For many new business owners, managing finances properly is often one of the most important and difficult aspects of running their business. Not only can finances sometimes be complicated, but managing them improperly can cause lots of issues for a small business, no matter how successful it is or how much profit is coming in. If you’re looking for ways to help ensure that you are looking after your finances properly in the early stages of your business, here are some things to think about.
Do Your Research
Before you even begin to build a business, you should do plenty of research. If you have already got your business off the ground and going, that still doesn’t mean that it’s too late to start studying. While doing enough research for all areas of your business is key to being successful, this can be particularly true of your finances, and particularly how they relate to your business structure. While in initial stages of planning, it is key to understand exactly what your financial needs will be, that way you can get the kind of financing that is best for you.
Beyond that, it is also beneficial to make sure that you are familiar with many basic financial terms and that you fully understand how cash will be flowing in and out of your business. You should also take some time to learn about new tools like a general ledger or payroll software that can help streamline processes in your business and ensure that tasks are completed accurately.
Consider Your Financing Options Carefully
While doing your research about finances in general and how the finances will work at your business, you should also be taking steps to better understand your financing options and what they would entail for your business. Many new businesses struggle simply because they did not choose the right financing for them and their goals. For a small business, sometimes a traditional loan can be great, but in other cases the large monthly payments can drag them down and prevent them from stimulating the right kind of business growth.
Other small businesses may not get enough funding, and therefore could find themselves struggling to get by and make the basic payments, like utilities and payroll that they need to to keep afloat. The more research you can do to understand exactly how much money you will need to keep your business running properly during its early stages, the more likely you will be to get the optimal amount of funding for your business and your goals.
Stay Organized
Staying organized is another key part of taking care of your business’s financial health. While some may not realize it, even being just slightly disorganized can cost your business precious funds in the long run. Over time, small mistakes and inaccuracies can add up, and a few missing dollars here or there can end up being highly detrimental. Not only that, but if your business is disorganized, then you are more likely to miss payments on bills, get charged late fees, get charged fees that you shouldn’t be, and simply not notice when your books are not adding up. The more that you can stay organized, the more that you can catch small things before they turn into big ones, and save your business money.
Think Long Term
Something else that is important when it comes to the finances of a new and growing business is your perspective as a business owner. In so many new businesses, the focus is all on survival and getting the business through the next month in one piece. While it is important to focus on what needs to be focused on to keep things going from day to day, when this is the primary direction that your attention goes, it can be hard to think about the bigger picture. Even though this can be understandable, the reality is that it can be detrimental to your business in the long run.
When you are thinking about what is going on from day to day and not about where you ultimately want your business to head, it can change the way that you approach decision making, and could even lead you to make decisions that might get you through the next month, but that don’t support your growth long term. By taking time to create meaningful goals for your company and check in with your progress towards them from time to time, you can help keep your focus on what is important, and ensure that you are making the right choices for your business.
Look After Your Credit Score
With all the things there are to think about when you are running a business, your credit score may not be at the top of your list. That doesn’t mean, though, that it isn’t important. Your business’s credit score may be low initially as you are getting started out, and this may not be a big deal in the early stages of growth. However, as things progress, if you find yourself needing loans or new types of funding, your credit score can become important. By making sure that you check your credit score from time to time and take steps to keep it healthy, you can help ensure that you have more financial options for your business in the future.
Stick To a Tight Budget
Your budget is important, especially when you are just starting out. While there are many ways to approach creating a budget for a new business, the more strict you can be with yourself initially, the better. One way to come up with a tight budget for your company is to make a budget that you think will comfortably cover everything you need, and then cut it in half.
While this may seem extreme to some, the reality is that it can be a great way for you to rethink the way you look at your finances. Not only will running on a tight budget save you a lot of money, but it will force you to reassess what you truly need to be spending money on, and what you don’t. Beyond that it will lead you to find more creative solutions to your problems, rather than just spending money on things. This can be a great thing to be able to do, not just when it comes to finances, but in other areas of business as well.
Save and Invest
Once your business has gotten past the survival stage and you are able to begin saving some funds, it is important to start thinking about the next steps for your business, and whether you want to continue to save funds, or take steps to expand. Additionally, making sound investments during this time can be a great way to prepare for your company’s future.
The Bottom Line
There are a lot of things that can be challenging about starting and running a business, and for many new business owners the financial aspects are some of the most difficult ones to manage. That doesn’t mean, though, that you should feel overwhelmed. By taking your time, doing your research, staying organized and considering your long term goals it can be easy to take charge of your finances and make sure that your business has the best future possible.
