Business Matters Magazine Issue 72

Page 7

3 Come to Terms with Terms

If your cash flow is not what it should be, check on the terms you are giving on your invoices. Are they in step with the terms you are being given by vendors? Are your customers meeting your terms? Are you being too generous in allowing late payments. Have you considered offering a discount for paying early?

4 Stretch Payables

The opposite side of receivables is your payables. Just as you want to get your receivables in as soon as possible, to maintain positive cash flow, you want to try to stretch your payables out for as long as possible. Take full advantage of the terms your vendors give you. If they are generous enough to give 90 days, do not pay in 60, unless of course they offer a discount for early payment. If terms from vendors are short -- net 15, or 30 – you may wish to pay via Credit Card to extend the payments.

5 Evaluate Your Client Base

Take a good look at your customers. Who are the good payers? Who are the deadbeats? You may be surprised to find that some customers who you, and your sales force consider your ‘biggest accounts’ are actually your slowest payers, and are negatively impacting your cash flow. Focus your sales efforts and customer services on your good payers.

6

Pricing for Profits

When was the last time you evaluated your prices? Have they kept pace with the marketplace and your current costs? How do the measure up to the competition?

7 Leasing Vs Buying

You may want to consider leasing, rather than buying high commodity items such as computers, cars, et cetera. In the long run it is true that leasing can be more expensive than purchasing but the positive cash flow gained by laying out little or no money up front, may be worth it.

8 Look at Expenses

Take a look at your regular operational expenses, such as insurance payments, cable and phone service, any regular bill you pay monthly. Are you getting the best deal? Have your policies kept pace with changes in your business? Particularly in the case of insurance, you should take a look at your policies at least once a year, to see if you can renegotiate your rates with your current supplier, and get at least two other competitive quotes from other suppliers.

9 Manage Inventory

Over buying ties up cash. Stock only what you need. Focus your inventory on high turnover items. Go through inventory regularly, clear out old items at discounted prices to produce liquidity.

10 Cash Flow Culture

Is cash flow a priority for your business? Then make it part of your corporate culture. Make sure all of your employees, and not just those in the accounting department, are doing all they can to encourage positive cash flow, no matter where they interact with your customers. Maintaining positive cash flow is a bit of a juggling act. You have several balls in the air, from collections on receivables, to properly managing credit and inventory. Think of any juggler you have seen. Do you think they got to that level overnight? No, it took drive and practice, and for sure, many balls were dropped along the way. Follow and practice these strategies, and soon you will be managing the money flowing in and out of your business like a real pro! f

Traffic > Conversion > Retention by Lauren O’Connor Many find online marketing a daunting task. You don’t know where you should start; should it be Pay Per Click advertising, social media, or perhaps search engine optimisation? The end goal for any agency is to help Australian businesses, pure and simple, and this can be achieved using a unique strategy formula: Traffic > Conversion > Retention. Promoting your website to attract relevant traffic is the first vital step you need to take as a business owner. You need traffic because you require the right people to be visiting your website. Through utilising proper online advertising, with a strategic combination of techniques, you can encourage your target audience to click on your website. Secondly, you need to convert the traffic you attract into credible leads so that you may convert them into sales. At the end of the day, if you want to continue in small business, you need to be making a profit. Owning a website that helps to convert your leads can make a huge difference between making a sale, or not. Lastly, you need to ensure you re-engage and retain your customers. Customers expect a level of aftercare once they have committed their money to your business. This gives you an opportunity to remarket to an audience who have already converted with your business in the past, and there are multiple ways to do this. Incorporating Traffic > Conversion > Retention into your business plan will help you to leverage the most of your budget.

TM

ADVANCED ONLINE MARKETING

Incorporating Traffic > Conversion > Retention into your business plan will help you to leverage the most of your budget. Visit the SponsoredLinX website at www.sponsoredlinx.com or email at marketing@sponsoredlinx.com or give them a call today on 1300 859 600 to learn more about how Traffic > Conversion > Retention can be applied to your business. ca


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Lo ve Life

8min
pages 77-80

Sunshine Coast Spotlight on Success Series with World Surfaris

12min
pages 68-72

Businesses set to Fl y Local with Sunshine Coast Airport

2min
page 64

Mindset for Life

4min
pages 66-67

Education Matters

3min
page 63

Sustainabilit y Matters

4min
page 62

Your Cat Matters

2min
page 60

Family Matters

2min
page 61

Mechanic al Matters

2min
page 59

Natural Life Matters

2min
page 55

Animal Matters

2min
page 57

Your Body Matters

2min
page 58

Eyebrow Matters

3min
page 56

Mentoring Business

7min
pages 52-54

WALLSPIRATION FINANCIAL YEAR CALENDAR LIFT OUT Sandra King - My HR Manager

6min
pages 47-48

Commercial Real Estate Matters

3min
page 38

Business Finance Tips

2min
page 49

Property Development Matters

3min
page 37

Office 365 Matters

2min
page 36

HR Matters

2min
page 35

Legal Matters

3min
page 32

Lending Matters

3min
page 33

Professional Management Matters

2min
page 30

Insolvency Matters

2min
page 28

Website Matters

1min
page 31

Brokerage Matters

2min
page 27

Advertising Matters

2min
page 26

Powering Business Potential

2min
page 21

Training Matters

2min
page 25

Numbers Business

2min
page 16

Top Ten Ways to Better Manage Your Cash Flow

1min
page 6

Local Business

2min
page 23

Traffic > Conversion > Retention

4min
page 7

Wellness Matters

3min
page 24

Claire deLune

3min
page 22
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