Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
One of the most important factors for any business is to maintain a steady flow of incomings and outgoings. As a business owner, you’ll quickly learn that any short-term disruptions could cause longer term problems.
Cash flow problems can sometimes happen, and if you do encounter them, there are some steps you can take to try and achieve a balance again. Keep reading for some basic guidance on how to improve cash flow.
Please note, this should be taken as high-level guidance only and is not financial advice. If you have concerns about cash flow issues, consider contacting an advisor.
9 steps to better cash flow
Forecasting
Knowing when money is going to come into your business, where it’s from and when it’s going to go out is important. Creating a detailed forecast can really help your business to manage cash flow.
Once you’ve done this, ensure that it’s working as well in practice as it did in theory. Make sure your forecast is aligned with your actual figures at the end of each month. And, if necessary, re-forecast. Completing these checks regularly can help you spot issues in advance, identify inefficiencies or see something that was overlooked in
Tag Archive for Business Management
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Small businesses and their role in efficient supply chains – Q&A with Logmore CEO Janne Juhala
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Thanks to the advancements brought about by technology to manufacturing and logistics, any enterprise can easily go global today.
Even small businesses serving local customers and niche markets can now leverage supply chains worldwide. Yet, exciting as these may all seem, supply chains aren’t perfect. Inefficiency at any point in the supply chain can have a ripple effect and impact all stakeholders. Mishandling, incorrect orders, defective items, and product damage all contribute to waste.
Dealing with any of these factors entails costs. Small businesses, even with their limited resources, have to absorb part of the costs of waste. As such, effectively managing their supply chains is critical to their success. So, regardless of their spot in the chain, they must work on efficiency together with their partners.
We recently got in touch with Janne Juhala, CEO of shipment monitoring start-up Logmore, and asked him about small businesses, their role in supply chains, and how his company is empowering supply chain stakeholders to become more efficient.
There have been plenty of positive developments in logistics and global supply chains over recent years. How have these trends impacted small businesses in particular?
On the one hand, being a small business
Hot Business News Today
Small businesses and their role in efficient supply chains – Q&A with Logmore CEO Janne Juhala
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Thanks to the advancements brought about by technology to manufacturing and logistics, any enterprise can easily go global today.
Even small businesses serving local customers and niche markets can now leverage supply chains worldwide. Yet, exciting as these may all seem, supply chains aren’t perfect. Inefficiency at any point in the supply chain can have a ripple effect and impact all stakeholders. Mishandling, incorrect orders, defective items, and product damage all contribute to waste.
Dealing with any of these factors entails costs. Small businesses, even with their limited resources, have to absorb part of the costs of waste. As such, effectively managing their supply chains is critical to their success. So, regardless of their spot in the chain, they must work on efficiency together with their partners.
We recently got in touch with Janne Juhala, CEO of shipment monitoring start-up Logmore, and asked him about small businesses, their role in supply chains, and how his company is empowering supply chain stakeholders to become more efficient.
There have been plenty of positive developments in logistics and global supply chains over recent years. How have these trends impacted small businesses in particular?
On the one hand, being a small business
Hot Business News Today
8 ways to save money running your microbusiness
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Energy expenditure is the second largest cost after tax owing for microbusinesses that small business owners still estimate.
This is despite 56 per cent of microbusiness owners agreeing that having a better understanding of their energy use would give them greater control over business expenditure.
Smart Energy GB, the pan-utility company campaign to encourage adoption of smart meters, surveyed the owners of 1,000 microbusinesses (firms with less than 10 employees) to reveal the devastating financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three quarters of those polled were anxious about how they will keep their business afloat in the coming weeks and months. The biggest concerns for struggling microbusiness owners were a lack of customers, cashflow issues – a third now check their finances daily compared to just one in five before the pandemic – and that consumer confidence will not return quickly enough.
Michelle Ovens, founder of Small Business Britain, said: “COVID-19 has been hugely challenging for microbusinesses across Great Britain. As lockdown eases and firms get back to business, many are weighing up their financial situation and focusing on how to recover and move on. Now is therefore a good time to evaluate your business expenditure and
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Top 7 turnaround tips to save your small business from going under
by Steve Swayne • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Steve Swayne on Small Business
On average some 300 plus companies fail every week in the UK, with multiple effects: employees lose their livelihoods, customers lose access to services, suppliers, creditors and shareholders all lose money.
Not every company can be turned around, but there are many stressed businesses that, with professional time-limited expertise, can reverse their decline and prosper. The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented and complex challenges for businesses and in the short to medium term we are likely to see even highly competent management teams stressed and challenged.
Just over a month into lockdown, we published a societal impact report that conservatively estimated that our turnaround expert members saved more than 200,000 jobs and protected £2bn in enterprise value in the previous year. The report also looked at the key steps in achieving an effective turnaround and the specific challenges for SMEs.
Although for SMEs a typical turnaround is between three and 18 months, a longer period of two to two-and-a-half years is required. The first period is about stabilisation, understanding what has gone wrong and resetting the direction. The second 12 months is about building on change and preparing for growth.
With a turnaround approach, this unprecedented situation
Hot Business News Today
Top 7 turnaround tips to save your small business from going under
by Steve Swayne • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Steve Swayne on Small Business
On average some 300 plus companies fail every week in the UK, with multiple effects: employees lose their livelihoods, customers lose access to services, suppliers, creditors and shareholders all lose money.
Not every company can be turned around, but there are many stressed businesses that, with professional time-limited expertise, can reverse their decline and prosper. The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented and complex challenges for businesses and in the short to medium term we are likely to see even highly competent management teams stressed and challenged.
Just over a month into lockdown, we published a societal impact report that conservatively estimated that our turnaround expert members saved more than 200,000 jobs and protected £2bn in enterprise value in the previous year. The report also looked at the key steps in achieving an effective turnaround and the specific challenges for SMEs.
Although for SMEs a typical turnaround is between three and 18 months, a longer period of two to two-and-a-half years is required. The first period is about stabilisation, understanding what has gone wrong and resetting the direction. The second 12 months is about building on change and preparing for growth.
With a turnaround approach, this unprecedented situation
Hot Business News Today
How to reopen your gym, pool or leisure facility post lockdown
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Government has announced that gyms, pools and other leisure facilities in England can reopen from July 25.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden also said that tattooists, beauticians and nail salons can reopen from Monday, July 13.
As well as general COVID-19 safety advice, such as encouraging contactless payments and putting up signage to highlight social distancing, the government has issued specific guidelines for leisure facilities.
The full guidelines can be found at the Gov.uk, but we’ve picked out the most important ones you should know about.
Visiting instructors, coaches, teachers, and management
If you’re running class or personal coaching sessions, keep these in mind:
Consider limiting the number of classes that rotating instructors teach in order to minimise exposure
Determine the number of facilities they are comfortable with instructors rotating amongst in order to minimise exposure. Establish a system for monitoring this
Given the high risk of transmission from visiting instructors, where possible, establish a private testing programme for rotating/visiting instructors
Contact while using facilities
Fitness spaces
Pieces of gym equipment should be an appropriate distance apart so as to comply with social distancing guidelines and with a suitable margin for adequate circulation or one-way routes. This can be achieved by moving equipment,
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Small businesses say that they won’t survive second COVID-19 spike
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
A significant proportion of small businesses wouldn’t be able to survive a second spike of COVID-19, according to new research.
Sage’s latest report, ‘Survival, Resilience and Growth: placing small businesses at the heart of the UK’s economic recovery’, says that 86 per cent of respondents believe a second wave would have a negative impact on their business. Meanwhile, 39 per cent say that it would be severe and a further 15 per cent say their businesses could not survive it.
What’s more, one in two SMEs say they’re not confident they oculd handle a 20 per cent drop in revenue between now and September. A significant number (39 per cent) of businesses aren’t even sure that they’ll return to profitability by December 2020.
These businesses say they would struggle with other issues like a decrease in customers, losing key talent, cyber security and disruption in their supply chain.
Problems will also arise in the early months of 2021 as businesses will need to make payments that have been delayed due to the pandemic.
Dealing with a second spike or coronavirus and other challenges
Small firms are relying on preparation, liquidity and digitisation to protect them against future crises.
Some 40
Hot Business News Today
How to reopen your gym, pool or leisure facility post lockdown
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Government has announced that gyms, pools and other leisure facilities in England can reopen from July 25th.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden also said that tattooists, beauticians and nail salons can reopen on the same day.
As well as general COVID-19 safety advice, such as encouraging contactless payments and putting up signage to highlight social distancing, the Government has issued specific guidelines for leisure facilities.
The full guidelines can be found at the Gov.uk, but we’ve picked out some of the ones you should know about.
Visiting instructors, coaches, teachers, and management
If you’re running class or personal coaching sessions, keep these in mind:
Consider limiting the number of classes that rotating instructors teach in order to minimise exposure
Determine the number of facilities they are comfortable with instructors rotating amongst in order to minimise exposure. Establish a system for monitoring this
Given the high risk of transmission from visiting instructors, where possible, establish a private testing programme for rotating/visiting instructors
Contact while using facilities
Fitness spaces
Pieces of gym equipment should be an appropriate distance apart so as to comply with social distancing guidelines and with a suitable margin for adequate circulation or one-way routes. This can be achieved by moving equipment,
Hot Business News Today
How to reopen your restaurant, pub or hotel post-lockdown
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
UPDATED: Boris Johnson is expected to announce next week that the two-metre rule will be relaxed from July 4 and that pubs, restaurants, cafés and attractions can reopen post-lockdown.
For independent bars and eateries, the difference between the two-metre rule being enforced and one-metre social distancing is the difference between viability and the 2.8m hospitality staff currently on furlough not having a job to go back to, according to trade body UKHospitality.
The hospitality industry and the Government will also publish guidance next week as to how to reopen your restaurant, pub or hotel post-lockdown.
The guidance does however allow some flexibility rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, as seen in other business sectors.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, told the Today programme: “What we understand so far is that they are looking to reopen our businesses on July 4 with appropriate guidelines in place that will allow individual premises to undertake a detailed risk assessment and propose and put forward the control measures that they feel are necessary to keep their team and their guests safe.”
According to the draft post-lockdown hospitality sector guidance, obtained by The Times:
Pubs
Limits to the number of people allowed into pubs with markings