Improving the Financial Health of Your Business

Taking the pulse of and improving the financial health of your business is a key step in achieving the goals of a successful SMB. Entrepreneur Magazine has a good summary of some of the steps you can take to make sure you have the all-important financial health that you are looking for.

It sounds very simple but how much revenue do you have coming in and from what customers? How much are your expenses and what are they? Understanding your basic cash flow is imperative. You could quickly find that the amount of time or money you are spending to retain a small piece of business is simply not worth it. It could also be that some of the expenses you are racking up can be put off or cut. Conversely, you may find a customer or an expense that is well worth it from an ROI perspective that perhaps could become even more lucrative if you invested more into it. Buy software for the purpose of tracking this information or better yet, if you can afford it, hire a professional.

Invoicing is perhaps the most important factor in running your business. It is very important to have a tight invoicing process. Invoices are the gold that runs your widget and having a process in place that all parties, both internal and external, know and understand. Further, Invoice Financing is an extremely effective and helpful way to finance your business and in a perfect world you will be able to show a strong payment history with consistent and repeatable in order to get the lowest rates for your borrowing. Clear and consistent invoicing is key in creating a positive atmosphere between you and your clients as well. Sloppy invoicing can cause headaches and questions for your customers, that will in turn slow down the payment cycle and negatively affect your business’ financial health.

Other important steps mentioned in the article include review your insurance to make sure you are covered in any unforeseen events, plan for your future, look for growth opportunities and seek an avenue of financing. While all of these are important, understanding your revenue and creating a solid invoicing process are the most important items this article discusses.
About Payplant

Payplant provides growth financing for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. Its Pay Me Now^TM digital invoice-financing service provides cash to businesses when their customers pay too slowly. Payplant helps businesses with PO and Invoice Financing, Asset Based Lending, Term Loans and Customer Financing products. Payplant works with companies that don’t currently qualify for traditional bank financing, have grown too quickly for their current lender or are at the point in their evolution where an influx of working capital can elevate their business to achieve rapid growth. Payplant delivers fast and reliable funding, at very attractive rates and is completely on demand. For more information, visit www.payplant.com.