How to Understand your Cashflow and improve your Business Finances

Caroline Syson

Money money money! There is nothing more important than having good cash flow and regular income in a small business and its always been the cornerstone of every successful micro business if you want to survive, strive and thrive!

Simple cashflow management doesn’t need to be rocket science or require a maths degree.  Once you start to understand the basic flow of your finances through your business, you can start to make plans on growing your client numbers and seeing where you need to focus more attention to become more profitable e.g. doing more marketing, cutting expenses or even just charging your clients a little bit more on your services.

Turning your Passion into a Profit

If you are a creative and have a deep passion for something that you want to turn into a money-making venture, finances and money management are not always your core strength and focus at the outset. Why would it be? It's not often taught at school and very microbusiness owners come straight out of college with a business diploma! It’s often not a natural fit and as a result, a lot of new start-ups feel at sea with their income and expenses and a little bit stressed around the money side of the business.

The One-stop App to Manage your Business

However, it doesn’t have to be that way!  Pocket PA is a great new software solution created to help micro business owners manage their finances in an easy to understand way that is very visual and doesn’t use any financial jargon.  It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with just the magnitude of ‘stuff’ to do each day but getting organised is a fundamental way to regain that control and feel on top of things, especially if you can understand your finances in the process.

The app manages clients, services, appointments, sales, billing and accounts all in one place to create a focal ‘business-in-a-box’ solution to help every small business take care of their cash flow. The business admin tasks can seem never-ending but if you don’t manage them using a system, they can very quickly get out of hand and cause huge stress and anxiety which in turn can cause micro-business owners to lose sight of their finances.

You can’t Manage what you don’t Measure

It’s vital to know if you are running an expensive hobby or an actual viable business - and it’s the relationship between what you have coming in and going out each day, week, month and year that will tell you that.

You can only manage what you measure so having a benchmark and way to do this is critical. Finding the right tool for your small business needs careful consideration as you need to put in place something that you can commit to using daily.  Small good habits will create the fundamental building blocks of a successful business so it’s crucial that you find a tool you can access easily, and which is simple to use and understand.

Leaving things to do all at the end of the week, or worse still at the end of the month will create higher stress levels and a resistance to actually want to sit down to go through it all.  That feeling of dread when you have a task that you don’t want to do, overshadows everything and is no-one’s idea of fun!

Creating Good Habits is Easy with the Right Tools

So, tracking your workflow and finances each day using Pocket PA is an ideal solution to help support your business with creating good habits.  Readily available and always accessible on your phone, tablet or computer means it's super convenient and handy to open up any time. If a new client rings for an appointment when you are out and about, you can see your work diary there and then and find a suitable slot to book them in.

As soon as the appointment is in the Pocket PA diary, it registers on an ‘Expected Income Dial’ which shows you exactly what you would be earning that week or month if everyone turns up – it’s like a mini projection of what you will earn so you can see how much income is due. 

Conversely, when you are out and about and need to buy anything related to your business, the app is there to snap a picture of the receipt and track the expense which shows up in red on your Net Income Dial.

Understanding the Financial Health of your Business is Easy

If your income coming in (shown in green) is larger than your expenses going out (shown in red) then your overall position is that you will be profit and have made money in your business.  The Net Income Dial in Pocket PA shows you this instantly and it’s never been easier to understand the financial health of your business at a glance.

If you have done a whole week and tracked your income as you go along, then the Expected Income Dial gets greener and greener as you get paid by each client you see.  At the end of the week, if the dial is not fully green, there is one button you can press that will tell you exactly WHO still owes you money and it’s all listed out in front of you line by line, so you can follow up with each client and get paid for the work you have done and are due.

Working Smarter and not Harder

Without a tool to help you manage your business and money, it’s very hard to make good decisions and have objective business plans and set goals, as you don’t have the information you need to help you.  

Nicola Merritt has been using Pocket PA for 2 years now and loves looking back to compare how she did previously.  ‘The app really helps me see how far I have come in my business and helps me plan when to take holidays in quieter times’

Good cashflow management really just means tracking and understanding the flow of your money in and out of your business.  So don’t let anyone make you feel that you are not on top of your money – just work smarter and not harder and use a tool like Pocket PA to help you shine at what you are good at it. 

Everyone can have a free 14-day trial to see how easy it is to use and see just how much it can transform their own business.

Caro Syson is the Founder of Pocket PA and is passionate about helping small business owners to reach their full potential in the easiest possible way. 

Pocket PA is a super easy system to manage your finances, accounts and gets you organised in your business to ensure you love your work and shine your light brightly.

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