23 Ways to Increase Cash Flow in 2023

However, an agile company needs the freedom to deviate from the budget without causing undue stress on its health, goals or people. If you’re unable to respond to an unexpected opportunity due to budget constraints — or because any cash investment requires showing an immediate return — you stagnate. By focusing on cash flow and being more willing to tackle paperwork up front, Jim’s new way means more money in the bank, literally.

While it’s easiest to do at the start of the relationship, the steps below should be taken for all customers, no matter how long they’ve been a client. Setting financial goals is a big part of how a business gets where it wants to go. Your business plan will help you figure out what those goals are, the milestones you need to reach, and how you plan to achieve them.

Make or Break: Seven Ways to Improve your Business Cash Flow

The danger to the dividend comes from AT&T’s ability to slash it. Before the dividend reduction in 2022, AT&T maintained a 35-year streak of increases to the payout. Those dividend hikes provided a sense of confidence in the stock and the payout. The stock surged 7% higher following its earnings announcement for the third quarter of 2023. A possible reason for the increase may have involved its guidance for free cash flow, which rose from $16 billion to $16.5 billion for 2023. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.

• Accelerating the cash conversion period in this area requires that you use the quickest means of delivering your products or services to your customers.
• It’s always a good idea to work to improve your cash-flow management.
• Solutions such as Invoice2go can also help by notifying you when customers have opened your invoice email and again when payment is overdue.

If sales are stagnating—or even if they’re not—from time to time, you might want to consider retooling your marketing campaigns. One need look no further than Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign; back in 2014, it was credited with bringing the beverage company a two-percent spike in sales. If your business is strapped for cash, you might want to consider leasing equipment and renting retail or office space rather than buying it outright. In other words, your business will be better positioned to respond to new opportunities and address unforeseen challenges.

Use Electronic Payments

However, if you are still trying to build your business, immediately raising prices isn’t advisable. You will be better off looking at other ways to add to your revenue. Cash flow is vital to small businesses because it is the money that keeps your business going. If your business runs out of cash and can’t borrow more, then you’re looking at potentially losing everything you’ve worked for. Cash flow in conjunction with profit will determine how well your business will perform.

Frequently asked questions about business cash flow

Ongoing monitoring and optimization of automated processes are necessary to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. A key strategy is leveraging automation to streamline billing, invoicing, and payment collection processes. By embracing automation and addressing these challenges, businesses can unlock the benefits of increased cash flow. Look for processes with high error rates that could benefit from automation, improving accuracy. Analyze processes requiring manual data entry and prioritize data integration for increased efficiency. Evaluate your customer support workflows to find opportunities for automation, enhancing response times to customer questions and issues.

If however, this is not possible, using your business credit card will also lead to improving cash flow for your business. However, what needs to be taken care of is not using your personal credit card as this will lead to complex accounting at the end of the year. If you must buy, using credit or payment terms will help to improve cash flow for your business.

Build niche or “guide” websites for lead or referral income

Such cloud systems substantially improve cash flow for your business directly as well as indirectly. Thus, cutting down on process costs in the ways mentioned above will definitely assets not subject to depreciation improve cash flow for your business. Tracking due dates and forecasting your sales against your liabilities is one of the ways to improve cash flow for your business.

In some cases, there’ll be fees for paying off debt ahead of schedule and higher interest rates which end up costing you more money rather than saving you some. With both options, you benefit by having payments that are easier to manage and potentially lower interest rates. Your recurring expenses are the constant costs of running your business. By renegotiating billing and payout times, you can set up a smooth cycle of money coming in before it needs to go out, saving you the stress of figuring out how you’ll manage the time in between.

But even if you can get your clients to cough up a part of the invoice in advance, it’ll give you some much-needed liquidity so you can focus on executing the project. Ensure you maintain clear records of when an invoice is sent, if the payment is received, and which clients and customers the invoice was sent to and who are pending. Increasing your prices is a concept that scares many business owners.

Maintain a cash flow forecast

However, if you play your cards right (especially if you have a family) you can save $50 or more per month on a new plan. Often, you can find options allowing you to save $10-25 per month. Allconnect.com is one tool that will show you the options you have based on your ZIP code.

Now it’s great that you’re making more money each month, but there is a trade off. Paying off debt is absolutely the most reliable way to increase your personal cash flow. Training employees on data security best practices can minimize risks and ensure compliance with regulations.

A vending machine is a piece of equipment that will cost you upfront and take a bit of upkeep to replenish, but buying in bulk and selling at a slight premium will add up in time. Outside ATM machines can charge upwards of $5 per transaction, and you could get a small piece of that. However, if you have a knack for photography, then selling your stock photos online should come almost naturally to you. Whether it’s portraits, landscape photography, business photography, or something else, find it and stick to it. Another avenue for passive income is to leverage photo-selling websites such as iStockPhoto and ShutterStock to earn extra money while you sleep.