The recovery is going to be slow and a hard-financial grind. Initially, budgets will be low because of the loss of earnings so here are a few tips that might help.
Firstly, use a cash-flow forecasting system which you can update every week based on a bank reconciliation. We built our own years ago and update it first thing every Monday. It has helped us get through this crisis and would certainly help you navigate to your future.
It allows us to keep a check on outstanding invoices and see if we are on target. By doing it weekly you can avoid embarrassing cash-shortages in the middle of the month.
Cash-flow forecasting allows for planning to the end of this financial year and next. It will show you what you have to do to make things better and how long it will take to get there.
Make sure you keep each income and expenditure line separate so that you have detailed knowledge of each going forward and also looking back. That way you’ll see who’s costing you what and who’s bringing you the most money, and if they pay on time!
Secondly, use social media to let people know that you are still here and open for business. Brief messages on Twitter and Facebook referring to blogs on your website and posted blogs on LinkedIn. Spend an hour each day writing a blog and a social media message.
Thirdly, use the telephone to ring round your clients to reassure them that you are up and running. See when you might be trading with them again. Then you can add on a month and put them in your forecast as some potential income!
Fourthly, how about spending 5 hours a week telemarketing, that’s only an hour each day, ringing new potential companies and seeing if and when they might be interested in trading with you. This will steadily build your prospect pipeline and the knowledge can be fed into your cash-flow forecast.
Fifthly, take control of your time and employ a call-handling agency to field calls between 10.00 and 4.00. You return calls after 4.00 and before 10.00 each day and so gain 6 uninterrupted hours during which you can concentrate.
If you would like to talk about any of these 5 tips please don’t hesitate to call us on 0808-172-1900 .