Managing cashflow

Every business has to watch very closely its income, profit and cash situation. If you budget carefully – and achieve your sales targets – then the profit will look after itself. If your income is too low, you will run into problems because you will not have enough income to pay your bills – but you should notice lack of sales fairly quickly. Failing to keep an eye on the cash flow is all too easy and can have a catastrophic effect if you suddenly discover that you have no cash to pay your debts.

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BACS Payment Schemes, the industry body responsible for overseeing automated payment, has launched a new campaign to help small businesses beat the problem of late payment. ‘Pay Me Direct' offers advice and support for small firms suffering from delays in payment, as well as an automated payment system to help simplify the process. See www.bacs.co.uk/BPSL/paymedirect/ for further details.