Introduction To Cash Flow Management
In this comprehensive cash flow management guide, I will share what I advise and implement to manage cash flow in my client’s business as a cash flow expert.
From my experience of working with hundreds of clients, I have come across two main reasons why cash flow management is always on top of your mind.
Either you want to ensure you have enough cash to run business operations without a cash flow rollercoaster or manage cash flow during business growth.
If you are still here, you want to ensure financial stability and support your business growth with effective cash flow management to maintain a healthy cash flow.
But, you might be wondering why you should pay attention to cash flow management now.
Did you know over 85% of small businesses and startups don’t survive past the first five years because of issues related to cash flow problem – and over 70% of entrepreneurs lose their sleep over these matters?
According to QuickBooks, 80% of businesses worry about cash flow.
As a small business owner or an entrepreneur, we know it takes longer than expected and costs more than anticipated to develop, market, and deliver the product. So, it is crucial to understand the importance of proper cash flow management to have enough cash flow to keep moving ahead in the business.
Whether you are a start-up or an established business, cash management plays a huge role in keeping your business afloat and ensuring you have enough cash to accomplish your financial goals and predict future cash flows.
We often hear how a startup went bust in the early stage of business because they exhausted their initial funding sooner than they thought and could not raise the next round. This underlines the importance of maintaining adequate cash reserves for unexpected expenses.
I have seen well-known brands like BHS, Made.com, and Toys R Us bankrupt because of poor cash flow management.
So, it proves that whatever stage you are in your business journey, cash management is critical more than ever.
Did you know?
According to Score.org 82% of businesses fail because of poor understanding or poor cash flow management, not because of lack of sales?
It doesn’t have to be this way.
By being in the remaining 18%, you can go further in your business and make a bigger impact on causes you care about.
I am on a mission to change that for you through successful cash flow management.
3 Key Takeaways
- Essential for Survival and Growth: Effective cash flow management is crucial for preventing the downfall of startups and small businesses within their initial years. It highlights the importance of strategic planning and proactive management to foster sustainable growth and financial stability.
- The M.A.P Method: A strategic framework comprising Management, Analysis, and Projection, the M.A.P Method offers a structured approach to control cash flow. It emphasizes the importance of accurate cash flow statements, spending prioritization, and setting cash flow targets to maintain liquidity and support business operations.
- Adopting Tools and Strategies: The utilization of appropriate tools and advanced strategies is vital for optimized cash flow management. Tailored tools for different business sizes and comprehensive strategies, including cash flow forecasting and debt management, are essential for enhancing a business’s financial health and facilitating strategic growth decisions.
If you care about the impact you want to make in the world, you care about your business, and if you care about your business, you have to care about cash flow management
Before we go further, you might wonder why you should listen to me?
As a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA) and Cash Flow Specialist with over two decades of experience, I have assisted hundreds of clients in managing cash flow across diverse sectors such as healthcare, retail, marketing agencies, fine arts, and e-commerce, with annual revenues ranging from £40k to £53.8m.
I have been featured in leading media sites like Independent and global brands like QuickBooks Online, Zoho, and Float app to explain my concepts, learnings, and stories.
I am the founder of Hungry Cash Flow software and the creator of The Cash Flow Hub- The world’s most comprehensive cash flow resource online. I serve my clients through my consulting company, Hungry Cash Flow Ltd.
I am sharing these credentials to assure you are learning from a professional who helps clients manage cash flow for a living every day.
For example, I helped Bryan Johnson, who runs an e-commerce online store selling toys for kids, to develop a business cash flow management plan to ensure he doesn’t run the business based on his current bank balance.
Result?
No more sleepless nights, wondering whether he will have enough money to pay salaries at the month’s end.
Then there’s Rohit Pant, who is a marketing coach. He didn’t have a cash cushion. I worked with him to develop cash flow management processes for sustained business growth.
Result?
He is elevating his earnings without overwhelm and financial stability stress.
I also helped Emily Barnes, a social media agency, manage cash flow better by understanding the difference between revenue, profit, and cash. It’s crucial to differentiate between cash flow and profit for successful financial management.
I worked with her for three months to build a cash flow management system, allocating cash to buckets coinciding with her business model.
Here’s her story in full.
Cash Flow Management Case Study
Emily’s Story – Working Based On Fiction Instead Of Financial Facts
WHO SHE IS
She runs an established, successful social media agency with good revenues. She is great at building professional relationships. Clients loved her service and were keen to use her agency to build their social media presence. She doesn’t have problems getting sales.
What She Did And What Went Wrong?
She sells her services as monthly retainer fees as well as bespoke packages. She had most of her bespoke packages paid in full at the point of sale, for which she had to deliver her service for the next six months.
She thought she was richer than she was because she collected the cash from clients, but she hadn’t earned it yet as she hadn’t delivered her promise in full.
It means at the point of sales, although she had collected the cash, she hadn’t earned it yet by month 3.
Here’s why
You can see from this spreadsheet that Emily’s client, Sarah, bought bespoke 1:1 coaching for £20k and paid £20k upfront in Oct. She sent an invoice in October, and it was paid in October.
The program is to commence in January, and by December, she hadn’t delivered her service, so she hasn’t earned it yet.
She spent all the cash buying new programs and investing in a mastermind, as she wanted to invest in her personal growth.
What Was The Biggest Cash Mistake She Made, And What Was The Misconception She Had?
Her biggest mistake was spending money she didn’t have. When a few clients like Sarah cancelled the bespoke packages they had bought and asked for a refund, she didn’t have enough to pay them back.
Lessons Learned
Emotions are a powerful force. They can help you sell stuff.
Emotions also get people to buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have, i.e., the borrowed money.
Before you buy something in your business, ask yourself, “Will this purchase help me grow my business or myself?” If the answer is yes, then invest.
If not, think twice before you spend your cash. Remember, cash is the energy fuel in the business, so use it wisely.
Don’t get excited by looking at the social feed of ‘apparently’ successful business owners who you think are ahead of you. Wear the logical hat and stop buying based on emotions.
Next, I will demonstrate how you can expect to achieve the results like Rory, Emily and Bryan, including cash flow mistakes they made so that you can avoid them along with best practices to follow.
Before we go further, it is important to get the basics right. So, let’s go through the fundamentals of cash flow management.
The Basics of Cash Flow Management
In this section, we will cover the following:
- What is cash flow management?
- Why cash flow management is important?
- What are the functions of cash flow management?
- What are the cash flow management challenges small business owners face?
What Is Cash Flow Management?
Cash flow management is a process to manage the flow of cash to ensure business runs smoothly, without running out of cash, even when sales are slowing down.
As a business owner, It’s a bit like steering your ship using cash flow management strategies to navigate through financial storms ( financial challenges) so that you can reach the destination: achieving financial stability and business growth.
In essence, cash flow management underpins a business’s ability to operate, grow, and succeed over the long term.
Why Is Cash Flow Management Important in Business?
Cash Flow management is important in business for several reasons.
From my experience of working with my clients over the years, there are five reasons why cash flow management is important in business.
1. Maintains Smooth Business Operations
Cash flow management is vital because if your cash outflows are higher than your cash inflows, it won’t take long to reach the point where you cannot pay for goods, salaries, and operating costs. It covers the essential expenses like rent and wages. From what I have seen, the number one thing that keeps my clients awake at night is whether they have enough cash to pay salaries at the end of the month.
2. Ensures Financial Stability
Cash Flow management can help run business operations efficiently, ensuring financial stability. In turn, you can always be sure to have enough money in the business to pay for unexpected expenses like a massive tax bill.
One common mistake I often see with clients is they forget to set aside cash reserves to pay taxes.
Smaller businesses normally have a lack of finance professionals providing advice on a regular basis to provide an update on their tax situation affecting cash flow.
Let me ask you a question.
Have you encountered a moment when you had to pay corporation tax or self-assessment tax when you had a cash shortage?
From what I have seen, most business owners face this situation.
You can see why cash flow management is key to financial stability.
3. Drives Business Growth
It serves as the foundation for financial growth and the ability to pursue new prospects, essential for progress.
For example, overspending in the month may result in insufficient funding for working capital next month, which means there may be less cash to spend on marketing, which may mean fewer leads generated, fewer sales, less cash flow and less growth.
4. Boosts Business Creditworthiness
Positive cash flow enhances the ability to secure favourable financing, critical for investments and expansions.
Think of a bank manager’s point of view.
Business A
doesn’t have an accurate cash flow statement that shows how much cash was consumed, and it doesn’t even tie in with what the bank managers can see from the bank statement because there may be a gap in bookkeeping work. Consequently, businesses cannot provide a concrete cash flow management plan to repay loans on time.
Vs
Business B
This provides a clear pattern of processes to manage cash flow weekly and monthly and demonstrates how and when they will repay the loan on time.
As a bank manager, he would lend the funds to Business B instead of Business A if he had to choose.
5. Supports Decision Making
Effective cash flow management means you can make informed, data-driven strategic financial decisions by forecasting future cash positions, which is key to capitalizing on opportunities. Part of this strategic approach includes using tools and methods to forecast your cash flow accurately.
Lastly, managing your cash flow means identifying issues in advance.
For example, unexpected cash flow issues can be fatal for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Due to their size and limited resources, a negative cash flow can cause them to go under in a matter of months.
Thanks to regular monitoring, you can better understand where you are spending too much and how to prevent a snowball effect. This is especially true for small business cash flow management, where close monitoring can differentiate success and failure.
Here’s the thing.
In my view, cash management allows you to stay in the game while other businesses fail. Furthermore, It gives you the ability to accelerate investment in the right areas of the business with cash flow control while others are procrastinating, fearing losing money in business - Shishir Khadka
What are the functions of cash flow management?
From what I have implemented in my client’s business, here are the functions of cash flow management.
- Cash flow management keeps you financially disciplined. It keeps you accountable and stops you from making purchases that you don’t need now to grow your business.
- It creates a process to check whether you have enough working capital to meet your short-term financial obligations.
- It helps you plan your cash flow for bigger purchases as an investment planner by allocating surplus cash in short-term, liquid investments for returns.
- It forces you to be creative to protect and utilize your cash better in your business to improve cash flow efficiency through cost control and revenue improvement strategies.
- It facilitates measuring financial performance by reviewing cash flow statement, balance sheet and income statement.
- It helps you in identifying and mitigating financial risk
- It helps you to manage debt to ensure timely repayment without harming cash flow.
- It helps you to improve cash flow forecasting by estimating future cash inflows and outflows to plan ahead.
What Are The Key Challenges Entrepreneurs Face When Managing Cash Flow?
If you are experiencing cash flow challenges, from my experience, your issues usually fall into one of two categories:
- You’re not getting enough money into your business
- You’re spending far too much money.
Within these two categories, there are a few common challenges that most entrepreneurs face.
1. Overspending
Spending too much money on things that aren’t essential for your business results in you making regular payments that aren’t necessary. The more you spend, the more you have to bring in to cover these costs.
It reminds me of a dental practice owner when I saw him at his clinic for our quarterly cash flow planning session. He showed his latest gadget- a scanner.
I asked him how long it would take for him to recover the investment. He said around 6 to 8 months based on the £170/scan charge.
After twelve months, I asked him if he had recovered the investment.
His short answer was he was very behind in recouping the cost.
2. Outstanding Receivables
Receivables are a balance of money that your company is owed. Let’s say you service a client, but they haven’t paid you for the job. This means you have outstanding receivables.
As a result, you experience cash flow issues as you’re missing out on a lot of money in your bank account.
From my experience with small business owners from different industries, you do not have a cash collection process, or if you are aware of debtor balances, you do not have a cash management process.
It reminds me of a marketing agency chasing new clients to sell its Facebook done-for-you service, whereas it had three months of sales value as debtors. He wasn’t aware of it.
He was chasing new money, which was hard to get, while he had old money to collect.
3. Employee Issues
What happens if you’re in negative cash flow?
There’s not enough money to cover all your operational expenses. In this scenario, it’s common for your employees to get hit the worst. Because of poor cash flow management, you might not be able to pay them on time.
Do you think they’ll stand for this? Of course not.
They won’t want to stay in a job where they can’t be guaranteed a regular payment date every month. So, you’ll see people quit their jobs, which damages your business and can push you to the brink of closure.
What Are The Benefits Of Effective Cash Flow Management?
From what I have seen reviewing before and after cash flow positions of more than hundreds of clients, I can categorize the benefits of cash flow management into the following areas.
1. Preventing Cash Shortages
From my experience of working with clients over the years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, cash flow management helps to prevent cash shortages that may disrupt operating business.
It reminds me of one of my dental practice owner clients based in Wimbledon, southwest London, who once faced significant cash flow issues due to the cyclical nature of client appointments and the high upfront costs of dental equipment.
One of the common mistakes I see in dental practices, sometimes they are paid upfront by NHS for the UDAs they haven’t completed yet.
This means that in the following year, there will be a clawback.
Hence, there is less cash flow to cover monthly fixed outgoings for lease equipment and salaries.
I prepared the cash flow forecast to visualise the cash flow gap where cash outflows exceed inflows.
This foresight allowed the dental practice owner to arrange a flexible financing solution in advance with Weslyn Bank. As a result, it ensured the practice could continue operating smoothly without compromising on the quality of dental care.
2. Facilitates Access to Financing
From the insights gained through my client work, I believe demonstrating control over cash flow improves your business’s creditworthiness. It is easier to secure loans or lines of credit on favourable terms.
After establishing a solid cash flow management track record, the Wimbledon dental practice successfully applied for a loan to expand its operations.
The enhanced financial credibility allowed the practice to negotiate a loan with a lower interest rate from 6.25% to 3.75%, knocking off £378.87 interest expense from P&L and saving cash outgoings. The extra funds allowed the practice to add more dental chairs to treat patients.
3. Optimizes Spending
In my professional journey working with clients, I’ve noticed that business owners mostly juggle cash flow like juggling balls in a circus. They are trying to optimise their spending prioritising which vendor to pay , when and how much cash.
Cash management can help you to optimize spending in your business by knowing when cash flow will be positive.
I’m reminded of John’s situation. He owns a boutique clothing store in New Kings Road, Chelsea.
I showed him how to analyse historical sales data to identify trends and optimise stock levels accordingly, reducing overstocking.
This inventory management led to a 17.75% increase in gross sales by capitalizing on high-demand periods without the risk of excess unsold stock.
As a result, it had two positive cash flow impacts.
- Reduced inventory level meant less cash tied up inventory
- Increased revenue means immediate cash income.
4. Improves Supplier and Customer Relationships
Managing cash flow better also means you can negotiate better payment terms with suppliers and offer more attractive terms to customers, improving both supply chain and customer loyalty.
This brings to mind the situation with Amarjit Kapoor who runs a marketing agency based in Hayes, London. He was struggling with balancing project costs with delayed client payments.
Through cash flow management, we negotiated extended payment terms with key suppliers and shifted to a retainer-based model for clients, enhancing cash flow predictability.
This improved the agency’s financial stability and solidified long-term relationships with suppliers and clients, contributing to a 15% growth in annual revenue.
5. Supports Strategic Growth
In my work with various clients, I’ve realised they always seek clarity and confidence to make strategic financial investments.
This could be expanding to a new location/market or even launching new product lines.
This reminds me of my client, Dr Manish Chitnis, based in Andover, UK.
He is an ambitious growth, growth-minded dental practice owner owning four dental practices doing multiple seven-figure patient income revenue.
He is always concerned about cash flow management. Managing four dental practices is not easy.
Through eighteen months of working together to formulate a cash flow management plan, he managed to buy another dental practice.
Look, each point highlights that good cash flow management is crucial for keeping your business steady and growing across different sectors, ensuring its success and stability over time.
What Are The Core Components of Cash Flow Management ?
You should be aware of three core cash flow management components.
- Operational cash flow
- Investing cash flow
- Financing cash flow
Operational cash flow
Operational cash flow is where you spend most of the time managing cash flow on a daily basis. This is where businesses generate most of the cash and use that cash to pay the accounts payable. This information is under cash flow from operations in the cash flow statement.
Investing cash flow
Investing cash flow refers to the cash flow from investing activities when you receive cash from selling assets such as motor vehicles, buildings, and equipment, and investing cash outflow refers to money going out to buy these assets.
Financing cash flow
Financing cash flow refers to cash received and paid from external sources like banks, investors, and shareholders. When managing cash flow, you will find it under cash flow from financing activities.
Examples Of Cash Flow Management-Real-life client stories
In this section, we look at some entrepreneurs with cash flow management issues and how they resolved their challenges.
Here are some of the cash flow stories of entrepreneurs who made cash flow management-related mistakes and the lessons they learned, and we can, too.
Bryan’s Story – Failing To Plan Is Simply Planning To Fail
Who he is?
Meet Bryan, the owner of an online store selling toys for kids. He wanted to expand his online store and grow his business.
What Did He Do, And What Went Wrong?
His business was growing well, and he invested a significant amount in a new fulfilment centre. Bryan soon realized that he didn’t have enough cash to cover day-to-day operations.
What Was The Biggest Cash Mistake He Made, And What Was His Misconception?
Bryan’s mistake was running a business based on a Bank Balance Without a Cash Flow Plan.
Many entrepreneurs make crucial financial decisions based on their bank balance. If you are one of them, stop doing that. Bryan also made the same mistake of spending cash in the business without knowing what he could afford to do.
It’s like driving a car and only concentrating on what’s ahead of you rather than looking around and also scanning the traffic on both sides.
Driving like this, you can crash your car.
Such an approach can crash a business.
The only way to avoid it is to have a cash flow plan, use it to understand your cash position holistically, and then make the financial decisions.
Lessons Learned
They say failing to plan is planning to fail.
Running a business without a cash flow plan based on the current bank balance often leads to a situation where they do not have enough cash to pay the bills.
Bryan learned that it is vital to have a cash flow plan by preparing a cash flow statement.
Rohit – Not Prepared For Tomorrow
There is a difference between going fast and going far in business. One who is prepared for tomorrow wins the business marathon.
Who He Is?
Rohit is a marketing coach who helps his clients develop marketing strategies, build funnels, and make the sales process seamless.
He is very good at what he does. He wants to help as many people as possible to make a big impact with his gift, sharing his marketing knowledge and know-how.
What Did He Do And Go Wrong?
But Rohit had a problem. He only looked at today’s money. He didn’t think about what would happen if sales dipped and the cash in the bank could not sustain the current level of spending.
What Was The Biggest Cash Flow Management Mistake He Made?
His biggest cash flow mistake was not having a cash cushion.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough cash to pay the bills when the sales dipped.
Running a business with high overheads is not intelligent. He only thought about today and invested all his cash to support his business growth, without thinking about what if the investment doesn’t work or takes time to get a return.
Lessons Learned
Not having a cash flow cushion kills more businesses than one can imagine.
By asking yourself, “Do I have enough cash right now to cover overhead expenses for the next 12 weeks?” you’ll stay clear of the business survival crisis.
With a cash flow buffer, you can deal with an unprecedented situation, economic downturn, an exodus of your biggest customers, and sales drying up for a long time.
By all means, invest in growth, but don’t at the cost of survival. Build a cash cushion first.
How to manage cash flow (The M.A.P Method Process) by Shishir Khadka
From my experience working with multiple six-figures and seven-figures over the years, I am sharing my five-step process for cash flow management.
Before I do, I want to share with you an overview of how I help my clients control cash flow using my proprietary process – The M.A.P. Method
where
M- stands for Management
A- stands for Analysis
P- stands for Projection
Cash Flow Management is an element of cash flow control- Shishir Khadka
I have shared many cash flow management stories of how my clients use the M.A.P Method across various industries such as healthcare, retail, project management, and e-commerce to have complete control of cash flow.
For example, I have shared Brenda’s e-commerce business story.
Then there’s Dr.Manish’s Dental practice cash flow management story.
Click here to find many cash flow management stories using the M.A.P Method.
Let’s go through my proprietary process of managing cash flow.
STEP 1 – Preparing an Accurate cash flow statement
STEP 2 – Focus on Credit control- to collect the cash on time
STEP 3- Prioritise to spend existing cash
STEP 4- Timely Supplier Payments coinciding with clients expected money coming in
STEP 5- Set up cash flow target
You can watch this video about how I do it for my clients by following these five steps looking over my shoulder.
Utilizing Practical Cash Flow Management Software
Many cash flow management apps or tools are available for UK small business owners. Which one to choose depends on your sector, such as retail, healthcare, or project management, and also your specific needs.
If you are a relatively small business and you want to track cash inflow and outflows, then you can use this spreadsheet as a cash flow management template.
If you are an established business with complex cash flow challenges, I suggest you use cash flow management software.
Among the best cash flow focused I have found in the UK are :
- Hungry Cash Flow
- Cash Analytics
- Pulse
- Agicap
Accounting software such as QuickBooks Online and Xero are the most popular ones in the UK; from what I have seen, my clients using them also have an inbuilt functionality to manage basic cash flow.
These platforms often feature a cash flow dashboard that provides real-time insights into your financial status.
Advancement in fintech means this accounting software can connect to open banking to pull the data from which cash flow statements can be prepared, allowing you to manage cash flow as a breeze.
If you want to learn more about choosing the right cash flow management software, check out here.
What Are The Advanced Cash Flow Management Strategies?
This section is for you if you are a seasoned business owner looking for advanced cash flow management strategies and implementation.
I will share the following areas so that you can improve your cash flow position with an example of one of my dental practice clients who just hit a seven-figure patient income.
- Cash Flow Forecasting
- Liquidity Management
- Investment Planning
- Financial Risk Management
- Working Capital Management
- Debt Management
- Cash Flow Optimisation
Example Of An Advanced Cash Flow Management In A Dental Practice
In Redhill, Surrey, a dental practice owned by Satish Shah, close to making £1m from treating patients, shows how really focusing on managing money can make a big difference.
By making smart money moves, the clinic didn’t just get its finances under control; it also set itself up for future success and made its operations run smoother.
We’ll look at how they went from financial struggles to doing well, with real numbers and results, to highlight the benefits of their approach to handling cash flow.
What was the cash flow position of the dental practice?
When I reviewed the financial statements, the dental practice was nearly £1m patient income. The current cash position was not good based on covering the next two weeks of operational expenses. The dental practice owner worked very long hours in the clinic with a very high debt level, compounded by buying the practice and renovating the building and equipment.
How I created a custom cash flow management plan ?
Here’s what we worked on together for six months: implementing advanced cash flow management strategies.
It all started with having cash flow clarity on the current cash position using a cash flow calculator.
Then use my proprietary process of cash flow control by managing, analysing and projecting cash flow. – The M.A.P. Method I will share in this article is how it works.
We worked on doing cash flow forecasting to liquidity, risk, and working capital management to ensure we optimize cash flow.
Here’s the summary below of the action plan and its impact bit by bit after advanced cash management strategy implementation
After working for six months, managing cash flow effectively and efficiently, here were the results.
Patient income increased by 20% to £1.2m
Cash Position improved to cover three months of operating expenses
Debt level- reduced to £150,000.
After a long time, Satish slept like a log because finally, he felt he had a healthy cash flow position after a long time.
Here is the video if you prefer to watch rather than read.
Summary
In this comprehensive guide, we looked at cash flow management in detail, its importance as an entrepreneur, common mistakes, cash flow stories of some entrepreneurs who have gone through cash flow management challenges, and lessons learned.
Here’s the key takeaway for you.
Cash flow management (M)+ cash flow analysis (A) + Cash Flow Projection (P) = Cash Flow Control
Cash Flow Control = Control in Your Business
Your Next Step-Cash Flow Management Training
Now that you are fully equipped with cash flow management information and inspiration from other small business cash flow management, go through the cash flow management free training to implement the strategies I have shared in this guide.
Let me know how you get on by tagging me on Linkedln or you can join our Hungry Cash Flow Community
Now I will leave it with you.
What are cash flow management tips and tricks you would like to share, or maybe you have a specific cash flow management question not addressed in this guide?
If yes, let me know by leaving a comment below.
