10 Financial Management Tips for Business Owners

1. Bank Revenues: Banking your revenues improves financial discipline and ensures income is properly recognized. It also provides credibility to evaluate possible loan requests from the company.

2. Minimize Expenses: Track spending habits and cut expenses that don’t contribute to the growth of your business. Pay yourself a salary and ensure your personal expenses are not borne by the business.

3. Minimize Credit Sales: Ensure most of your goods and services are either prepaid or paid on delivery. Chasing debtors takes time and will cost you money. The fewer debtors you have, the better.

4. Manage Inventory: Don’t tie working capital up on inventory you don’t need. Ensure inventory is aligned to turnover; this will help you optimize cash flows and keep the business healthy.

5. Keep the Books: Ensure you keep accurate accounts of the business. You can use sales and expense journals or a small business accounting solution at the start; but your target must be to maintain properly audited financial statements.

6. Follow a Budget: Build a budget to monitor business performance and cost management. Ensure the budget is aligned to your overall business strategy; it will help you track how well your strategy is being executed.

7. Be Tax Compliant: Pay your taxes! It ensures your company is compliant with state/country regulations and also prevents being shut down or paying heavier fines for tax offences.

8. Build an Emergency Fund: Save for the rainy day. Our call account (click here for more info http://bit.ly/1sSiZdp) allows you to build savings in an interest yielding account that can be liquidated at any time without penalties. Call us on 0700 CALL STANBIC (0700 2255 7826242) or +234 1 2709676 for more information on this product.

9. Seek Financial Advice: Always remember to seek financial advice before taking major decisions like applying for a loan or investing in a new business idea.

10. Cash is King: Remember that cash is the lifeblood of most businesses. Though making a profit is usually the aim of most businesses, not having enough cash to cover day-to-day expenses will grind your business to a halt.

source:blog.standardbank.com