As a business, it’s important to recognise when you’re in trouble, and financially, anything less than ok is a cause for concern. When finances aren’t looking healthy for your company, there can tend to be a lot more risks involved with certain projects or campaigns relied on to go well, and if they don’t, it could mean more problems for the company. No one wants to end up filing for bankruptcy, and when you’ve worked hard to build your business, the last thing you want is to see it go downwards. With that in mind, here are some helpful tips on how to avoid going bankrupt as a business.
Build A Solid Financial Plan
When building a financial plan or a business plan, these tend to be working documents in progress. As the business changes, adapts, and grows, it’s important to have these documents be something you can tweak and alter where necessary. In order for your business to do well financially, care should be taken in building a solid financial plan where your company is concerned. If your financial plan isn’t something you’re necessarily skilled in focusing on, then you could always outsource this to a financial advisor who specialises in business. They can help guide you through the process or do it for you when it comes to projecting and forecasting profits.
Your financial plan needs to be something that will guide your business through financial decisions. Making the right ones is important, and how you navigate financially, nervous situations will be key to ensuring that your business lives to fight another day. Planning is always going to be a huge help to anything in life, so make sure your financial plan for the business is the best it can be.
Be Meticulous With Budgets
Who doesn’t like budgeting? As a business, this should be at the top of your list when you find yourself losing control of the finances. A budget can help show you where everything is and where the money is coming and going. It can be key to understanding the inner financial workings of your business and what departments are spending what. With that in mind, it’s really important to be meticulous with budgets. When you come to do your annual review of the spending, you might want to adjust the budgets to restrict the amount of spending that is done.
It might be difficult at times as departments can expect certain things, but when you’re walking a tight line, it’s important that the budgets aren’t taking too much of the profit that your company is making. It can be crucial at points where you need every single penny you can get.
Make Cuts Where Necessary
Talking of budgets, there may come points in the financial process, where you’ll need to make cuts. These cuts can simply be finding things on the financial records that don’t seem to warrant spending and then removing it. You might want to consult with the departments and make it a collaborative effort, so you’re not cutting anything that they need. You want to consider what the necessary expenditures are to make money and what is simply spending for the sake of spending it. It might do some good to your business work processes, but in the grand scheme of things, if they’re not critically needed, they can go.
Again, it might be a short-term issue that you have in place until things sort themselves out, but it’s worth doing because it will keep your business protected. The more you can save, the further away you get from going bankrupt.
Don’t Take Too Many Risks
Risk-taking is often needed in business, and when you’re running a company, if you don’t challenge yourself, you could be missing out. And although risks are good to take for the company, if they’re ill-timed, they could spell disaster for the future of your business. The best thing to do when it comes to taking on a risk is to consider its consequences. What could go wrong? Could you afford to take a financial risk and still be able to survive if it all went wrong? If the answer is no, then you should back out of it and wait for another opportunity to come along. Try not to get pressured into doing something because it sounds good, but your business isn’t able to take that risk at that particular moment.
If you do end up taking the risk and you don’t think your business could bounce back, then you’re knowingly and potentially self-sabotaging the company. You’ve worked too hard to see it go under, so make sure you assess each risk and consider the consequences to them. It’s also good to weigh them up against the benefits too, as these could far outweigh any challenges to the risk.
Collect Any Outstanding Invoices
With some businesses, chasing invoices and getting them paid on time isn’t something that works well in the company. For some finance departments, some invoices might sit in the out tray for a while, and that means you’re delaying the payment getting to you whilst the client or customer is sitting pretty. It’s essential that when you find yourself in the position where you need money, that you’re collecting any outstanding voices where you can. Chase down those clients that haven’t paid up and if you’ve got a few that still haven’t paid, be on them like a rash.
Some clients will take advantage of some companies who are fairly relaxed with payments, but it’s important that slack doesn’t affect the health of your business. Be sure to chase down those payments so you’ve got profit going in and you’re not being left at a disadvantage when the expenditures go out.
Leave Redundancies Until Needed
Redundancies are a nightmare for employees but they’re also devastating for businesses too. When a business loses staff, it’s a sign that things aren’t going well, and you’ve also got fewer people to take on the tasks and duties that still need doing on a daily basis. It’s also a lot more different to work with fewer staff members too. No one wants to lose their job so if there could be redundancies on the cards, leave them until last. You’ll want to do everything you can before that happens.
One suggestion that might be worth making is asking staff to go on reduced hours or taking a temporary pay cut. It might be helpful for them to lose a bit of money each month, rather than losing their job altogether. You can always promise the money will be backdated later on when you get the business back on your feet.
Your staff are important, so try to hold onto them, if you can until they’re the last resort to cut.
Consider A Loan If You’re In Trouble
A loan can often be a light at the end of a tunnel, and it can provide you with a lifeline if needed. If you’re thinking about a loan, then you want to find the right one and only when you find yourself in trouble. You might also want to think about how much you need to borrow. Wise Loan offers installment loans that can be very helpful when you need short bursts of money over time. There are so many different options out there, but it’s worth knowing how much you’re going to need. Be aware of interest rates and any hidden fees or dodgy companies that are out there.
Support can be needed when it comes to your financial issues in business, and so it’s important to take advantage of these offers of help where needed. A reminder though, this is not your money. Remember that all loans will need to be paid back as they’re a debt so always think about them in this way, rather than seeing it as free money.
Sell Any Assets You Don’t Need
Assets are any extras you have in the business that might have some financial value. It could be physical assets like your computers and equipment in the workplace or investments that you need to cash in early to make your money back. You have assets like an office building or worksite, for example. If either of those are adaptable to work from home, then you could rule out the cost of this work building, and that might help generate a bit more extra money where needed. Look into all of your assets and try to figure out which ones will help you make the money needed to help stay in the black for longer.
Bankruptcy is not something anyone wants to go through and so for a business, it’s very important to put all these precautions in place to avoid it. Whether you’re selling your assets, creating better budget plans, and cutting any unnecessary expenditures. Always be wary of any risks you take and hold onto your employees for as long as possible.
(Cover Image Source: Pexels)