April 12, 2022
Smart financial management is always important to success in the business world, but many are struggling right now as a result of the pandemic. The pandemic has affected all businesses in one way or another and for many, it has been a struggle to stay afloat. This is why it is helpful to be aware of a few financial tips in 2022 that will helpfully help you to take control, improve your financial situation and help to kickstart your recovery. So, if you are in a difficult spot or simply looking to improve your business’s financial wellbeing, here are a few tips that will help.
The best starting place is to go through all of your regular expenses with an accountant and relevant staff members. With each expense, you should discuss whether or not it can be cut from the budget or if there are ways that you could make savings. Even just a small change to a minor expense will make a noticeable difference on your bottom line at the end of the year. Cutting your costs is intelligent, but just make sure that it won't affect the quality or make work harder for your team as this could end up costing more in the long run.
Many lessons can be learned from the pandemic and one of the key takeaways has been the importance of emergency reserves. Many businesses that were flourishing at the start of 2020 are no longer simply due to the fact that they did not have an emergency fund to fall back on. An emergency fund should allow your business to stay afloat during challenging or quiet periods and will also help to provide peace of mind. To build up an emergency fund, you should automate a payment into an easy access account each month.
There are many reasons why businesses should continue with remote work, including lower costs. When you have staff that are working from home, this will greatly reduce your energy consumption which could make a big difference to your financial wellbeing. Not only this, but you may find that you are able to downsize or even go without a central office to free up a significant amount of money.
If you have extra staffing needs (as many businesses do due to COVID-19), you should look to outsource instead of hiring new staff. Outsourcing is easier than ever these days with a growing marketplace off reelance professionals that are able to work remotely. This can be a cost-effective solution as you can pay on a per-project basis and not have toworry about additional employee costs. There are many areas that can be outsourced, including digital marketing, social media, HR, accounting and IT services.
In 2022, many businesses can no longer wait around for customers to pay and unpaid invoices could be creating cash flow issues that could be making it hard to stay afloat. Fortunately, there are many ways that you can get paid quicker to improve cash flow and keep everything running smoothly. A few ways to get paid quicker include agreeing on payment terms, allowing different types of payments and incentivising early payments/penalising late payments just as a few ideas.
Obviously, increasing sales is one of the best ways to improve your company’s financial health. It is easier said than done, but keep in mind that the pandemic has changed the world and may have presented new opportunities that could allow you to increase sales. It is worth conducting market research that could allow you to take advantage of new opportunities and boost your sales. Deborah White has written a fantastic article on the top things to buy that will bring in a steady stream of income for your business, it's well worth taking a read and seeing how these can apply to your business.
If you are in aposition to do so, now is also a good time for reinvesting in the business to fuel growth. As mentioned above, the world is now a different place and companies are having to adapt in order to find continued success. There are many areas that are worth reinvesting in right now, including digital marketing, staff training, research, new software and equipment and green upgrades.
Hopefully, these financial tips will prove to be useful and help a small business take positive steps in 2022. Many are struggling right now as a result of COVID-19, but smart financial management can help a company to get out of a tight spot, kickstart the recovery process and even take the business to new levels of success.
