real-World

As a small business owner, you often wear many hats when first launching your company, including that of chief financial officer. At the root of controlling your business’s finances, you need to understand how cash flows in and out daily, weekly and monthly.  While managing your business’s finances entails much more than understanding your cash flow, it’s a great place to start assessing your business’s financial standings. Read on to learn about cash flow, including the seven most common cash flow problems small businesses experience and how best to solve them. What is cash flow? Cash flow refers to the intake and output of money within a business. It encompasses all the revenues and expenses of a company at a given moment in time. Cash flow management is planning your inflows and outflows accordingly to ensure your business always has cash reserves. The best accounting software can help business owners keep track of their cash flow and other financial metrics. [Learn mor...

As a possible recession looms, small businesses may be wondering what they can do to be successful in yet another uncertain time. Moving forward, there are three key areas of a business — employees, cash flow and operations — to focus on for the company’s long-term health. See how your small business can succeed during a recession. How To Stay Staffed Brian Trzcinski, director of business market development with MassMutual, said business owners have to figure out ways to maintain staffing in a recession. Coming out of the pandemic, staffing issues were the No. 1 business concern. This is both in terms of losing staff and the ability to rehire staff. Many businesses, already running leaner than they’d like to be, must be able to attract and retain top talent when cash flow is tight. How can they do it? Trzcinski recommends offering intangible perks, such as flexible scheduling that allows employees to take time off or work remotely. It is essential for businesses to not...

While the big money on Wall Street is preparing for a mild recession, Memphis experts agree, we all should be doing the same. MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Americans are feeling the challenges of inflation as many work to navigate skyrocketing prices at the pump and the grocery store. The financial stretch is even sending many families to food banks to make ends meet. According to a new report from ABC News, Wall Street is betting on a recession sometime within the next 12 to 18 months. While Wall Street is preparing for a mild recession, 901 Economics President Dr. John Gnuschke says we all should be doing the same. "Most people are afraid of inflation. They ought to be afraid of a recession,” said Gnuschke. “The recession is going to impact people more than the price of gas. If you're unemployed, you can't buy gas." This hasn't happened in years. Our country's last recession started in 2007 and lasted until 2009, also known as ‘The Great Recession.’ Accordin...

Some people say you need to spend money to make money, and while spending money on big marketing campaigns can certainly help businesses, it isn't the only way. There are plenty of alternative ways to grow your business without breaking the bank. With some smart planning and creative strategizing, you can increase your sales and grow your customer base without spending much—if anything—at all. Below, 12 members of Forbes Business Council share some of the best free and low-budget strategies they know to increase business cash flow. Members of Forbes Business Council share strategies for increasing business cash flow. 1. Automate Payment Collections Automating your payment collections. If you typically use an invoicing system to bill clients and have to wait for payment, you may consider setting up automatic payments, such as recurring ACH or credit card transfers. Additionally, if you typically bill in arrears after work has been performed, changing to requiring either ...

Speaker 1: (00:00) Prices at the gas pump and the supermarket are bringing home the big headlines about inflation and those headlines have been screaming about the highest inflation rate in 30 years, a 6.2% jump in the consumer price index and price hikes are even higher on individual items like gas, groceries, and automobiles. The truth is right now, many Americans have more buying power than there are goods to buy. So inflation, the question is, did bad policies create that situation? And can it be turned around any time soon? Johnny is Alan gin, economics professor at the university of San Diego and professor gin. Welcome to the program. Thanks for having me. Where are San Diego and seeing the biggest consumer price increases Speaker 2: (00:48) Food at home is up, uh, nationally, uh, over 5%. Um, if, if you're looking at the individual components of that index in particular, what I would call the proteins have been up considerably. So in the category, meat, poultry, fi...

Small business owners calculating their monthly cashflow. In a meeting last week, a successful serial entrepreneur, who wants to shift to becoming a full-time investor, remarked that they were going back to school to get an MBA at the age of 45. I asked, why? The answer was surprising to me. Even though this entrepreneur had built several companies (north of $50 million in annual revenue) they felt inadequate as a potential investor. Specifically, they cited an inability to read company financial statements, including a balance sheet, etc. in order to determine a company’s health and value. This made me stop and think. How many other entrepreneurs or small business owners really understand how to read and utilize financial statements or even critical finance metrics in order to determine a company’s health and financial worth? In my career of building a $1 billion company and managing four company turnarounds, I found the following financial metrics below to be invaluab...

When it comes to working capital, every rand is a soldier. Meaning that every cent you spend needs to go to battle for you and work as hard as it possibly can. Dov Girnun, founder and CEO of alternative finance provider, Merchant Capital, says that many small businesses are changing their day-to-day behaviours in order to leverage working capital effectively across their business, making them top performers in their respective industries. “Putting some fundamentals in place gives your company the best chance of unlocking the most working capital, but it also requires discipline and implementing behavioural change at a company culture level.” SA retail sales jump 95.8% in April Stats SA reports that South Africa's retail trade sales retail trade sales increased by 95.8% year on year in April 2021... 17 Jun 2021 Below, Girnun outlines the four key strategies that can help your business maximise working capital and make the most of this ripe retail trajectory. 1. Inv...

The cash flow statement and the income statement are integral parts of a corporate balance sheet. The cash flow statement or statement of cash flows measures the sources of a company's cash and its uses of cash over a specific period of time. The income statement measures a company's financial performance, such as revenues, expenses, profits, or losses over a specific period of time. This financial document is sometimes called a statement of financial performance. An income statement shows whether a company made a profit, and a cash flow statement shows whether a company generated cash. Key Takeaways +The cash flow statement and the income statement, along with the balance sheet, are the three main financial statements. The cash flow statement and income statement integrate with the corporate balance sheet. +The cash flow statement is linked to the income statement by net profit or net loss, which is usually the first line item of a cash flow statement, used to ca...

Cash flow is the movement of money in and out of your business and your business bank account. Think of cash flow like your car’s gas tank. You fill up the tank with gas, and it empties as you drive. The goal, however, is to have enough gas in your tank so that you never run on empty. In the same way, cash flow is the movement of cash in and out of your business account. Cash inflows are your sources of income. Cash outflows are your business expenses. Naturally, positive cash flow is better than negative cash flow. Why being cash flow positive is important to your business Positive cash flow should be the goal for all small business owners. You want to generate more money than you’re spending. That sounds simple, but plenty of profitable businesses run into cash flow problems. It can be challenging to balance regular business expenses—salaries, rent, technology updates, etc.—with things less under your control. Think sporadic revenue and periods of negative...

January 18, 2021 5 min read  Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.  This is the fourth in a series of original columns for Entrepreneur.com by Laura D. Adams that will publish two Mondays a month. And don't forget to purchase a copy of Adams' latest book for Entrepreneur Press, Money-Smart Solopreneur: A Personal Finance System for Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, and Side-Hustlers, via Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | IndieBound. If you're like most, you're ready for a new year with fewer challenges to your health and wealth than 2020 presented. While this post won't help you avoid Covid or shed any of that unwanted quarantine weight, it will give you essential tips to refocus your financial goals.  Even if you don't care for annual "resolutions," the new year is a perfect time to reflect on the past, analyze the present and dream about ...

With the economy being as uncertain as it is today, it’s no wonder that a lot of business owners are looking for ways to improve cash flow for their companies.  Here are a few tips that you can use to manage and track the money that flows in and out of your business:  1. Factoring Invoices  Invoice factoring is an innovative, business-friendly alternative to traditional bank-backed financing methods. It gives your small business immediate access to the working capital you require, without debt to pay or any other strings attached.   Take a look at the following factoring benefits:  Save Time And Money: When you’re factoring invoices, a private factoring company purchases your pending invoices, or invoices that haven’t been paid yet by your customers. The factoring company pays a percentage of the total receivable amount, and takes on the burden of collecting payment from your customers. This saves your business significant time and money that you would’ve...