Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
By Henry Brown
Dealing with money troubles as a business is never a fun experience. Not only do you have the danger of losing the business but if it’s not been set up in a certain manner, your own personal funds and assets could be in danger.
That’s why it’s important to spot the telltale signs that your business is having problems. Here are four signs that your business is having money troubles.
Your cash flow isn’t looking healthy
Cash flow is something that you want to focus on when it comes to any money issues. For the most part, your cash flow needs to look fairly healthy. You want to have a substantial amount coming in and ideally, a minimal amount going out.
One problem that some businesses tend to have is that they’ve got a backlog of invoices and payments that are due and that are not being paid into the business funds. However, there ARE still things that are being paid for from departmental expenses to your staff’s wages.
That results in significant problems with your cash flow and suddenly, you’ve got very little surplus in your bank.
It’s important that you try and take charge of your company’s cash flow and making sure you’re getting payment ideally before big bulk expenses are going out of your account. It shouldn’t really be the opposite way around.
High credit card debt
Debt is something that most businesses will have to a certain extent, but it’s something you don’t want to get out of control with. If you allow debts to build up beyond the point of being able to pay them back comfortably, then you could be risking your business, and you may find yourself needing a business bankruptcy attorney.
It’s important to take control of your debts and to reduce the amount of credit cards or loans that you have as a business. Look at your credit card debt currently and figure out whether or not this is something to be worried about.
You’ve been making a lot of budget cuts
Sometimes budget cuts are needed when you’ve had a bad quarter or perhaps a bad year financially. It’s essential to make these cuts to avoid doing too much harm to the business.
However, if you’ve found that the business has had to make a lot of cuts to budgets and that in fact, budgets aren’t improving, then this is a red flag. There will be times where this happens but for the most part, budgets should be improving when it comes to a successful business.
There’s a lot of employee unhappiness
Employee unhappiness is never a good sign for any business, and it’s important that you focus on this regularly. If your employees aren’t happy, then it might be to do with money. Perhaps they’ve had their departmental budgets cut too much, or they’ve not had a pay rise in so many years.
These signs are something that shouldn’t be ignored and if you spot them within your business, it’s important to take action as soon as possible.
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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.
