No one likes being short of cash. No one likes having bills pile up while you toil at a new business project. And everyone who has started a new business from scratch, at some point has thought (or said) “If only I had more cash, I could improve the design, do more research, have a proper marketing budget, employ an administrator….etc etc”.
But what if we could turn round the disadvantage of a tiny (or non existent) cash flow to actually work for us? It may just be a matter of perspective. Lack of cash may actually increase…
MOTIVATION
There’s nothing like an upcoming mortgage payment, hydro bill, or even the desire to have enough cash to go on a holiday …to light the fire under your rear end. Having little or no cash can be stressful, and sometimes stress can paralyse you into inaction, so it is important to remember why you started a business in the first place….to have financial freedom right? So use your current financial situation to spur you into redoubling your efforts and working at your business with laser like focus.
INNOVATION
“Necessity is the Mother of Invention” as the old proverb goes, and without a massive budget to throw at our inventions or businesses, we start to think outside the box…..and find innovative solutions to problems. Steve Jobs recognised this, even when Apple had a billion dollar R&D budget, he still tried to emulate the atmosphere of the “lean start-up in a garage” to foster great innovation from his designers.
EFFICIENCY
Being short of cash and short of time usually goes hand in hand for the small business owner….after all you have no spare cash to employ a sales team, an administrator or a bookkeeper….so you end up having to fill all these roles by yourself. So unless you want to feel like you are being sucked down over your head into quicksand….you had better get efficient at doing all the tasks that need to be done. This usually mean the elimination of “faffing”, or doing unproductive, non value adding tasks.
VALUE
As a cash strapped business owner, you will always be questioning the value of what you purchase…..the “bang for your buck”. The official term for this is “return on investment”, and when it comes to marketing and sales, ‘ROI” should be forefront of every business owner’s mind.
Big corporations and large brands with their over inflated marketing budgets can afford to flood their markets with TV ads, newspaper commercials, glossy brochures to reach as many people as possible, even if only a tiny percentage become customers.
Small business owners can’t do that. So we have to tailor our miniscule marketing budget to reach the maximum number of people WHO WILL ACTUALLY BECOME PAYING CUSTOMERS. This means effectively targeting our potential customers where they hang out – whether that be on social media, in networking groups, or even if it means banging on their doors, or cold calling……just don’t waste time or money trying to market to everyone.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Having worked in corporations, I know the mindset of ‘having to spend all this years department budget because I might not get it next year”. This leads to sloppy bookkeeping (at best) or downright bullsh*t accounting at worst. When you have to account for every penny you spend, and every penny that comes in…..the cultivation of good bookkeeping habits is priceless. As a small business owner, its not just knowing your numbers – which is essential – it’s also setting up good sales practices – like not giving 30 day payment terms, and making sure that you are pricing your products and services correctly.
QUALITY
Sloppy quality will cost you money. You will either lose repeat customers who don’t complain, just don’t come back,or new customers…because the unsatisfied customers don’t refer them – or worse, bad mouth you, and also the customers who do complain will want refunds or new products. Either way, if you are counting costs, your quality control processes need to be impeccable.
I’m not trying to convince you that you should be dancing around and yelling “Thank God! I’m broke!”, as you punch the air…….it’s extremely hard, frustrating and sometime depressing to be seemingly always struggling to make ends meet as you build your business. But in every situation, there are ways to make the best of things. The lessons learned now, if applied as your company grows and becomes successful, will stand you in good measure.
