The cash flow of a company or business is a vital issue for entrepreneurs. No wonder, this issue is one of the biggest challenges facing small business owners because it is not easy to balance costs and expenses over a certain period. The costs have rigid deadlines, but have no right time billing. This difficulty putting heavy pressure on the entrepreneurs who use banks as a lifeline to your company or business. Only this can be the first sign that the management of the enterprise is very good.

The Microsoft Business Portal, prepared a list of six tips to help you take your positive cash flow.

1. Bill as quickly as possible. Like most entrepreneurs, you probably spend the whole month concerned about meeting deadlines, hardly gets time to get new customers and when it reaches the end of the month, you find that you have enough money to cover its obligations.

You are not the only one to whom such things happen. To not spend more for it, pick an employee or make yourself a plan for regular income.

When accepting large projects, try to negotiate regular payments instead of receiving all the terms.

2. Create incentives for your customers to pay faster. Investigate, consider, and negotiate your client. To receive full payment for the product or service on the spot, makes the difference.

Create ways to attract customers to pay immediately. The settlements, for example, can be a good start. That will be good for their business and consequently for cash flow.

3. Avoid clients that are slow to pay or not pay. You may have a potential customer to view before closing the deal is good to ask for references.

Ask sales to the same customer, many ignore the reason for their concerns and do not hesitate to give you a list of the companies we do business.

4. Use barter. If you need services or products of other companies and have no money to buy, look for partnerships with them. Make swaps, changing what your company has to offer what you need, without spending money.

5. Organize your inventory. It is very common to entrepreneurs with excess inventories. This means money that could be stopped paying interest in the bank, for example.

A way out is to reduce the variety of products and work with those with good start and make them more profitable.

6. Consolidate your loans. Have outstanding loans with different banks is not a good idea. Try to consolidate interests and negotiate terms with the financial institution of your interest.

Any person intending to start a business and that has only its own resources and also has no way to access loans or investors need to know very well it will do with the money. Any mistake can threaten not only cash flow but also growth plans. This is not easy, in fact a bulk of our readers are seriously concerned that they have started a company or business and have run out of capital and have no ways to get it.

It is not easy, especially because once problems arise you already embarked on the project and it is extremely difficult to make changes to save the business or company that has run out of capital.

The following are tips published in INC to start a business with very little money and minimize the risks that entails.

1. Validate your idea. Do you really know if your business idea is good? It is useless to ask friends and relatives, because they rarely have a true answer.

The best way to validate their proposals is to ask the opinion of who will not win or lose with your company potential customers or experienced entrepreneurs.

2. Find a mentor. Do not ask advice who only goes to reaffirm their ideas. Ask them to people who will challenge you to defend them with better arguments and / or decisions.

It’s much better if that person is a professional who acts in the same area of ​​your future company. Maybe you do not really like what you hear, but should try to deal well with these views and take advantage of these weights seriously listening and putting them into practice.

3. Be a freak by customers. Who is my customer? Where is it and how I can achieve it? These are the first questions that entrepreneurs need to respond.

For that, you must reserve half of their time, the other half must be dedicated to creating a product or service that exceeds the expectations of people.

Thus, the first customers will be your reference, your case study and the best is that they are going to generate more business.

4. Reinvest all in the business. The most successful companies are those that re-invest all profits in order to create something that exceeds the expectations of customers.

Who focuses on early profits by offering just a mediocre product, and that’s not going to generate new business. For this reason the entrepreneur end up spending all that was useful if you want to look for new opportunities with your business.

5. Optimize your people search. Look for cheaper ways to get customers, spending little money. This must spend much time to separate the wheat from the chaff, but that’s better than risking a large sum commit to actions that do not know if they will be effective.

The same applies to procurement. Do not rush to hire full-time employees. Work with temporary or outsource some functions, depending on the billing.

6. Start marketing early. Many first-time entrepreneurs spend all the time and money in designing and launching your product, but when it comes time to announce the news, they are without resources.

At first, investigate effective and cheap means to reach consumers and re-invest profits in marketing (the more the better).

Worth starting with marketing long before the product is ready.

7. Find a partner. Starting a business on their own is difficult. It’s worse when you do not have much money.

So, find a good partner who shares your passion for the product or service, but for the world to find someone like you.

One of the major issues facing business owners is not knowing how to make a sales budget when in fact usually something very simple, easy and no need to study very complicated sales.

In reality, what the employer is facing the same laziness of having to sit, think, and translate into numbers, which expects to have sales during certain period.

This mental laziness is usually very common among owners of small and medium enterprises discover a weakness that could well become a fortress, a fortress that could catapult the business and discover how to make your business more profitable and have significant sales growth period to period.

The magic of a sales budget is the simplicity of being able to analyze in detail the variations of each of the areas of sales that a business, data such as which products have to sell more, what is the best-selling product, and especially the comparison of one period to another on how much sales increased or decreased.

Although one could say that this is a study of sales, not really challenging to perform yet another will give you valuable figures that could do lucrative business deals.

Just knowing the weaknesses of sales through a document called “sales budget” makes you go back Entrepreneur proactive in making decisions that positively affect the sales numbers, this inertia will teach you how to make your business more profitable;

But how to make a sales budget? Actually the sales budget does not have to be complicated to make, the steps are really simple, here we mention the 3 most essential …

1. Set a goal number of sales

As simple as setting up a likely number of sales according to your market is the first step in establishing a sales budget, this is based on estimates that take the market and the kind of economy in which the business moves, taking into account the market segment being served and competition in the field.

If you sell multiple products such goals should be broken down for each product;

Similarly one could take as a reference, if you already have sales of similar historical periods, increasing them in a desired percentage and meets the same rules as above.

2. Determine the goals realistic and achievable

It is important that the budget figures are set so that they can be realistic and achievable, this will help avoid any future frustrations and keep you positive and encouraged to achieve them.

3. Translating the budget in a Document

Finally, it should produce a document either printed or electronic where it is captured the Sales Budget, the intention is to make it known to everyone involved in the sales process, to set goals and develop strategies that lead them to achieve those objectives .

Periodic checks should be carried out to measure and track preliminary results.

Knowing how to make a sales budget requires no further complications, however it may provide great results to business sales grow and do well in an orderly way.

When people want to take a few occasions in which you can boot with a unique and innovative business. Already in a previous post a specialist said that business success depended on the extraordinary execution of an ordinary idea (See What is the secret of a good business? Exceptional execution of an ordinary idea). Which is to say that whatever the business for which you decide, do so outstanding to do well.

Other experts suggest the need for you to be aware of your surroundings and see how business works, even from the standpoint of the customer, which is the most important step.

From there take that idea and run it so you can take possession in the niche of your choice. What I say is not new but it is far from real.

Many large companies have entered into a messy and disastrous market, have been completed order and removing the other customers, leaving owners and lords of the court.

This will mean that there are many ideas in the world, in different places and in different areas that are susceptible to improvement.

Right now, I am back in Buenos Aires on matters related to my business and logistics for a mistake with my partner in the city, I am left almost in the street because the apartment we had booked for me was not in accordance with agreed terms.

This has allowed us to learn of the chaotic, messy and not very serious the business of temporary rental apartments in this city. A business that was born during the crisis of 2001, when Buenos Aires became one of the cheapest cities in the world today still professionalized.

The alternative temporary accommodation gaining adherents in many cities worldwide. For example, we can find many apartments in Barcelona for this use. But in the case of Buenos Aires the ambition of the owners of property, poor professionalism of the sector that manages the business, coupled with the lack of clear rules are destroying this business opportunity.

However, this may be an opportunity for a competitor with real sharp and professional ethics to enter that market to bring order and grab this great business idea.

That’s the challenge, entrepreneurs are missing.

Although a good education is something extremely valuable to an entrepreneur, it is impossible to ignore the fact that some things are learned only in practice. Investing in education is always worthwhile, but when you do not need to take an economic degree to start a successful business. Given that reality comes with a large number of variables that can influence the success or failure of a business, learning by doing is worth more than just theory. What follows is the advice of someone who lived firsthand the challenges of starting a business.

1. Open a business requires sacrifices. Although this statement is a true cliché, repetition never hurts. No course or class can prepare people for such a physical, mental and spiritual involves opening a business.

They just hours to go home on time, holidays and hours of sleep. Before starting a venture, ask yourself if you are ready to face this challenge.

2. Success rarely comes in overnight. Forget those romantic stories, such as Google or Facebook. Behind what looks like, it was a success overnight was great sacrifices and thousands of hours of work.

Companies like Amazon and LinkedIn took years to be profitable. If you want to create something meaningful, be patient, it is a slow process.

3. Make changes when necessary. In most cases, it is difficult to remain faithful to his original vision. It is necessary to be attentive and follow the changes in the economy and market, instead of letting external factors destroy your idea, takes the opportunity to rethink their business model and improve results.

4. Charisma for sales cannot be taught. Regardless of your audience or product, is essential to be in direct contact with clients to close a deal.

We can learn sales strategies in a classroom, but was a good salesman charisma is acquired after years of practice.

5. Big think even if it is small. Big thinking requires entrepreneurs to set ambitious goals and creating processes that could permit the growth

On the other hand, it is important to know your limitations so as not to grow wildly, taking the right steps before you run.

In the end everything is about pursuing dreams within your own pace.