Simple Ways to Increase Your Cash Flow In Your Business

Not having enough income and revenue in business can be both frustrating and stressful. If you have a lot of responsibilities and are unable to keep them due to lack of finances, or you find yourself using your credit card or lines of credit to keep up appearances, this is going to affect your mental health.

Financial woes are one of the great contributors to stress, and too much stress is extremely damaging to the mind and body. Indeed, it's really not pushing it to say that by sorting out your finances and making your money go further, you will become healthier as a result. Remember that what you have is far less important than what you do with it. 

Be Realistic

A lot of money problems begin with people living up to unrealistic lifestyle choices. This can manifest in many ways from the home you rent, the car you drive, the stories you shop in, the places you eat out, etc. Being realistic does not mean you have to cut out everything you like, but it does mean you have to learn to live within your means.

One of the simplest things is to look for ways to decrease your overhead. Shopping at budget foods stores over high-end ones, or use the second-hand, buy and sell marketplace when you need to make a large purchase. You never know what is out there. It also entails you being aware of your spending and stopping all the unnecessary purchases, like at the local convenience store. The more small changes you can make, the more money you will have in the bank at the end of the month.

Chop and Change 

One of the best things you can do is to chop and change your supplier for utilities and insurance. If you are not one for researching the cheapest rates, then you are probably missing out. Go online and compare your gas and electric, insurance, and even compare credit for a better deal. It is also wise to check out your direct debits and cancel everything that is no longer relevant. So, many people pay gym memberships for a gym that they never go to. Don’t be one of these people. 

Invest your Money and Assets

If you have a bit of extra revenue just sitting in a savings account, then it is very likely that you could be making better use of your money in some investment scheme. Interest on savings is in no way comparable to the potential earnings from wise investment choices. Getting into investments is also a great hobby, and can teach you a lot about the business world and markets.

When it comes to investing, maybe it is a good idea to discuss with a financial advisor, although it is perfectly possible to do it on your own. All you need for the stock market is a share account that you can open at the bank. Remember you are investing in companies, not a graph, so investigate the companies that interest you and work out of they are suitable for along-term investment, for example. It is always a good idea to diversity on the stock market and fully understands what you are getting into.

3 Ways To Reduce Costs In Your E-Commerce Business

As with any business or startup venture, your chances of survivability will increase year-over-year if you make a profit. You can increase your profits by attracting more customers to your business, and by raising the prices on some of your products. You can also increase your profit margin by finding ways to reduce overall costs. With an E-commerce business, you can save money in the following ways. Here are some of the top ways.

#1: Reduce delivery costs to increase your profit margin

In your business, you will need to pay delivery costs on the supplies you buy for your business, and delivery costs for the items you ship to your customers. 

You can save money by researching freight companies and taking note of the fees they charge per delivery. You can also save money during the shipping process by opting for 'full truckload freight shipping.' This is where you ship your orders in bulk instead of relying on several smaller shipments. Especially when you have a lot of orders for one particular town or city, this can be cost-effective. 

Go online to compare truck freight rates and research cheaper delivery options. 

#2: Negotiate with your suppliers for better prices (especially if you purchase volume amounts)

After building up a professional relationship with your suppliers, they might be willing to offer you a discount on the products you buy from them. Many will also offer you a discount if you up your order amount and buy in bulk. 

Of course, if you do buy in bulk, you will need sufficient storage space, so factor this into the equation. If putting items in storage puts you at a loss, you might want to work out another way to save money with your supply company. You might want to let them know about cheaper suppliers you have found elsewhere, for example, as they might then be willing to lower their prices to keep you as a customer. You might also want to change suppliers if a deal can't be made as it obviously makes more sense to go elsewhere if you can get what you need at a cheaper price. 

#3: Call your credit card processor to see if they will reduce processing fees

If you have been doing business with your credit card processor for a long time, they might be willing to nix some of its fees. Some fees will be non-negotiable, including those that have been handed down by MasterCard and Visa. However, some fees are set by the processor, including annual fees and online reporting fees, and these could be negotiated or eliminated. 

So, pick up the phone and speak to them. Like your supplier, they want to keep their customers, so don't be afraid to ask. If they turn you down, threaten to leave them, as they might change their mind in an effort to retain your custom. Alternatively, move to a new credit card processor when your current contract is about to end if you can find a better deal elsewhere.

The more money you can save the better, so consider our suggestions. Then look online for other ways to reduce costs in your E-commerce business, as you will be able to increase your profits and grow your business if you do.

What Makes a Business Attractive to Investors?

Cracking the investor/VC code is tough, but once you understand the formula, you’ll be able to present and pitch your business idea and funding needs to any investor group with ease and confidence.

Whether you’re founding a start-up or manning an existing company looking to grow its product line or service suite with an injection of capital, it is important to understand which elements of a business are attractive to investors. Putting any money into a company is a huge decision for somebody to make, so investors need to be sure that they are making the right choice by providing your company with capital to grow. Raising money is very rarely quick and easy, but if you make sure you’re attractive to investors, your chance of successfully fundraising will increase.

The Right Expertise and Experience – Board of Directors and Founder 

Surrounding yourself with great people who have expertise and experience in your field is a sure-fire way of inducing investor trust. You should make sure that you have a board of advisors that can offer genuine advice and guidance, and can use their experience to help you avoid making mistakes that could cost investors their capital. A diverse board made up of specialists in different areas is the best to build investor trust. They want to reduce risk, so having a solid team of experienced mentors, co-founders, partners, and advisors is a great way to put investors at ease. 

When I served on the board of directors for a New York City modeling agency, each person on the board had their own experience and expertise to provide guidance for the agency to grow. My role was to serve as the communications and public relations expert, while there were seven other members who served in the areas of finance, strategy, operations, marketing, etc. Our knowledge and expertise rounded out the board.

Unless you are an obviously remarkable and mesmerizing person, you should have some credentials if you are the sole founder of a company. These credentials could be a few years working in the field, but it is important to demonstrate that you have a business mind as well. MBAs are a good sign for any investor looking into a founder. If you don’t have a qualification such as an MBA, you might want to consider doing an online course or an entire online program. Expect the fundraising process to take between one and two years, which fits in with the timing of a part-time online MBA from Victoria University, that offer a unique course that’s faster than on-campus study. Individual courses in marketing, finance, and strategy can also help provide the education you need to attract investors. 

Identifying the Problem and Fixing It Quickly 

The stereotypical pitch deck lays out a problem before explaining how the proposed business is the solution to that problem, but a few slides is not enough to instill investor confidence. You need to know the problem inside out, better than the solution that you are offering. This should come naturally with the months of research that it takes to prepare a business pitch, but if you can’t answer unbelievably niche questions about the problem, you probably aren’t ready to be looking for investment.

The pitch decks we develop contain the following slides: vision and value proposition, the problem, the target market and growth opportunities, the solution, revenue generation and business model, verification from market and blueprint for future growth, marketing and sales, team bios, financial projections, competitors, and fund allocation. Some investor/investment groups request figures be given as visuals, while others are fine looking at the numbers alone. Know what your investors want so you can provide them with the details in the stated format they request.

Don’t Leave Marketing as an Afterthought 

Since Ries and Trout wrote the book Positioning, marketing has never been the same. You need to show investors that you understand the concept of positioning your business and have a clear position in the market or that there’s a demand for what you want to offer. You should be aware that you need to have identified a market niche that you can occupy and dominate, but in order to successfully do so, you should have a clear marketing strategy that outlines your positioning. 

The marketing strategy doesn’t need to be 100 pages long; but rather it should outline exactly who your market is, how your product or service will fill the market gap, the strategies you plan to implement, how much revenue you will allocate to marketing, and how you will measure the effectiveness of each campaign. Once you have those details outlined, you can add them to the pitch deck as bullet points with illustrations (i.e., charts and graphs).

Demonstrate That You are Lean and Nimble

More essential business philosophy for you to demonstrate: you should understand what a lean business is, and why it is much more attractive to investors than having unneeded overhead. Running lean basically means that you know what your customers want, and you can deliver to them exactly what they want with minimum wastage. You are strategic with investment dollars and only allocate funds where needed.

If you are a company that sells bikes for extreme sports, make sure your bike can withstand a lot of activity and fulfills the exact needs of the users. Will they need a bike to have bells and whistles? No. You should have a product without unnecessary bells and whistles, which you can demonstrate that people want and need. After you’ve proven your concept and that a market exists, then you can invest more funds in optimizing and enhancing the product and spend more money on marketing. But being smart, strategic, and scrappy in the beginning are the best ways to test and scale your business. 

Get Feedback and Have Outside Opinions from Objective Third Parties

Even if your company is just an idea, it is important to get some authoritative voices pitching in, whether it is being mentioned in an editorial or an article that you can show investors, or whether it is having a commendation from an independent expert in the field stating that your idea is viable and promising. It can be tempting to ignore the importance of generating buzz and media coverage but having outside opinions can be a great boost to investor confidence.

Make sure your business or startup is on Crunch Base and use tools such as AngelList and Unicorn. Make sure you have clear public profiles that show off your product and clearly explain who you are and who all your team members are, including their experience and their strengths. Make your positioning and branding clear, even if it is very basic. Additionally, you’ll want to try and secure media coverage in relevant industry trade publications as well as mainstream business press. A third-party endorsement in Forbes.com or WSJ.com will go much further to investors as it will show a proof of concept and that the media is interested in covering your brand.

Have Audited Financials and Projections

If you haven’t already worked out that financial models are incredibly easy to manipulate, you probably haven’t built a financial model. If you have a good financial model that you think is worthy of investors’ trust, give them a shortcut to developing that trust by validating your numbers with a reputable accounting firm or tax law firm. They will be able to produce a list of assumptions that investors need to know about your model; when this list is produced by a trusted source, investors will have a good idea of the inherent risks involved with the investment.

A Professional Presentation

The content of your pitch is the most important thing, but that doesn’t mean you should completely ignore how your pitch is presented. The pitch itself is yet another opportunity to prove the skills and professionalism of your staff, and that should shine through. 

You can use a presentation design company to help you plan and design the presentation accordingly. This way, you can offer all the information you need to shareholders in an attractive, logical manner. This proves that you can handle a variety of tasks and gives them one more reason to trust in your competence. Remember, investors are investing in people as well as businesses. 

The pitch shouldn’t be too long, although it shouldn’t feel unfinished either. While it’s beneficial to have a fairly attractive presentation, the most important thing is that it’s easy to understand and follow. Every point should be clear as glass, so your investors know what questions they need to ask and where you stand on the important points.

Insurance

Having business insurance can make your brand appealing to investors since it shows that you have a risk management policy. Assessing the financial strength of insurance companies is crucial when weighing your options. A broker with a robust financial standing will be able to provide sufficient cover when your business incurs large scale losses. That said, You can find the right insurance company by considering this factor. For example, if you are planning to sign up for an insurance policy with companies like Primerica, you may want to check Primerica reviews to understand their financial strength. Many insurance company ratings are based on amount of cash at hand, diversity of revenue stream, risk management protocols, and debt ratio.

Areas of Your Business to Invest In Over the Coming Months

Anyone who runs a business of any shape or size will be well aware of the idea of investment. Sure, when you set up a company, design products, carry out market research, advertise, market, and do anything else you need to sell goods, your ultimate goal is to make a profit.

You want your company to make as much money as possible and, in order to achieve this, many business owners will also attempt to make running costs as low as possible too. But it’s important to remember that success doesn’t always come cheap and making the right cuts is critical. You’ll have to invest in all sorts of different areas of your company, including and expanding beyond those areas outlined above, to create brand engagement, maximize sales, and make money.

Now, the right area to invest in well depends entirely on your company as a unique venture. What will benefit some businesses might not be as effective for others. But for now, let’s focus on some of the most popular areas of business investment of the moment.

Software

All businesses rely on various different types of software to operate. So, chances are software was one of the first investments your company made when you were first starting out and bringing staff on board. But times change and so will your company’s needs. Right now, increasing numbers of businesses are finding that their workforces are becoming remote during the current coronavirus pandemic.

Social isolation and social distancing measures that are being implemented around the world mean that workers are often safer when working from home rather than within shared, commercial premises, so the general advice is that if your staff can work from home, then they should work from home. This will inevitably mean investing in software that will make remote working easier. Microsoft Teams is a good example, as this opens up communication between employees working from different locations through effective instant messaging and video calls. Allowing employees to work from home will also reduce your monthly office rent. Consider how much money you’ll save on that alone.

Cyber Security

In a similar vein, you may find that you need to up your cybersecurity game while the staff is working from home. Cybercriminals are operating in overdrive right now, as they know that many businesses’ security can easily become compromised with untrained workers using company devices at home. Invest in cybersecurity solutions and make sure all staff is fully trained in cybersecurity awareness. This could help to reduce the chances of data breaches through illegal activities like phishing and other online scams.

A Company Car

Of course, social isolation and social distancing measures won’t be in place forever. But it’s likely that governments are going to start encouraging people to head back to work soon. So, you might want to make some investments that can help your company to adjust to working post-pandemic and to create the safest working environments for your employees as possible.

A company car could be a good investment if you’re going to need your staff to travel to meetings, conferences, or other events. It can prevent staff from having to use public transport. Of course, you’re going to have to make sure you check any drivers’ licenses and that you get legal counsel from an expert truck accident lawyer if any issues do arise in regard to the use of the company car.

PPE/Personal Protective Equipment

Another post-pandemic investment that you might want to take into consideration is PPE. PPE stands for “personal protective equipment” and goes far beyond the traditional conceptions of high vis jackets, hard hats, and steel toe cap boots that usually come into our minds when the phrase is uttered. The term “PPE” is now often used to refer to face masks and coverings, face shields, latex gloves, perspex partitions, and other equipment that can help to slow the spread of illnesses, viruses, and diseases. Investing in these areas and products can slow the spread of the virus and help to keep your staff as safe as possible while they’re working for you. You’ll also help put your employees at ease providing them with this equipment as it will help them feel protected.

These are just a few different areas that you might want to invest in for the sake of your business and its success. Sure, they may be of the moment. But there’s a reason many small business owners are directing their attention to these areas right now. They really could become useful or essential for any company right now. Determine which are best for you and try it out. You never know - small changes could make all the difference!

How To Fund Business Growth

If your small business is doing well, you might be thinking about how best to expand from where you are. Whether you want to open a second site, expand your product range with private label products for small business, or take on more staff, expansion can be pricey but can be worth the investment. If you’re ready to grow, but aren’t sure how to finance this growth, try some of these ideas. 

1. Look for specialist financing. There are companies out there that offer finance options for specific industries, such as medical finance companies that will lend money to medical professionals to expand.  This sort of funding can be used towards expansion or new office space to help you improve. 

2. Get a loan through the bank. There are plenty of loans available to business owners. Most business owners know about the loans available to get their business started but don’t always think of this kind of option when they’re trying to expand. If your finances are in good order, a loan could be a smart way to find the money to help you. 

3. S out angel investment or venture capital. Angel investors are people who invest in new or growing businesses, generally in exchange for capital. This money can be very important for a business that is stuck at a smaller size and needs assistance to expand. Just make sure you’re happy to offer capital or shares in your business. To secure this kind of funding, you will need to have a strong business plan to show how you plan to achieve the growth you’re aiming for. 

4. Explore crowd-funding. Crowd-funding can be very successful for business with a loyal customer base. Businesses like BrewDog have raised millions to help them to grow their businesses. Crowd-funding works by offering incentives and rewards to the public who buy into different levels of support. You could offer everything from free merchandise to shares in the company. 

5. Apply for a government grant. Some governments and other organizations offer grants and other options for finance that won’t leave you with debts to pay afterward. Most grants are intended for new business, rather than established ones, but there are some options out there if you keep looking. 

6. Ask friends and family for loans. Shorter-term loans from family and friends are simpler to manage, as there’s no bank to deal with, no complicated terms to meet, and usually lower rates of interest. If you do choose this option, make sure you legally lay out the terms of the loan, especially when agreeing on the terms of repayment. This reduces the risk of causing arguments later on if one of you feels the other is taking advantage.

7. Use your overdraft. If your bank has a generous overdraft option, then this can be a potential option for short-term borrowing. Just be aware that an overdraft can come with large interest fees, so it could end up costing you more cash in the long-run. This is a better option for smaller amounts of money, for example, to fund marketing campaigns, but is a poor choice for larger amounts for expanding to a second site.