Being able to start a business and keep it thriving is a great thing. The truth is that most start-ups fail. However, what separates the winners from the losers is that the former has confidence.
Confidence goes a long way in ensuring success, especially when it comes to small businesses. Confidence is not blind and it is certainly not bravado. Having financial confidence is an important pre-requisite for the success of your business.
Think about it. You have started your business for the simple reason that you want to make money out of it. So having financial confidence is essential for the success of your venture. So what will give you the financial confidence that you are looking for?
1. Profit
At the end of the day, you need profit. When your business is not a profitable one, before too much time, it is going to go under. To ensure that it is profitable, following are the things that need to happen:
- A reliable and plentiful sales pipeline
- You understand the ‘true cost’ of the product or service you are offering so that you can manage it
- The right price
- Proper management of your overhead costs
2. Time
Time management skills are important for sustaining small businesses. Doing things in the most cost-effective ways possible can be done only when the eye is firmly on the clock. This can also mean that you let the right people do the right things.
For example, employees who are good at sales should not be wasted on book-keeping. When you have a system in place that ensures that time management is always taken care of, you have financial confidence.
3. Cash flow
Good cash flow is essential for any small business. To ensure better cash flow, here are the pointers that need to be kept in mind.
- How much time customers take to pay you
- How much time you take to pay your suppliers
- Whether you use cash or loan money to buy assets
- How much time it takes for jobs to be completed
To make sure that cash flow is steady, it is also important to keep a close eye on it and forecast the different requirements of cash that may occur in the near future.
4. Opportunities for growth
Financial confidence is also a lot about creating a business that is worth something now and will be worth more in the future. A business that has opportunities for growth is a good thing. Lots of small business owners aspire to grow, but then they don’t get the basics right which does not let their dreams be turned into reality.
When you are building a business that you want to feel confident about, it pays to always have a contingency plan in place when it’s time for you to take the exit route. It may not happen till you decide to retire, but making sure there’s an exit plan in place will do wonders for your business’s financial confidence.
