For many small businesses in America, debt is a pandemic in and of itself itself. With relief efforts easing up, business owners must take on the unenviable task of steadying their balance sheets within a damaged economy. The question remains: Is it possible to secure long-term financial stability beyond? The Chidatma Lex Group shares these insights.
Review Your Budget
The first step towards getting back to financial health is to review and refine your budget. Evaluating your spreadsheets weighed against your bank statements will give you a good overview of pain points and allow you to identify who/what is responsible for good or bad performance. If you’re unsure of how to structure this, make sure you’re consulting online guides and seeking help from a third party to ensure calculations are correct, that you have missed no hidden costs, and explore any possible next courses of action.
It’s important to remember that payroll, salaries, and compensation all count as expenses. To help you track these, it will help to bring in accounting and business management software. Quickbooks provides ERP functionality without the headaches – allowing you to integrate across workflows and remotely manage inventory, payroll, and track your statements more accurately through multiple key integrations.
Reduce Expenses
Once you’ve carried out your analysis, you
’ll have a clearer idea of where the company’s bleeding. With this knowledge, you can reduce your expenses. There is an art to slimming your overheads and often, with imagination, it’s possible to reach neutrality. For example, during the pandemic, many businesses have switched from office spaces to purely working remotely. Sometimes it’s the simple methods, such as reducing heating, turning off lights, etc. that go a long way towards helping your annual review.
There’s a good chance that if you’re operating a small business in the year 2021, your business is digital based. Budget-wise, this is useful as it means you can more easily navigate through expenses and check off expensive items. If you’ve been organized about your contracts, you’ll be able to easily change your healthcare provider, marketing budgets, insurance contracts, or phone service. Even a quick call to relevant agents may help you secure more manageable payments or downgrade existing plans.
Increase Your Income
This is perhaps more easily said than done, but if you can successfully reel in more clients, leverage social media, or diversify your product range, it’s amazing how quickly the ship can turn around. The problem is these things cost time and money. The best way to ensure that any new investments, whether of time or money, succeed is to do plenty of thorough research beforehand – product diversification, for example, requires a firm understanding of customer needs.
Whereas marketing and innovation cost money, new clients will cost you time. To bring in new business and fight to survive, you must break down security barriers with your efforts – that means cold calling, networking, attending events, and reconnecting with previous clients. It’s hard work and it can cost you a little pride but it’s also necessary to keep your company afloat.
Escaping debt is no easy feat but if you’re willing to adapt and you have the fighting determination to secure new business – there’s no reason you can’t reach zero on the balance sheet and enjoy greater financial stability in the years to come.
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The Chidatma Lex Group provides focused legal consultations and helps you establish strong business plans, protecting you as you move forward. Learn more here. If your business suffers due to the topsy-turvey economy, don’t delay. Relentless demands, late deliveries, missed payments, confusing contracts and non-performance present overwhelming and confusing issues. Trust the experienced, caring professionals at Chidatma Lex Group.
Conveniently in New York City (and available by Zoom conference), your experienced business lawyers, Michelle Mandelstein and Dwight Yellen, will make you our priority and put your mind at ease. We are seasoned professionals and know business! We will answer your questions, evaluate your circumstances, and discuss your options. Call us right away (212-903-4546), or contact us confidentially online.
Thanks to our guest colleague, Brittany Fisher, for assisting with this article. We wish you continuous good health and safety.
