As an entrepreneur, cash management impacts your company’s financial success daily. Between managing expenses, payroll, taxes, and cash flow, it’s all too easy to slip up. Minor financial errors that go overlooked can quickly snowball into significant profit drains. However, avoiding just a handful of the most common money missteps can set your business up for sustainable success. This article outlines four key monetary mistakes that often catch business owners by surprise and how to solve them.
Mistake 1: Not Tracking Expenses Closely
As a business owner, you make numerous purchases daily, from office supplies and software to raw materials and vendor services. Without closely tracking every business expense incurred, you lose insight into where your money is actually going. Before you know it, unnecessary costs have piled up, and profit margins have plunged.
Getting a handle on expenses is step one to mastering cash flow. You need clarity on precisely how much is flowing out. Making even small daily purchases without logging or categorising the expenses makes it exponentially harder to budget effectively.
Here’s what to do instead:
● Use accounting software or spreadsheets to capture all expenses the moment they occur. Break costs down by type—supplies, services, payroll, etc.
● Categorise expenses appropriately to see spending patterns. Receipts and invoices should be carefully filed.
● Set spending alerts so you are notified of unusual charges or spikes.
● Regularly analyse expense reports to identify waste and make appropriate cuts. For example, investing in an easy e-rostering software platform can provide you with reports on staff hours to control labour costs closely.
Closely monitoring all the money leaving your accounts gives you control over your company’s financial health. Develop diligent expense tracking habits now to avoid profit pitfalls.
Mistake 2: Poor Receivables Management
You’ve invested time and resources into delivering products/services to customers. However, simply completing the work isn’t enough in business. You must actually collect payment owed to keep cash flowing in. Without diligent receivables management, unpaid invoices and cash flow gaps can quickly snowball.
Some entrepreneurs argue extending lenient payment terms helps attract more customers initially. The reality is the longer an invoice goes unpaid past its due date, the less likely you are to collect on it. And waiting months for payment while costs rack up puts tremendous cash strain on your company.
Here’s what to do instead:
● Institute clearly defined payment terms upfront in contracts and reinforce due dates on invoices.
● Follow up on past due payments with automated reminders by email and phone.
● Offer incentives for early payment while enforcing consequences of late payments.
● Seek help from collections services if needed before write-offs occur.
Finding an optimal balance between customer satisfaction and timely payment is vital for profitability. Just don’t let outstanding invoices slowly asphyxiate your business’s cash flow.
Mistake 3: Not Planning for Tax Obligations
It’s easy as an entrepreneur to get caught up in sales, marketing campaigns, product launches, and business growth objectives. With your mind constantly focused on building revenue, you may overlook the money flowing back for tax obligations. But ignoring tax planning is a huge profit-drain that can badly damage a business.
With personal income taxes, the money is often automatically withheld from each paycheck. But your businesses must deliberately save funds to make large tax payments when they come due.
Whether you structure your business as a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, S-corp, or LLC, tax obligations exist.
Here is what you need to do:
● Consult a business tax specialist to understand all your federal, state, local, payroll, and self-employment tax requirements.
● Create a tax calendar with deadlines for estimated payments, filings, and other obligations. Set calendar reminders.
● Open a separate business savings account and automatically transfer funds monthly to cover yearly tax liabilities.
● Work with an accountant or financial advisor to budget for and manage tax expenses.
Don’t let tax bills surprise you. Plan diligently, save consistently, and work with professionals to leverage available deductions and credits.
Mistake 4: Too Much Debt
Generating sufficient operating capital is an ongoing challenge for companies, especially in those fragile early stages. When cash gets tight, loans and credit cards seem like easy cash flow solutions. But before you know it, the debt compounds, the interest piles up, and you find payments swallowing your profits.
Of course, not all business debt is bad. An expanding company may utilise loans responsibly to fuel growth through new equipment purchases or added inventory. However, relying heavily on credit and high-interest-rate financing rather than boosting sales revenue or equity investments is extremely risky in the long-term.
Here’s what to do instead:
● Forecast cash flow needs accurately using historical data and projections. This helps minimise surprise shortfalls.
● Explore equity financing partners who gain partial company ownership in exchange for investment capital.
● Use peer-to-peer lending networks to get fixed-term business loans with reasonable rates from investors.
● Only use credit cards in true emergencies and pay balances off in full each month.
With careful planning and finding the right partners, you can secure financing that aligns with business growth. Don’t let debt payments hijack the profits you’ve worked so hard for.
Conclusion
Making smart financial decisions enables your company to withstand inevitable ups and downs in business. Master these fundamentals now to achieve enduring success as an entrepreneur. Healthy monetary practices keep your bottom line positive.
