Perhaps the easiest thing you can do is quickly invoice customers or clients. Invoicing more quickly means not only that you get paid more quickly. But invoicing as soon as you’ve shipped a product or provided a service often means you collect more money. For services, for example, you’ll typically find it easier to bill more for a service if the customer or client still remembers all the details of your service. Wait a few weeks, however, and the customer may have forgotten about the extra work you did or the special service you provided.

Especially if you’re working with new customers or clients, you may want to consider getting an upfront deposit before beginning work, shipping product, or investing time. Deposits deliver several cash flow benefits. They get you part of your payment up front obviously. Upfront deposits also tend to reduce your bad debts–if only because they force you to discuss pricing and costs in the beginning. Finally, deposits tend to scare away bad clients and customers–the kind of people who only hurt your cash flow in the long run anyway. The subject of bad customers and clients brings up another cash flow improvement tip. Almost surely, you’ve got unprofitable customers, vendors and employees. By firing these people, you will improve your cash flow in the long run. You may even improve your cash flow in the short run.

Small businesses are regularly victims of employee, customer and vendor theft. You can’t really stop people from trying to steal from you. But you can do things that let you spot the slime balls earlier and make their theft more difficult to accomplish. One of the most important things you should do in this regard is reconcile your bank account. With accounting software programs and online banking, the process shouldn’t take more than about thirty minutes a month in many cases. If you resell inventory, you may also want to reconcile regularly your accounting records for your most valuable inventory items with actual physical counts.

One final point is worth making. As a general rule, small businesses deliver high rates of return on the owner capital invested in the business. Probably about 40% on average. That means, when you stop to think about, that asmall business that’s working right should be generating plenty of cash flow. Enough to pay vendors, employees, banks and–yes–you. Now of course even a healthy business sees its cash flows ebb and flow. But if you’re chronically challenged by your business cash flows, you maybe don’t have a cash flow problem. Rather, your cash flow issues may be symptomatic of inadequate profit on the products and services you sell.

Tags : Accounting, Cash Flow, Online Banking

So you are going to college or university and want to pursue a profession that pays good money. Somewhere along the line you asked yourself what is investment banking? Quite simply, it is the side of banking that makes an investment in a company, rather than traditional commercial banking which deals with banking tellers, deposits, withdrawals and other everyday banking activities. This is not a job for people who are cuddly or who enjoy curly problem solving. It is the study of curved businesses and damp scenarios involving dangerous finances and deafening profits. If you are not going into the deep then you will be defeated. Investment banking has long been labeled as one of the most cut throat, competitive, jobs in the world. It has become so competitive due to the nature and size of the funds/accounts that one must deal with on a day to day basis.

The profession requires an understanding of the defiant and a delicious appetite for delightful financial reports. You cannot be depressed and you must be determined to do the dirty work that disgusted the CEO. Accountants are disturbed by investment bankers because they spin numbers in a dizzy manner while their dry, dull and dusty calculators do the math. This is one of the reasons that investment banking flies so far under the radar. Everyone hears about accountants doing this or that, and many college students aspire to be a number crunching accountant with a decent salary. The cutthroat world of investment banking however yields far greater profits, and can be far more demanding.

The job requires an understanding of the markets and a keen eye for companies with solid portfolios and income steams. The banker will find businesses eager to expand and recommend an investment that correlates with the projected profits. It is, to some degree, business forecasting in that the banker behind all of this, is looking to guide the businesses on their investments. The bank may seek an interest return or company shares or a percentage of profits. This shares risk and reward. One of the most highly publicized and sought after investment banks in the country is Goldman Sachs. Roam those halls and you will run into some of the most powerful people in the world.

Tags : Financial, Investment Banks, Money