How is Your Kingdom Doing? Next Wednesday (January 25), I will be presenting to the Sydney Eastern Suburbs chapter of BNI (Business Networks International). What I will be presenting on is CASHFLOW! Call me brave, but I suggest that the MOST IMPORTANT job someone responsible for running a small business has is managing their cashflow. 

Unfortunately, what most owners and managers of small businesses tend to focus on their products and services. “What?” you say, “my products and services are what make my business special!!!”. 

Maybe. But focusing on your products and services at the expense of your cashflow means you will have great stories to tell about how great your products and services were when you have all that free time after your business goes bust (gee, that’s a bit harsh David!!! – wouldn’t you rather someone tell you how it really is???)

There are really only three ways to improve your cashflow. In order of what has the most to least impact, these are: get more customers (new and repeat), be more productive (this has nothing to do with producing a better product or service but with producing your products and services better), and managing your expenses. Call it the “helicopter view”.

In 20 years of consulting to over 200 large and small businesses, I am yet to see one who has consistently grown by ignoring these and focussing on the quality of what they sell.

So, next Wednesday at BNI, that’s what I’ll be talking about – how to consistently improve your cashflow by consistently increasing your customer numbers and order volumes, consistently improving the productivity of your people and systems, and managing your expenses so they are a consistently decreasing percentage of your revenue. Hopefully you’ve noticed one word consistently appearing in that paragraph: Consistently.

It is what you do consistently that will get you consistent results.

So, what do small business owners need to consistently do to consistently improve their cashflow?

Keep your eyes open for the next series of articles on the Daily Roar (or come and see me at BNI next Wednesday). Alternately, click on cashflow and it will take you to a page where you can download “10 Questions Every Business Owner Needs to Know the Answers to” - one of Roaring Trade’s weekly book summaries and small business “How To Guides”.