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7 Tips for Ensuring Your New Business Is Financially Stable

Starting a business is an ambitious goal. You have to be passionate and disciplined to overcome potential obstacles that may be in your way. Operating a successful business isn’t easy, as noted by the fact that 20% of small businesses are forced to close before the end of their first year. Avoiding debt and maintaining a steady cash flow should be your primary objectives. However, there is a lot more involved in operating a successful business than just those two goals. With that being said, here’s a look at some important tips to ensure that your business remains financially stable over the long haul.

Set Up a Budget

Adhering to a strict budget is one of the easiest ways to secure long-term financial stability. Creating a budget provides structure and enables you to get a clear picture of your assets and liabilities. Utilizing a budget reduces the risk that you’ll be overwhelmed if an emergency occurs. Budgets are generally flexible. Your budget may change over time as your business evolves. Following a budget is one of the best ways to protect your business against potential debt issues.

Don’t Merge Professional and Business Affairs

Many entrepreneurs fail at their initial business ventures because they mixed their professional and personal endeavors together. Merging the different areas of your life together could cause financial complications down the road. It could make lenders weary of offering your business credit. It could also leave your personal assets exposed if your business is involved in a serious liability dispute. Avoid merging your professional and personal affairs together because the end results are never good.

Manage Invoices

Staying on top of your invoices is a great way to maintain financial stability. Many financial advisors recommend invoice factoring. Invoice factoring is an accounts receivable strategy that transitions invoices into cash payments for your business within 90 days. When you send out an invoice, you’re letting your customer know that expect payment as soon as possible. Late payments may strain your cash flow. It’s important to manage invoices every week. If you believe that the upcoming week will be a busy one, you can set up a reminder. Additionally, to aid with the streamlining of business processes, it may be beneficial to consider incorporating NDIS invoicing software to manage your finances. Efficiency is key, and by utilising tools like NDIS software, you can rest assured that your financial stability will be well managed.

Install A Good Bookkeeping System

Keeping your accounts in order helps alleviate a lot of potential stress. A strong bookkeeping system manages all of your accounts, payment records, payables, and account receivables. You can rely on your bookkeeping system to regulate your business processes, which in turn allows you to operate your business more efficiently.

Establish A Loyal Customer Base

Having a strong customer base is significant because it can help keep you afloat during rough patches. Providing quality service will keep your customers satisfied and ensures that they will continue to support your brand. Providing excellent customer service is important. Establishing a loyal customer base can also help you grow your business because they could potentially offer recommendations to new customers, so they will be excited to try your services. Customer networking can help your outreach expand and ensure that your business continues to grow well into the future.

Minimize Debt

Accumulating large amounts of debt in the early stages of your business will likely have disastrous results. Try to minimize debt as much as possible. Once you have a clear idea of which products are profitable, try to implement them as much as possible. Promoting your featured services will stimulate sales growth and allow you to start paying back your debt in a timely manner.

Stay On Top Of Your Taxes

Many small businesses suffer severe damage during tax season because they find out that they owe a lot more money than they projected. Keep in mind that the IRS can audit your tax return within the last three years that you’ve filed. They can also collect back taxes going back as far as 10 years ago. It’s recommended that you hire a strong financial analyst to handle your tax situation. The IRS does offer some flexibility regarding paying back taxes, though interest may accumulate.

Operating a business can be overwhelming at times. Relying on these tips can help minimize stress and ensure that your business continues to thrive in the coming years.

Celebrating on a budget

by Hope

Our got to “celebration” has always been to go out to eat. It’s something that was done in my family growing up and it continued when I got married and began having kids. We celebrate birthdays with a meal out at the birthday day kid’s choice of restaurant. Great income month, let’s get steak. You get the point.

I don’t know if it’s this new stage in life where I love my home and my kitchen. (Your kitchen’s design and appliances really do make a difference in the joy it brings when cooking. I LOVE my gas stove!) Or if the continued loss of my hearing, makes being out more and more uncomfortable. Or maybe, it’s that I’m becoming such a good cook that I don’t want to eat others food…nope, it’s definitely not that. But I have been looking at other ways we could celebrate.

And the one I’ve landed on is making our meals together a bit more special…This lets us celebrate more often too.

Making meal times special on a budget

Here’s my on a budget ways I have upped the anty with our at home meals.

Cloth napkins – they just feel luxurious. I have friends who use wash cloths to make them cost effective and be more green. When all the kids were at home, I would not have attempted to use cloth, paper towels or traditional napkins it was. But now that our full get togethers are few and far between, I love having a set of cloth napkins.
Pour the wine & use wine glasses – nope, I still don’t drink. But Princess and I picked up some dollar store glass wine glasses and I keep a few bottles of sparkling juice on hand for those fun occasions when we can toast and celebrate together.
Dessert – yes, coming right up. Cakes and ice cream can add up quickly. I’ve started keeping some of the muffin mixes on hand. I can uplevel them with a few ingredients…extra egg, butter instead of oil, an extra dash of vanilla or cinnamon and then mix together some quick cream cheese frosting. I find the small muffin mix pouches on special 4 for $5. So I can literally whip up a yummy, cost effective dessert for a few people for just a few dollars and in less than 30 minutes.
Mood lighting – there is nothing that sets a mood more than lighting. And we go both directions…when we are just having a chill night, a quiet celebration, I pull out of my candles and light them up all over the place. Since I don’t use them very often, candles literally last me a whole year. Since we are typically a loud, music blaring kind of crew, we have strung up the outdoor lights we invested in during quarantine (when we turned our carport into a hang out spot) around the back deck/hot tub area. We get Siri to play the music from someone’s phone, open both the back doors and have all the lights on. It makes it immediately festive around here.

We are on the cusp of a lot of loss around here. And I refuse to focus on it. So turning meal times into celebrations is one way I am coping. Cherishing every moment I get with the ones I love.

We couldn’t have a meal with my grandmother on her 95th birthday this week, but we did go visit her in her assisted living facility while Princess was home visiting from college.

Hope

Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.