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Financing Cash Flow Peaks And Valleys

For many businesses, financing cash flow for their business can be like riding a continuous roller coaster.Sales are up, then they do down. Margins are good, then they flatten out. Cash flow can swing back and forth like an EKG graph of a heart attack.So how do you go about financing cash flow for these types of businesses?First, you need to accurately know and manage your monthly fixed costs. Regardless of what happens during the year, you need to be on top of what amount of funds will be required to cover off the recurring and scheduled operating costs that will occur whether you make a sale or not. Doing this monthly for a full twelve month cycle provides a basis for cash flow decision making.Second, from where you are at right now, determine the amount of funds available in cash, owners outside capital that could be invested in the business, and other outside sources currently in place.Third, project out your cash flow so that fixed costs, existing accounts payable and accounts receivable are realistically entered into the future weeks and months. If cash is always tight, make sure you do your cash flow on a weekly basis. There is too much variability over the course of a single month to project out only on a monthly basis.Now you have a basis to assess financing your cash flow.Financing cash flow is always going to be somewhat unique to each business due to industry, sector, business model, stage of business, business size, owner resources, and so on.Each business must self assess its sources of financing cash flow, including but not limited to owner investment, trade or payable financing, government remittances, receivable discounts for early payment, deposits on sale, third party financing (line of credit, term loan, factoring, purchase order financing, inventory financing, asset based lending, or whatever else is relevant to you).Ok, so now you have a cash flow bearing and a thorough understanding of your options available for financing cash flow in your specific business model.Now what?Now you are in a position to entertain future sales opportunities that fit into your cash flow.Three points to clarify before we go further.First, financing is not strictly about getting a loan from someone when your cash flow needs more money. Its a process of keeping your cash flow continuously positive at the lowest possible cost.Second, you should only market and sell what you can cash flow. Marketers will measure the ROI of a marketing initiative. But if you can’t cash flow the business to complete the sale and collect the proceeds, there is no ROI to measure. If you have a business with fluctuating sales and margins, you can only enter into transactions that you can finance.Third, marketing needs to focus on customers that you can sell to over and over again in order to maximize your marketing efforts and reduce the unpredictability of the annual sales cycle through regular repeat orders and sales.Marketing works under the premise that if you are providing what the customer wants that the money side of the equation will take care of itself. In many businesses this indeed proves to be true. But in a business with fluctuating sales and margins, financing cash flow has to be another criteria built into sales and marketing activities.Overtime, virtually any business has the potential to smooth out the peaks and valleys through a more robust marketing plan that better lines up with customer needs and the business’s financing limitations or parameters.In addition to linking financing cash flow more closely to marketing and sales, the next most impactful action you can take is expanding your sources of financing.Here are some potential strategies for expanding your sources for financing cash flow.Strategy # 1: Develop strategic relationships with key suppliers that have the ability to extend greater financing in certain situations to take advantage of sales opportunities. This is accomplished with larger suppliers that 1) have the financial means to extend financing, 2) view you as a key customer and value your business, 3) have confidence in the business’s ability to forecast and manage cash flow.Strategy # 2: Make sure where possible that your annual financial statements show a profit capable of servicing debt financing. Accountants may be good at saving you income tax dollars, but if they drive business profitability down to or close to zero through tax planning, they may also effectively destroying your ability to borrow money.Strategy # 3: If possible, only transact with credit worthy customers. Credit worthy customers allow both the business and potential lenders to finance receivables which can increase the amount of external financing available to you.Strategy # 4: Develop a liquidation pathway for your tangible assets. Equipment and inventory are easier to finance if lenders clearly understand how to liquidate the assets in the event of default. In some cases, businesses can get resale option agreements on certain equipment or inventory from prospective buyers assignable to a lender to be used as recourse against a lending facility for financing cash flow.Strategy # 5: Joint venture a sales opportunity with another business to share the risk of a large sales opportunity that may be too risky for you to take on yourself.SummaryThe primary long term objective of a business with fluctuating cash flow and margins is to smooth out the peaks and valleys and create a scalable business with more of a predictable sales cycle.This is best achieved with an approach that including the following steps.Step #1. Micro Manage your fixed costs and cash flow and accurately project out the cash flow requirements of the business on a weekly basis.Step #2. Take a detailed inventory of all the sources you have for financing cash flow.Step #3. Incorporate your financing constraints into your marketing approach.Step #4. If possible, only transact with credit worthy customers to reduce risk and increase financing options.Step #5. Work towards expanding both your financing sources and available source limits for financing cash flow.Business cycle stability and cash flow predictability is an evolutionary step for every business. The industries with longer sales cycles will tend to be the more difficult to tame due to a larger number of variables to manage.A continuous focus on the process for improvement outlined will help create the desired results over time.

The Truth Behind The Network Marketing Industry

The Multi Level Marketing (MLM) Industry popularly known as the Network Marketing industry, is indeed a very simple and profitable industry but sadly with a lot of negative feedback. The truth is that you can make a lot of money in the MLM industry. A lot of ordinary people have built businesses that provide passive income streams for them and their families and friends, who are in their network for life! The beauty about having a business that provide passive income streams is that you can get to enjoy life doing whatever you want or decide. All that is required is a few years of smart and dedicated work. Today though, this has been made a lot easier as some MLM companies have gone online. There is an MLM company today that operates entirely on an e-commerce platform! This means that you can reach more people using your website or social media to sell almost any product and to anyone anywhere in the world. The network marketing industry is a $167 billion industry churning out millions having huge passive income streams.I am a partner with one MLM firm that is a 100% e-commerce based here in Nigeria. This means that I can actually do the business from home. With proper application of e-commerce concepts, you can indeed earn a stream of passive incomes for life! This is however not a get-rich-quick scheme. Success in the MLM industry entails following a set of professional guidelines and being consistent. Many people in the MLM industry fail to apply basic guidelines needed to start and grow their own MLM business. Many fail to realize that their MLM business should be handled as a real business where you will be required to recruit a team of people that believe in your mission and vision.The network marketing industry is a 167 billion Dollar industry and about 91 million people are involved in the network marketing industry around the world today. The industry is now booming in the rest of the world because it is almost the only recession proof industry! During the economic recession that occurred in the world in 2008 and 2009 and the one before that in 1998, it was the only Industry that was growing. While other industries like the automobile and financial industries were either collapsing, downsizing on the number of employees or cutting down salaries, the network marketing industry was getting larger. This is why a lot of people have shifted to Network Marketing.Even great men and thinkers are beginning to endorse the MLM business model. Bill Gates has been quoted saying that if he had another chance to start up, Microsoft would have adopted the network marketing model. Little wonder the Network marketing Industry continues to grow at an unexpected rate. This is especially true in the United States that recorded a growth from $13 billion in 1992 to over $132 billion in 2010; more than 82 million new people have joined the Network Marketing Industry in the past 20 years! In fact, it is now estimated that over 15,800,000 distributors in the United States alone now participate, full- or part-time, in Network Marketing-and these numbers continue to grow.After 20 year, the Network Marketing Industry still fits today’s hot trends-home-based businesses, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance-and in Nigeria, the growth is beginning to catch up with the rest of the world. My articles continue to educate its readers how they too can move beyond economic security to economic prosperity by taking advantage of this wealth creating industry.Feel free to find out if Network Marketing is right for you. Learn how to select a company, and how to begin your own home-based business, using the skills and resources you already possess because, after all, it’s still your future!

Jobs in Construction: Maryland Opportunities

Construction in Maryland has reached a high peak in recent years as compared to other states. While Indiana has 3.1%, Pennsylvania 2.3% and New York only 1.4% growth in construction jobs, Maryland construction jobs have increased by about 3.7% in the period between February and March 2010. To find out about the exciting opportunities in construction work in Maryland, we need to know a little bit more about the state.The StateThe US Census Bureau has ranked Maryland as the state having the highest median household income with $70,545. This makes it first in the country followed by New Jersey and Connecticut. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the gross state product of the state was around $257 billion in 2006. The counties of Montgomery and Howard are the some of the wealthiest counties in the United States.Transportation is an important service activity which makes it an important arena for construction. The Port of Baltimore is the most important place for trucking and rail related access.Hence most of the construction projects related to transportation are centered on here. Food production is also a very important economic activity in the state making it possible for construction of large warehouses and processing houses.Construction CollegesIf you are a resident of the state, you know how important an activity construction is here. There are many ways in which you can learn about construction in this state. The IIT Technical Institute is one of the best colleges in Maryland for granting degrees on construction.The TESST College of Technology is also known for its reputed degrees in this field. Ashworth College, Penn Foster Career School and the Stratford Career Institute are some other places which are the best places to give you diplomas on construction.Job OpportunitiesConstruction in Maryland includes jobs of a diverse nature. You can work as a building insulation worker or building construction inspectors. Both these areas have been stipulated to increase by 8.4% and 18.2% by 2016. Annapolis is the capital of the state but Baltimore is the largest city around which most of the construction work is centered.You can easily get jobs in roofing in this city. If you have a bit of experience, you can also get jobs which pay better than newcomer construction jobs in Maryland.If you have degrees in construction, you can also work as senior estimator or project manager at Hyattsville. Silver Spring is another good place for high position construction jobs of Administrative Assistants. Construction laborers and superintendents are in high demand in the area of Greenbelt. Ocean City is a good place for specialty trades in construction like maintenance personnel.The demand of supervisors of construction has been estimated to grow by 9.1% in the years 2006-2016. Within the same period, the demand for Construction Managers has been stipulated to grow by 15.7%. 456 The growth of Construction Equipment Operators will grow by 8.4% in the same period.This is one state which not only provides increasing job opportunities for construction workers, but also provides a good package and growth opportunities in the field. While many other states have experiences a decrease in jobs, jobs in construction in Maryland have been increasing in recent years and show a bright future, so get yourself one today.