With the business market more competitive and fast-moving than ever, it can become very easy for unexpected holes to open up within your budget planning and the implementation of your corporate strategy. When such financial setbacks occur, there are things you can do to help overcome these challenges and maintain your position in the market.
Cash Flow
Plan when and where your cash will be coming from for the next quarter, to ensure you have contingencies in place for more pressing payments. If you are struggling to pay those prioritized, finding alternative lenders could be the boost you need to get you out of this cash slump. Getting a short term loan, to get your feet back on the ground can provide some support and stability to the company’s financial structure whilst you work all your efforts on making improvements to prevent this situation from reoccurring. Leading short term loan provider, Cash Stop, believe that “Making the effort to borrow cash before you desperately need it, while staying disciplined how you use it, can help manage your stability, put you in a greater position emotionally and help make better decisions.” – Steve Jacob, General Manager, Cash Stop.
Organise and prioritize payments
Differentiate between the essential and less important costs over the next quarter, this will allow you to project where you need to be injecting your cash flow. Start by cutting any unnecessary expenses eating into your budget, these are key issues to business’ routinely overspending as you will be surprised at how much you are spending on operations when you take a closer look. Revise ways that you can be more cost savvy with expenditure whether it is looking at more efficient, low cost transportation, delaying replacements of equipment or requesting extensions from your suppliers until you have turned your financial instability around.
Crisis Management – Communications
Transparency is incremental to the success of your ongoing market position. Your customers and investors will all need to be in the know, so make sure that a communications plan is in place to roll out so that your target market are getting the correct information rather than being misinformed with hear say from the media.
Audit, Re-Organise & Adjust
To rebuild your company, you may need to shift things around in order to make your team and operations stronger. Your staff and operations may not be as effective as they could be as a result of following old processes or lacking skills that are required for today’s business market. Have a professional come in to audit, and work with you to re-organize your business, inclusive of its business plan. What worked for you in the last three years, may not have worked for you this year. If you do not adapt to a world with industries, competitors, and channels of communications that are transforming all the time, your revenue stream is going to decline rapidly.
Focus on retaining & boosting customers
The best way to get yourself out of a financial struggle is a nice injection to your cash inflow. Analysing your current marketing and sales strategy to implement new strategies for boosting conversion will have a very positive effect on your revenue stream. Meanwhile, make sure to collect any outstanding payments owed to you. Cash could very likely be hiding in your accounts receivable without your knowledge and the importance of this cash boost is incremental.
So don’t panic as financial instability is something that many business’ experiences, however once through the troublesome phase, implement some cash flow forecasting strategies that will help you monitor financial progress more effectively to prevent this problem from reoccurring. Furthermore, have pre-planned contingencies in place so that you can combat any financial downfalls efficiently and effectively in the future.
