Three Ways To Take Control Of Your Cash Flow During The Holiday Season
The holidays can bring the toughest times in your business. Aside from a lot of consumer spending, sales tend to go through the roof and for some business, this is too much to handle. There are even times when a business needs to shut down because they can no longer accommodate more orders or that their expenses overflow.
However, just because you’re closed for the holidays doesn’t mean that your expenses will stop. There are still fixed costs in a business (like salaries) that you have to pay. So if you’re already struggling to keep up with hustle and bustle that the holidays bring, then here are a few tips on how you can regain control of your cash flow.
- Anticipate the impact on your cash flow
If this isn’t your first year to have your business, then you can more or less have an idea of what the holidays imply for your establishment. If you know that it will have a lot of sales based on previous years, then it’s time to expect that in your cash flow. If it’s not, then reflect your projections, too.
Anticipating your cash flow can give you a lot of benefits. For one, you will be prepared for what the holidays bring. You will also get the chance to prep your team and to make the necessary purchases or you can hire part-time staff if you know that business will be booming.
- Manage your staff
A big chunk of fixed costs are the salaries. That is why you should be able to manage your staff and only have enough people that are necessary. You can downsize your permanent employees to a team that can handle the downtime. It means that this permanent team can handle customers coming in during off-peak seasons. Moreover, you can just hire part-time employees during peak seasons for your business.
Take, for example, a toy store. It’s not year-round that you have a lot of sales. What you can do is downsize and only retain the minimum amount of people that will help your toy store operate even during off-peak seasons.
- Be diligent about your payments
Whether it’s a debt or a payable account, you should always take it into account. Don’t forget to invoice it, don’t forget to put it in the books. When you have debts, make sure that you pay them or to stash some money for when you have to pay your creditors. In this way, you maintain good relationships with them and you won’t be surprised in January about the pile of payables you have to settle.
In shorter terms, you just have to keep track of your expenses and debts. While the money is flowing in, make sure that you spare some of those so that you can set up a budget for your business priorities and responsibilities.
Even if the holiday season can give your business a hard time, you can still take advantage of it so that you can better prepare for the next year.