5 Financial Tips Small Business Owners Shouldn’t Ignore

As a small business owner looking to expand your business, you need to consider several factors such as taxes, operational costs, investment returns, growth, insurance, supply chain, and transportation. While these are just a few of the many aspects to keep in mind, this blog discusses five fundamental financial aspects you cannot ignore when setting up your business operations.

1. Save Your Receipts

If you’ve begun operations already, a vital step is saving all your receipts. Losing track of how much you’ve spent on your business can not only have you paying taxes on the money you didn’t make but also put you at risk of getting audited and losing out on the tax deductions you swore you had. To add to the problems, you’ll owe interest on the taxes if the audit gets raised after a while.

2. Secure Your Business

Finding out small business insurance in Maryland is ideal if you’re starting a new venture. This saves you from the stress of accidental damage and gives you a safety net to fall back on in case of any unforeseen circumstances. When you start a small business, you’re either on your own or working with a small team. If that’s the case with you, you must make sure your company is insured to provide them with the support they need.

3. Keep Your Personal & Professional Finances Separate

Mixing the two is easy when you’re bootstrapping a small business. Your cash seems akin to the cash flow you’re generating for your business—after all, you are the company. But we’d suggest otherwise.  Ensure that you pay yourself on the job and maintain a separate account for the business. This will help you keep a clear track of the amount of money coming in and money being used for the business, like taxes, bills, salaries, and more.

4. Learn To Save As A Business

Saving money as a business can be challenging, especially if you’re bootstrapping your company since you’re already starting from the rock bottom. But with some research and good practices, you can save a lot of capital to return to the business.  One way to do so is outsourcing. A lot of people are willing to be their own boss. Make the most of this opportunity by outsourcing your work; daily tasks that you’re currently spending too much time on can be inexpensive to outsource, allowing you to focus on strategizing to earn more revenue.  Additionally, if you have recurring bills or subscriptions to a service, don’t hesitate to pitch a partnership or request a discount!

5. Improve Your Business Credit

Your business’ credit is no different than your credit score—it needs to be high, too. Learn ways to increase it at the primitive stages of your venture to ensure a smooth sale.  This includes a lot of steps. To begin with, you must acquire more insurance policies for your business as your company grows. Talk to Maryland insurance brokers to better understand what insurance providers near you have to offer. Clear off your debt timely to improve your credit score and history. Finally, don’t hesitate to take loans and if you do, ensure to pay back the sum on time. Financial tips for businesses don’t have to be overly complicated and daunting—start small, just like your business. With a few simple practices, you can improve your business operations significantly. 

Education And Organization Are Two Keys To Ensuring Your Business Is Financially Healthy

Make sure you have a solid understanding of your industry and aren’t ignoring financial considerations. Keep an up-to-date record of daily business transactions and expenses, so that you can keep an eye on what’s going on and where it’s coming from.  And make sure you’re taking advantage of resources available to small businesses (such as free tax workshops). Make it easy to stay organized by using various software solutions that you can find online—and if there are any things you don’t understand, get help from a professional. This will keep your finances in order throughout all stages of your company’s growth.  The bottomline is to stay educated about your business domain and new developments around it and ensure a seamless organization of your business activities.

The Importance Of Managing Your Business Finances

If you want your small business to thrive, managing your finances is a must. It allows you to think strategically about where you’re going and how your resources are allocated. By thinking critically about each expense, you can then determine what will make the biggest impact on your bottom line.  When looking at costs, it’s also important to weigh your business’s short-term needs against long-term goals in order to ensure that time and money aren’t wasted pursuing objectives that won’t ultimately help the company succeed.  Taxes, investments, and insurance are all important factors in your finances, and ignoring them could cost you in the long run.

Tips For Managing Small Business Finances

Any small business owner who manages their finances well may find it difficult. Frequently, the abilities you contribute to the process of creating your product or offering your service are what make your small business successful. Your business will be more stable and far less likely to fail if your funds are managed properly. To handle the finances of your company, make sure to pay yourself on time, keep a clean credit record, keep an eye on your books, and prepare ahead of time.  For small businesses, debt financing entails interest charges in addition to repayment obligations, whereas equity financing is interest-free but may provide you less control over your company’s operations. Following are some actionable tips for effectively managing small business finances:

Pay Yourself

If you’re a small business owner, at some point you may need to pay yourself. As an employee, your salary is an expense that comes out of your company’s revenue. When you set up your company, you decide how much of your revenue will be left over after paying taxes and expenses; that amount becomes your take-home pay.  How much can vary is based on whether you have other employees (who also receive salaries), what kind of benefits package you offer, and whether or not it includes a retirement plan. In other words, after your company’s bills are paid, pay yourself.

Invest In Growth

Along with paying yourself, it’s critical to lay money aside and research options for professional advancement. This may help your company grow and progress in a sound financial direction. Future planning is something that business owners should constantly practice. Small businesses must show a willingness to make future investments if they hope to expand, develop, and recruit the best talent. Customers will value the higher caliber of service.  Your employees will value your commitment to both the business and their professional development. In the end, your company will benefit more from your efforts than it would if you just spent all of your earnings on yourself.

Don’t Be Afraid Of Loans

If you’re on a tight budget and need extra capital to get your business up and running, look into getting a small business loan. That said, loans can be frightening, especially for small business owners.  They may cause one to become concerned about the costs of failing. You can have significant difficulties trying to buy equipment or expand your workforce without the infusion of cash that loans provide. As a result, you won’t have as much trouble making payroll on time for your employees and suppliers if you use the loan funds to increase your cash flow.

Monitor Your Books

If you are looking to grow your business, keep an eye on your books. Sales and profits are important—but so is cash flow. One of your responsibilities as a small business owner is to ensure that money coming in exceeds money going out. If it doesn’t, you need to correct course or risk running out of working capital, which will hurt your ability to pay employees and suppliers and hinder long-term growth opportunities.  Every business is different, but most small businesses will have a general ledger (which tracks all income and outgo), a payroll journal, and a checking account ledger. If you are short on time, you can hire an accounting firm to manage these books for you or use online accounting software.

Focus On Expenditures But Also ROI

In many businesses, it’s easy to focus too much on costs and not enough on potential returns. If you’re running a small business, cost control is very important. Still, don’t forget about revenue growth opportunities; looking at both sides of your profit margin gives you a better picture of where and how to spend money.  Don’t be afraid to look at areas that might traditionally be viewed as waste, such as entertainment or personal travel expenses. A big part of business success comes from being able to justify every dollar—even those that seem superfluous (but aren’t). Do that with your financial statements, instead of just operating off gut feelings or doing a quick eye-balling.

Set Up Good Financial Habits

Being good at money management is an essential skill that you need to have as a small business owner. Why? Because, unlike a traditional job where your salary is paid into a bank account by your employer, you are the person responsible for making sure your business has money in the bank at all times. Without good financial habits, there’s no way you can run a successful business. That’s why it’s important to start thinking about how to get good at money management right away.  Good financial habits can save you from lots of trouble down the road. If you consistently set aside money in savings and continue to practice good credit habits, you are more likely to help your small business thrive. Developing good financial habits now will pay off handsomely over time.

Types Of Business Finances

Finances are a broad term that encompasses every aspect of a company’s monetary status, including its cash and credit accounts, tax obligations, and profitability. As such, there are several types of business finances you need to think about as a small business owner looking to expand your business.  It’s also critical to keep in mind that managing your business finances involves more than just your income; it also involves how and from where you spend your money. You should be aware of the two primary funding types when it comes to where you obtain your funding:

Debt Funding

When you have a great business idea but need some funding to get off of the ground, consider debt funding. Debt funding is basically borrowing money from people or companies who are willing to loan money in return for interest.  The most common type of debt is a loan (borrowing money from a bank or other institution), but there are also many other types of debt that you can borrow from such as personal loans, credit cards, and peer-to-peer lending.  While debt funding is certainly not free, it’s often easier to get started with than equity funding and will give you some breathing room to make your business a success before having to sell equity.

Equity Funding

An equity investment is an ownership stake in a company. Generally, it is not liquid—you cannot easily convert your equity to cash. Equity investors generally seek returns from companies that are more than just financial. They want to see their money used by a business that plans to grow and expand, hire more employees and increase revenue and profits.