Financial Problems Faced By Small Businesses & How They Recover?

. 5 min read
Financial Problems Faced By Small Businesses & How They Recover?

Small Business Problems And Solutions

  1. Small and medium-sized enterprises are considered to be the backbone of an economy.
  2. About 90% of the business in a nation is run via small and medium-sized enterprises.
  3. The economic success of a nation needs to have a fully functioning support measure.
  4. Businesses run in need of financial stability.
  5. A successful business operates with consistent cash flow.
  6. The risk of losing control over finances is scary.
  7. It is obvious to encounter financial challenges in a business, especially small and medium businesses.
  • What are the possible challenges a small organisation may encounter?
  • Is it important to have financial stability for a startup?
  • Can a medium-scale enterprise run effectively without much working capital
  • Well, the answer to all of this is negative.
  • You cannot expect wholesome working capital without preparing for the worst, especially when it comes to business.
  • Financial stability is the ultimatum for a business operation.

Financial Problems Faced By Small Businesses

  1. Today businesses plan to manoeuver a situation and get back on track overnight, in some cases within hours.
  2. For those new in the journey, you can still get on the grip with the impact that a loss might have left.
  3. A business runs in anticipation of future impacts.
  4. Sudden negative outbursts may bring an unprecedented level of destruction.
  5. Businesses rely on uncertainties, with prior preparation, especially considering small businesses.
  6. Situations like a pandemic, or inflation largely affect small businesses who fall in the circumstance of being largely untapped at various levels.
  7. It becomes difficult for small businesses to survive a crisis, overcoming challenges like pay to personnel, meeting the demands and supply of the market, carrying out a fiscal stimulus.
  8. You should also reconsider operations when there is no flow of revenue.
  9. Let us read the common challenges encountered by small businesses.
businessman seeing the fall in business on computer screen

Bad Cash Flow Management

  • When businesses start with an unorganised bookkeeping habit, it becomes a bane for the organisation as well as the staff.
  • Organisations need to cater to bookkeeping practices to run a successful business.
  • Small businesses have poor record keepers or no access to good software for virtual bookkeeping practices.
  • Regular monitoring of cash flow is as important as building the team for the long run.
  • Also keeping a check on the revenue helps you to keep count on advance money in case the business needs any.
  • The best way to resolve bad cash flow management is to use free tools during the initial phase, along with templates, paid apps, and calculators.
  • Technology like this will help gain better control over cash flow management, and you will find your way out through the poor situation.

Low Profit In High Sales

  1. Technically your business is spending more towards making sales, but the profit is less.
  2. Sales cost increase because of hidden charges, eating down the bottom line.
  3. It may indicate that your business expenses are going out of control or the business is experiencing a setback.
  4. The best way to counter low profit and high selling costs is to ensure your business has the right materials and offers competitive prices compared to the market.
  5. If there is a need to revisit vendor selection, it must be highly prioritised, and old contracts must be negotiated with newer and higher rates.
  6. For online purchases on various other segments, keep track of how much you spend on your business, and slowly you will find your purchases streamlining.

Insufficient Working Capital

  • Working capital is predominantly the lifeblood of a business, running through its veins.
  • Being a responsible entrepreneur, owner, co-founder, founder of a business, you need to prepare a task to keep a check on the working capital for at least a quarter, to maintain a track of expenses regularly.
  • Suppose you are too occupied with work, handover the task to the team handling the finance department.
  • Without working capital, your business will have no breathing space and no new customers to buy products.
  • One way which can be employed to solve insufficient working capital is to cut expenses of at least 15 to 20% and put the amount aside in a separate account for up to six months.
  • If you see money growing into the new account, you will find yourself starting a new path and also make your business equally financed without looking for an additional investor.

Not Paying Yourself

  1. Did you decide not to pay yourself during the initial days of your business?
  2. Did you think of factoring your salary later into the financial plan?
  3. Do not go by this idea. Your business is a separate entity, and you are its employee.
  4. You may be the owner, founder of the director, but you must set a date when you can pay yourself.
  5. Keep regularity in your salary as well.
  6. You can let go of the first month, but it should not extend to an entire year.
  7. Employee payment should include a financial plan, and the money accounted for your salary.

Bills Payable

  • In the same way that bills receivable excite us, bills payable should also be of equal importance.
  • Business bills should always be cleared on time.
  • Are you running into a habit of late payment, or have piled up a lot of bills at the end of the year?
  • Is this a cash flow problem?
  • Well if so, start renegotiating the payment terms with your financial team as well as your clients.
  • Target the customer with better payment.
  • Set a monthly budget and hit on the same from the very next day.
  • Stick to it, no matter what.
  • Every week should have a day when you clear outstanding bills and a day when you check the bills received.

Collapsing Demand

  1. With demand collapsing for a business, access to the liquidity of the venture becomes an easy option.
  2. It is for all the sectors of the economy that buyers’ slow payments and clients reduce the number of orders.
  3. Build up your business with small cash reserves.
  4. Do not let your business suffer a liquidity shock.
  5. Businesses trading internationally are vulnerable, as such, depending on the conversion rate to increase your working capital should not be the only way out.

Tips To Counter Small Business Problems

Startups and small-scale organisations should always engage in surveys. Surveys are a great way to understand the target audience.

1. Remain Positive

  • It is the challenges that will open new ways to adapt to the new normal and bring your business back on track.
  • With every crisis your business encounters, there is also a way to get out of it.
  • Your business should be able to camouflage in every situation.
  • The best way to do so is the adaptation of technology.
  • Digital solutions are a great way to keep business active, manage operations effectively, adapt to changing services, and survive in the hour of crisis.
  • If your business has suffered a loss, make a pact to recover all the losses within a period.
  • Be positive about your recovery plan and expect to grow up more than ever before.

2. Be Ready With Data

  • For small scale and medium scale businesses, international value chains are a great part of trading.
  • To take lessons from multi-national corporations use networks within the international value chain and closely monitor the impact of a crisis.
  • Analysing a crisis is important as formulating a recovery plan.
  • Address any form of immediate issue and do not let it crop up when the business has to look for more.
animated character of businessman shocked after seeing the bill

To Summarise

  • It is imperative to start a business with finance and employee satisfaction being the primary elements.
  • Automate your business as much as possible to reduce errors.
  • Increase monitoring and keep a safe distance from letting your business dive into a crisis.

Also Read:

1) Grow Big From Your Small Business
2) 13 Best & Affordable Places to Advertise Your Small Business
3) Daily Struggles Of Small Businessmen.
4) How to Hire Staff for Your Small Business? Things to Be Considered & More