Steve Barker Blog | How to Avoid Being a Business That’s Destined for Financial Failure | TalkMarkets

How to Avoid Being a Business That’s Destined for Financial Failure

Date: Friday, July 1, 2016 10:45 PM EDT

What exactly is it that stops you from living your dream life as a financially independent person? Student debt no doubt comes into play for a lot of people, as does the inability to save cash efficiently. Don’t worry; you’re far from alone if you’re suffering from either one of those problems.

Being responsible with cash is completely different to earning your wealth, but it’s something you need to learn first if you want to see a nice figure in your bank account. Of course, there’s the whole issue of student debt, but there are certain legal things you can do to make sure outstanding student debt doesn’t leave you financially devastated. In this article, we’ll look at the issue of saving money.

First off, don’t panic! Worry, frustration, and paranoia rarely help when it comes to sorting out your finances. This is especially true if you’re a business owner. We all know that there are risks that are inherent when you are starting a business, and it’s unfortunately the reason that most small businesses fail within their first year. But there are fall-back options if you are struggling to turn a profit, such as taking on a working capital loan for some extra help to grow your business. To get one of these loans, you will need to be able to prove your existing capabilities for turning a profit. In the interest of saving money and learning what it means to hold back a little, there are a few rules that apply equally to businesses and individual savers.

Always have your expenditures worked out in advance. Whether you’re a person who can’t resist a night out or a business owner who moves forward with expensive opportunities for improvement too frequently, you need to get used to understanding what you can truly afford to spend in any given month. You might find it beneficial to calculate a total minimum and maximum amount you might need to spend and aim to spend a figure equal to the amount of the minimum. Life expenses and business expenses can both be higher than projected, but that’s why you need to know the absolute maximum of cash you can genuinely afford to part with in a month.

If you know your minimum outgoings and have a bit of wiggle room for extra expenses, that plumbing disaster isn’t going to prove so financially detrimental. When we were young, most of us lived month to month knowing what our bills were going to cost, and then we’d determine how much fun we could enjoy by the remainder. But that sort of approach doesn’t prepare you for unexpected expenditures and it certainly won’t help you save any money.

If you’re a business owner, you might have already tried this method without complete success. If your expenses are well-calculated and you’re still struggling to turn a profit, you might have to do something shocking – increase your prices. This might sound difficult; it’s been suggested that a business owner should start out offering the highest reasonable cost and then slowly decrease it once they know what the business can afford. However, if your products are worth their salt and it seems impossible to attract the volume of customers required to turn small profit margins into big savings, a price increase might be exactly what you need.

If the last few months have proved a little more difficult than usual, you might want to analyse the seasonal differences in the earning potential of your business. That’s going to help your spending decisions the following year, and by knowing where you went wrong after running a successful business for several months, a working capital loan (we like this company) could be the saviour you need. It could help you grow your business if you have a solid investment plan while giving you the cash you need quickly to tide you over until big business returns.

Gaining wealth and feeling financially comfortable with decent savings in the bank isn’t easy; everybody would be rich if it were. But there seems to be a problem with people wholeheartedly committing to ‘get rich quick’ schemes, and that’s not the most productive attitude if you’re serious about being financially sound. Commit to monitoring your finances and making responsible spending decisions.  Yes, it takes time, practice, and patience, but it’s clearly not an unattainable dream because so many others have already achieved it.

 

Disclaimer: This and other personal blog posts are not reviewed, monitored or endorsed by TalkMarkets. The content is solely the view of the author and TalkMarkets is not responsible for the content of this post in any way. Our curated content which is handpicked by our editorial team may be viewed here.

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