Managing Cash Flow for Entrepreneurs

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HOW TO MANAGE HOME-BUSINESS CASH FLOW EFFECTIVELY

There’s something you can never afford to forget when you are running a
business out of your home — cash is king!

Whether it is a multi-billion dollar empire, such as Bill Gates’ Microsoft,
or the tiny mom-and-pop convenience store on the street corner, cash is the
life blood of the business.

In today’s uncertain economy with ever rising interest rates, many small
businesses with limited financial training are having problems staying
alive, let alone prospering. In fact, 63% of new businesses don’t survive
six years — and most work-at-home people fail within 6 months!

The primary reason is bad cash management. To many self-employed people
neglect their cash flow until it is too late to recover. Suddenly, presto!
it ‘s back to your office job! We don’t want that to happen.

So the big question is: will you be able to manage your cash flow
effectively? If you are not sure, then you are on shaky ground.

Les Masonson, author of Cash, Cash, Cash: The Three Principles of Business
Survival and Success, says cash flow is all about, “getting the money from
customers sooner, paying bills at the last possible moment, concentrating
money to a single bank account, managing accounts payable, accounts
receivable and inventory more effectively, and squeezing every penny out of
your daily business.”

Let’s break down Masonson’s tips one at a time.

FAST COLLECTION

In your business, you should collect money as fast as you can. To do so,
try these four things:

(1) Try to speed up customer orders by having them fax their orders to you.

(2) Send out your invoices the same day goods are shipped, not a week or
two later.

(3) Indicate on your invoice when payment is due, and specify the penalty
interest for late payment.

(4)Consider using a bank lock box (post office box strategically located
near customers to reduce mail time) to collect your mailed checks from
customers across the country. You lockbox bank picks up mail around the
clock including weekends, processes the checks and credits your account.
(Note: this last step is probably more appropriate for businesses grossing
more than $25 million annually. You may not be there yet, but keep it in
mind for when you get there)!

DEPOSIT CHECKS FAST!

This seems only obvious, but it’s extremely important. In fact, here are
Masonson’s six sure-fire suggestions for getting the fastest availability
on deposited checks.

(1) Always deposit checks the same day they are received. Don;t hold
checks until the next day because you lose one day’s float. Key point: you
can lose three days of float by not depositing Friday’s checks until
Monday.

(2) Obtain availability of 0 to 2 days on deposited checks. Don’t let
your bank give you the customer availability of 1 to 5 days. Be
persistent. Ask the bank for its “availability schedule” and scan it to be
sure you’re receiving fast availability of two days or less.

Each bank has its own availability schedule. This is used to assign check
availability to consumers, business (commercial accounts), and large
corporate accounts. Availability is the number of days until you can use
the money deposited by check as cash. For example, a $1,000 check
deposited today and assigned a one-day availability can be withdrawn as
cash tomorrow.

(3) Don’t deposit checks in a bank’s Automated Teller Machine or use the
Night Depository since you have no evidence that you actually deposited the
checks you said you did. Remember, you only receive a receipt that shows
the time and dollar amount on the deposit at the ATM, and you get no
receipt at the Night Depositor.

(4) MICR encode your customer’s checks (using a machine that prints
magnetic ink on the bottom of the check) with the dollar amount before
depositing them in the bank if you deposit more than 500 checks per month.
Banks charge 3 to 5 cents less for each encoded check. Used encoded
machines cost about $1,500. (Check your Yellow Pages under bank equipment
for dealers). Besides saving money, you may get another benefit: faster
check availability.

(5) Ask you bank about its deadline for receiving availability on deposited
checks. Some banks may require a deposit of an encoded check by 2 p.m.,
even though the bank is open to 5 p.m. Make sure you make this deadline,
otherwise you lose one day’s float.

(6) Before using a bank’s ATM for check deposits, find out the bank’s
availability deadline. Some banks have a 12 noon cut-off time which means
that any checks deposited later are considered to be deposited the next
day! In that case, you lose an entire day’s float, even though you did
your bit to get the checks cashed.

HAVE A SUPER TIGHT ACCOUNTS
RECEIVABLE POLICY

Many people think it is no big deal to neglect accounts receivable until
bills are collectible. This is bad cash flow policy. Here are seven
excellent tips for handling accounts receivable:

(1) Check the financial health of a new customer before offering them
credit. One way of doing this is by using a rating service, such as Dun &
Bradstreet (1-800-234-3867).

(2) Ask a new customer for five business references and don’t neglect to
call them.

(3) Don’t offer too generous discounts, such as 3% for payment in 10 days.
A better rate is 1.5% cash discount. It costs you less.

(4) Charge a “late fee” of 2% per month to customers who pay late and
charge back customers who take discounts after the discount periods.

(5) Follow up on late payers with phone calls and letters. These may seem
a bit extreme, but the first letter should go out the very day the amount
is one day late! After 30 days late, start this sequence:

— send out a letter from your attorney
–turn over the account to a collection agency
–use a collection attorney

(6) Don’t send out new merchandise if bills remain unpaid. Remember that
bad debts hurt your bottom line! Be vigilant and try to get at least
periodic payments from slow payers.

(7) Instruct your bank to automatically deposit “returned checks.” Ask
your bank if they offer Return Item box service. If they do, then use it
to redeposit your check and charge back the bank return item free to your
customer.

These seven steps are tough and unrelenting, but they may make the
difference between a positive cash flow month and a sluggish month for your
business.
It may seem a bit hypocritical to demand swift and exacting payment, and
then do what we suggest next. But just remind yourself, all (almost) is
fair in love and war and business.

DISBURSE YOUR MONEY SLOWLY

Just the opposite of collecting at the earliest possible moment, you should
never pay a day sooner than you have to, unless you get a discount for
doing so. A lot of people believe in staying ahead of bills and paying
them as early as possible, but that’s just poor cash management. You want
to keep your money in your hands as long as you can. Here are five
suggestions to slow down your disbursements:

(1) Pay your invoices on the last day they’re due, not before.

(2) try to mail your payment on Thursday or Friday to pick up a few extra
days mail float over the weekend.

(3) Use business credit cards for travel, lodging, meals, and small
expenses for yourself and your employees. With credit cards you typically
don;t have to make payment until 25 days after receiving the statement.
Use this float by investing the money. In total, you can typically keep
your money invested for 45 days from date of purchase.

(4) Don’t issue advances to employees. Have them use their personal credit
cards or business cards, if you provide them

(5) Consider setting up a remote disbursement checking account in another
state to extend the check clearing float by at least a day. This practice
is used very successfully by 17% of large companies. The downside of this
practice is that some vendors may complain about their delayed availability
on their bank deposit. But this can be overcome by mailing them their
checks one day earlier.

Now, many small businesses neglect to reconcile their monthly bank
statements or assume that the bank never makes a mistake. Banks do make
mistakes, and you must stay on top of your disbursement to control your
cash flow. If you are one of those people who simply can’t stand to
balance you check book, you can use a bank’s standard account reconcilement
services for a low monthly price — $30 to $70 base charge and 5 to 7
cents a check. When is it best to use a bank’s reconcilement service?
Here are six suggestions:

(1) When you have a monthly check volume of at least 500 checks.

(2) When you need specialized reports.

(3) When you are currently performing your own reconcilement.

(4) You can find software at a reasonable price that meets your needs.
Companies offering accounting software include DacEasy, Inc.
(800-877-8088); Real world Corp (800-678-6336) and Peachtree
(800-247-3224).

(5) When you don’t have your own PC or any other kind of computer system.
(We already warned you about that).

(6) When you have no staff to do it, or time to do it yourself.

NO EXTRA MONEY IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT

Many businesses make the mistake of keeping too much money in their bank
accounts to pay for bank services. This money could be used more
effectively elsewhere — such as to pay off a loan or to invest at a more
competitive rate. Many businesses have no idea how much money to leave in
the bank or what alternatives they have to compensate the bank. Take some
time to find out what your minimum balance needs to be.

GET AN ACCOUNT ANALYSIS STATEMENT

How do you know how much money (bankers refer to this as “balances”) to
leave in your checking account to pay for bank’s services? That’s a
question that more business owners should be asking themselves.

(1) First, get a price list which shows how much your bank charges for
services like account maintenance, checks deposited, checks paid, stop
payments and wire transfers.

(2) Ask the bank to send you a monthly “Account Analysis Statement.” The
analysis statement contains the average balance levels for the month —
both the ledger and the available balance — as well as a listing of
services used, their transaction volumes and cost. This statement should
be obtained in addition to the regular monthly bank statement.

(3) Look at the account analysis to see whether you are overcompensating
the bank. Then pull out any excess funds and invest them in a
high-yielding money market mutual fund, for example.

A word of advice: Smaller banks may not know what you are talking about
when you ask for an account analysis. Larger banks often offer such a
statement, but you have to ask for it. And don’t let them charge you for
this kind of statement since it is only an invoice.

INVENTORY IS NOT CASH

Every item you have sitting on your shelf should eventually be transformed
into cash in your bank account, and the sooner the better. As long as it’s
inventory, it’s basically dead weight. If it is not moving, you’re not
having cash flow.

Here are six recommendations to minimize the cost of your inventory:

(1) Attempt to forecast as accurately as you can the day, week and month
what you expect to sell.

(2) If you are dealing in more than one item, determine which item accounts
for 80% of your sales. Then minimize ordering other items that are selling
poorly or infrequently.

(3) Determine how fast you can get inventory, once you order it. Try to
order as late as you can. Some firms can use “just-in-time” inventory
which enables them to receive their order the day they need it.

(4) Determine your economic order quantity and don’t order too much
inventory just to save a few pennies.

(5) Shop around and make sure you are getting competitive prices.

(6) Develop a policy for determining what is obsolete inventory, and how
you can get rid of it. The best way to get rid of dead inventory is to
sell it whatever you can get for it, even if that’s only 10 percent of what
you paid for it. At least it will generate cash flow.

DON’T FORGET CONTINUITY SALES

Once of the most exceptional ways of controlling and improving cash flow
well into the future is by employing something called continuity of sales
or services.

Continuity sales are simply a contract to purchase products or services on
an installment basis for a fixed period of time.

That may sound complicated, but in practice, it actually is not. The best
example of a continuity sale is a magazine subscription. 12, 24, or 36
issues delivered each month for X amount of dollars. The bigger the
subscription, they better deal you get. The publisher gets more money up
front, and the customer gets a better deal in the long run.

Continuity can apply to anything.

Let’s say you own a dry cleaning business. How about an annual deal to
clean 5 shirts or blouses per week for set amount of money? Get people to
pay your for the entire week up front for a lot of fast cash flow. You’ll
trade a discount for getting business, but you’ll ensure a steady cash flow
for months to come.

Continuity works with just about any kind of product or service you are
offering, from dry cleaning to to your personal consulting service.

You can structure payments for continuity sales on almost any basis, but
it’s best by far to go for complete payment up front. After all, the
discount is based on a customer’s commitment, and they’ll be a lot more
committed with their money on the line.

LICENSING AGREEMENTS

After all is said and done, if you were to list the assets of the company
you have created, you’d probably include your inventory, equipment,
accounts receivable, equity, and so on.

But by this time, especially if you have been reading carefully, you have
something more — something that is not necessarily a physical “thing” such
as cash or inventory.

If you’ve been a clever business person, you have come up with certain ads
that have outpulled your competitors. You have developed policies and
procedures that have kept your returns and refunds the lowest of any
around. Or you may have come up with a money-making technique that is
completely unique. If so, you are potentially sitting on fast source of
cash.

You can license the rights to use any of your specialized techniques or
assets to other non-competitive businesses. You can do it for a flat fee,
a percentage of profits, on a royalty basis, or any other way that makes
sense to you. You can also conduct seminars to teach your techniques to
other would-be work-at-home entrepreneurs and charge whatever the market
will bear. It’s easy to generate an extra $5,000 a month and much more on
the lecture circuit. While you are getting paid to spread your knowledge,
you will be drumming up more business.

The knowledge you have in your head right now could very well be worth a
lot of money. It’s only a matter of you looking within yourself and at
your successes to see how you can transform it all into real, hard cash.

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