5 Tips for Managing Small Business Finances

Many people dream about running their own business. However, this is not an easy job. If you start your own company, you will have a lot of different responsibilities that you wouldn’t have as a regular employee. One of the biggest responsibilities that you will face is managing your company’s finances. This is extremely important if you have a small business, since being cautious with financial decisions is crucial if you want your company to flourish.

Understand Your Financial Responsibilities

If you’re responsible for managing your company’s money, then you will need to understand exactly what your financial responsibilities are. The most important responsibilities include taxes, day-to-day operations, reports, and repayments. In order to see your small business succeed, you will need to spend some time researching exactly how you should handle all of your financial responsibilities.

Don’t Mix Your Personal and Business Expenses

When some people start their own business, they begin mixing their business and personal expenses. However, if you want your company to be successful, then you will need to learn how to separate them. The first thing that you’ll need to do is set a business budget and a personal budget. Make sure to strictly separate them so that you never use your business loans and credit cards for personal expenses. Similarly, you shouldn’t use up your personal funds just so you can keep your business afloat.

There are many reasons why you’ll need to avoid mixing your personal and business accounts. Some of the most notable reasons include personal liability, tax issues, as well as jumbled accounting records. As long as you keep these accounts separate, you won’t find it too hard to manage your company’s finances.

Cut Your Costs

If you’re running a small business, then you should always be looking for new ways to cut costs without sacrificing the quality of your products or services. When in charge of a company, you will face both fixed and variable costs. You won’t really be able to save money on fixed costs, since they will remain the same regardless of the fact whether your business is growing or not. Nevertheless, you will be able to cut your variable costs.

Some of the best ways to do this would be to find certain services that you’re paying for and look for free alternatives. For example, if you’re currently spending a lot of money on branded software, you could search for a free open-source alternative. In case you have some business partners in a different city or country, then you should conduct video conferences instead of traveling just so you could have a meeting with them.

Track Your Inventory

Although this sounds simple, a lot of small businesses fail to track their inventory. If you don’t handle this task properly, then you will encounter financial problems later on. Nevertheless, this shouldn’t be too hard to do, since there are many great and inexpensive options to make sure you always track your inventory. For example, you can download an inventory management app with a visual asset tracking system, and you likely won’t ever encounter problems with inventory tracking again.

Always Pay Your Bills on Time

Just like you should always pay your bills with personal finances on time, it’s important to do this when running a business as well. If you’re late on your loan or credit card payments, then you may end up spending a lot of money. Keep in mind that even if you’re late when it comes to paying your utility and vendor bills, the penalties will still add up. On top of that, it goes without saying that you’ll always need to pay your taxes on time as well.

It’s a good idea to set up monthly reminders so that you never forget when it’s time to pay your bills. Make sure to avoid any unnecessary fees, especially if you’ve started your company just recently. In the begging of your business, your profit-loss margins will be very thin.

Adam Richards

About Adam Richards

Adam Richards is a semi-retired business professional originally from Bangor, Maine. He spent the majority of his career in sales and marketing where he rose to the marketing lead of a Fortune 1000 company. He then moved on to helping people as a career counselor that specifically helped bring families to self-sufficiency through finding them rewarding careers. He has now returned to Bangor for his retirement and spends his free time writing. This blog will be about everything he learned throughout his career. He'll write on career, workplace, education and technology issues as well as on trends, changes, and advice for the Maine job market and its employers.