Before You Say Yes to More Work, Ask These Five Questions
A practical pause before a new customer, larger contract or sudden increase in demand For most small-business owners, an opportunity to take on more work feels like good news. A valuable new customer makes contact. An existing client wants to place a much larger order. A contract becomes available that could move the business forward. […]
Is Your Business Growing, Or Just Getting Harder To Control?
Five warning signs every sole trader and small-business owner should recognise before pressure becomes a crisis Growth is usually presented as the goal of running a business. More customers. More enquiries. More work. More income. But growth does not always feel like progress when you are the person responsible for delivering the work, answering customer […]
Where Did All the Money Go?
Why a Profitable Business Can Still Feel Short of Cash You have had a good year. You can feel it because your Sales are up. Customers have been buying, and your bookkeeping records suggest the business has made a profit. So you look at the bank account nd wonder: Where is it? Where did all […]
Are Your Best Customers Really Your Most Profitable?
Why the customer who spends the most may not be the customer who makes you the most money Most businesses know who their biggest customers are. They are usually the names that appear most often on invoices. The customers who spend the most. The ones who seem to account for a significant part of turnover. […]
Could Your Business Cope With a Quiet Month?
Why a Cash Buffer Can Give You More Than Financial Security Let’s face it, some months are simply better than others for a variety of reasons, and when this is the case, you can often get a false sense of security, but as we know, all that glisters is not gold. You may have a […]
How Much Does Your Business Need to Earn Before You Make a Penny?
Why Knowing Your Break-Even Point Can Change the Way You Run Your Business You have had a busy month. Customers have paid. Money has moved through the bank account. You have invoiced more than you did last month. So it feels as though the business must be doing well. But there is one question that […]
Your Bank Balance Is Not Your Profit
How to Know What Your Business Can Really Afford You open your banking app, smile, and see £12,000 sitting in the business account. For a moment, everything feels reassuring. There is enough there to pay yourself. Perhaps replace that laptop that has been struggling for months. Maybe take a little more out of the business […]
Late Payments Shouldn’t Keep You Awake
How to Protect Your Cash Flow Without Damaging Good Customer Relationships You have done the work. The invoice has been sent. The payment date has passed. And now, at 11 o’clock at night, you are thinking about somebody else’s bank account. Will they pay tomorrow? Did they forget? Should you chase them again? Are they […]
The Tax Pot Habit
How to Stop Your Next Tax Bill Becoming a Crisis In our previous article, “Stop Chasing Money in Your Head”, we looked at the stress caused by unpaid invoices and the importance of having a calm, consistent process for collecting the money your business is owed. But getting paid is only part of the cash-flow […]
Stop Chasing Money in Your Head
A Calmer Approach to Late-Paying Customers You finish the work. The customer is happy. You send the invoice. Then you wait. The payment date arrives, but the money does not. At first, you assume it is a simple oversight. Then another day passes. You check your bank account again. You wonder whether you should send […]
