Starting a business and keeping it going isn’t for the faint of heart. You are likely to face a lot of challenges including the most common small business financial challenges that we’ll cover in this post.
You should ask yourself: Are you ready to face all challenges and keep your entrepreneurial dream alive? Or, are you among the 20% of people who shut down their small businesses in the first year of operation?
As a small business owner, you should be prepared to fight all odds, overcome financial challenges, and grow your company.
To help you prepare well, let’s discuss some common small business financial challenges you might have to face. We’ll also share tips on how to overcome them.
The Major Small Business Financial Challenges
Without further ado, here’s a list of the top financial challenges small business owners face and a few tips to cope with them.
1. Limited or Inconsistent Cash Flow
Most small business owners struggle to overcome the financial challenge of maintaining cash flow. Sometimes, it can become difficult to cover the monthly bills and overhead expenses of the company.
If liquidity is a major challenge for your small business, you should focus on streamlining the invoicing and payment acceptance process.
You can:
- Offer a discounted payment for quicker invoice clearance.
- Send payment reminders to clients for faster cash collection.
- Allow online payments through multiple payment gateways such as debit/credit cards, PayPal, and Stripe.
- Reduce expenses to maintain a positive balance between accounts payable and accounts receivable.
- Collect payments before you pay vendors, resources providers, and other partnering companies.
2. Not Raising Enough Funds
When raising funds to start your business, make sure that you evaluate how much money you will need to start and run your small business. Many small business owners fail to do so, which gives rise to major financial challenges.
When drafting a financial plan, you should consider startup and ongoing costs, including the cost of:
- Registering your business as a legal entity type – be it a Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Limited Liability Company (LLC), or Corporation.
- Office space rent
- Monthly utility bills
- Salaries of your employees
- Cost of perks given to employees such as paid leave and bonuses
- Business website (design, hosting, domain buying, maintenance)
You can prevent most money management and cash flow issues by evaluating and reducing your business expenses effectively. The best way to overcome cash flow-related financial challenges is to start small and keep your business finances in check. Do not spend too much money too soon.
3. Mixing Business and Personal Finances
Many entrepreneurs fail to separate their business finances from personal ones, which can cause a lot of trouble. To avoid the financial challenges that occur due to mixed finances, you should open a business bank account and use it for all business-related payments and cash inflow.
Another great way to prevent this financial challenge is to set up a business accounting process and use accounting solutions such as QuickBooks.
4. Not Creating a Budget
Spending more money than you can afford is another major financial challenge for small business owners. The best way to solve it is to create a budget for everything, from marketing to website development, recruitment, sales promotions, discount offers, and customer service.
Define the initial allocated budget in your business plan and keep optimizing it year after year.
5. Mispricing Your Products and Services
Business owners sometimes total up costs and then add on their margins to calculate the price of their products and services. However, this might not always work as the resulting price can be different from the real market value of the product.
To generate interest and capture the attention of people, you should price your products and services according to their market value. You should also conduct competitor research to see how other companies are pricing their products/services and what they’re offering to their customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the financial problems faced by small businesses?
Some common financial problems faced by small businesses include:
- Limited or inconsistent cash flow
- Not raising enough funds
- Mixing business and personal finances
- Not creating a budget
- Mispricing products/services
- Not setting up a proper business accounting process
2. What is the biggest challenge for small businesses?
The biggest challenge for small businesses is to maintain a balanced cash flow.
3. What are the problems faced by small businesses?
Along with financial challenges, small businesses also face problems like:
- Difficulty acquiring and retaining customers
- Lack of resources
- Money and time management issues
- Difficulty building a team of reliable professionals
- Inability to capitalize on current market trends
4. How can a business solve financial problems?
Small business owners should:
- Create a budget for everything.
- Find ways to retain customers.
- Define payment terms and deadlines clearly.
- Identify the best ways to reduce expenses.
- Invest in crisis management.
5. What are the indicators of financial distress?
Here are a few indicators of financial distress:
- Poor profits
- A decline in revenue generation
- An increase in interest payments
- Business accounting issues
Ready to Overcome These Financial Challenges?
Financial challenges are often one of the top reasons why businesses fail.
Using the tips that we’ve shared in this article, you can beat the odds and overcome all small business financial challenges. You just need to do proper financial planning, spend carefully, and reduce mistakes that can cost you money.
Do you need help starting a business from scratch? Connect with our business formation experts for help.
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