Completely preventable ways your business is losing money

Cash flow is king. Make sure your small business is not leaking money.

Cash flow is king. Make sure your small business is not leaking money.

By Henry Brown

One of the hardest things for new entrepreneurs is controlling their cash flow. Being in charge of a budget and ensuring that money is going in and out at the right times is difficult. It can lead to a business losing money from entirely preventable actions. Some mistakes that can seem obvious in hindsight will often slip under the radar. It’s not until you correct them that you realize how much they were affecting your business. If your company is struggling to make as much as you hoped it would, you could be making some of these missteps.

Your marketing budget is spent on the wrong things

Solopreneurs will often make marketing mistakes, especially if they’re doing it all themselves. Hiring a marketing manager or outsourcing marketing is a much better choice for some. But even if you do handle all of your marketing tasks, you can still ensure that you’re making the right moves. Your company could be bleeding money if your marketing isn’t working. When you need to reconfigure your spending, take a look at your marketing to see what’s bringing you a return on your investment. Close monitoring of how different channels are performing is essential.

You can’t keep your employees

When it’s time to hire employees, you need to ensure you take on the right people. You can spend a lot of time and money finding the best hires. So it’s unfortunate if you can’t convince them to stay for long and you end up having to hire someone else. If you can’t get your employees to stay, constantly filling positions will cost you a lot of money. As well as placing focus on the hiring process, make sure you concentrate on retaining your employees. You can find plenty of employee retention articles that will help you create a company people want to work for. You will no longer have a high turnover if you put effort into making your staff happy.

Business processes slowing you down

You could have a number of business processes that aren’t efficient enough. Or even just one thing could be lowering productivity. The things that slow down your business could be any number of factors. Sometimes it’s an employee or it could be a piece of software you use. Identifying the processes and people that affect your company’s workflow is essential to plug any holes that are losing you money. Just some small tweaks could make a difference.

Dropping leads

Many businesses, and small businesses in particular, are guilty of leaving leads too late. Perhaps you get an email inquiring about your service. You think to yourself you’ll respond to it later. But by the time you remember it, the person has already moved on to someone else. Following up leads in a timely fashion will prevent you from losing out. Don’t put it off until it’s too late.

Silly mistakes can cost you your business. If your cash flow isn’t working how you want it to, you need to take a look at how you do things.

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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.

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