Most businesses trade on credit terms with their customers, letting them purchase as they need and pay later. This can be a great way for businesses to build their customer base and gain more work or sales, since customers will often buy more if they don’t have to pay immediately. However, extending credit to customers, […]
The people that small business owners turn to for independent advice believe that cashflow management and access to finance are only getting harder for SME businesses. A recent poll of the finance broker community, commissioned by Apricity Finance, has demonstrated that the key challenge of cashflow continues to drive the demand for small business finance […]
In a perfect world, suppliers would prefer to be paid cash up front. However, in reality, the world works on credit. Trade credit is inevitable and so is the debt that comes with it. For most businesses, trade credit is essential for growth as businesses don’t have to pay suppliers on the spot but rather with […]
Considering the small business sector employs nearly half the national workforce and contributes around $380 billion to Australia’s GDP [1], it’s easy to see why it’s frequently referred to as the ‘engine room’ of the economy. Like all engine rooms, the sector requires sufficient fuel – in this case, working and growth capital – to […]
While small business owners often dream about one day scaling up their operations, many struggle to let go of their early stage business responsibilities so they can allocate the time to delivering high value tasks and growing the business. [Editor’s note: This is the sixth in a 12-part series, by accountant and serial entrepreneur Tanya Titman, […]
With companies increasingly defaulting on payments, going into administration and getting wound up by the ATO, small to medium businesses are more vulnerable than ever to bad debtors. To safeguard their bottom line against slow and non-payers, it is necessary for businesses to perform due diligence on their customers and otherwise maintain an effective credit management system. Our […]
Inadequate cash flow has been cited as the cause of two in five business failures in Australia *, lending credence to the age-old saying that ‘cash is king’ (an especially unmerciful one at that). For this week’s “Let’s Talk…” feature, we asked more than a dozen thought leaders to identify the common mistakes startup founders and other […]
Fail in high school and you are usually graded an F; the same is true of startups. Depending on who you ask, there are a multitude of reasons why startups fail. Each strand of startup DNA contributes its own reasons for failure, but all of them relate directly to one of the ‘3 Fs’: Founder […]
Running a small business has many rewards, but it has never been an endeavour for the faint-hearted. One of the most common yet avoidable areas of stress for SME owners is the ability to manage and maintain sufficient cashflow. [Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a 12-part series, by accountant and serial entrepreneur Tanya […]
