Balancing the budget in a small business is no easy feat. Depending on the type of business you have and the type of clients you service can make or break your business.
Sales of products or services must be priced right to make a profit for your small business. You have to factor in your cost, time to produce, shipping and then multiply that by 100% (keystoning) to come up with a profit. This also will allow you to discount to close a sale if you need to.
Offering terms to your clients is a nice gesture but it can put you out of business quickly. Unless you can afford to wait 60 days for your money, I would suggest you operate on a cash only basis. It's better to lose the sale than to agonize over trying to collect money to pay your expenses with excuses such as "I have to meet payroll first" or "the check is in the mail".
For those clients that demand terms I would suggest you get a credit card to keep on file, so that if you get resistance in getting your money, you can collect immediately.
Additionally, there are programs on the internet that allow you to even create a check. With these programs, your customer/client can fax a check and you can duplicate it for immediate deposit. You can also keep this information on file for future payments.
In budgeting your small business, you should add up all of your fixed expenses and multiply by 2 to see what you actually need to bring in to operate and survive and build. Additionally, you need to account for the bad times, the time periods when sales are down (it happens to everyone).
Set goals. If you need 10 customer orders a month of your product or service, set your goal to 20 customer orders a month. When you reach your goal, raise it for the next month.
Being in any business is a gamble because we have no control over people, ideas and the economy. Some of the excuses for business being down are the Super Bowl Game, income tax season, holidays, and weather. Be prepared for theses low times!
Michele Graham-CEO and Owner of Professional Healthcare Management. Ms. Graham has 41 years in the healthcare industry.
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