The World of business is more competitive right now that it has ever been in the past, there are more businesses being set up each and every year than ever before and the internet has made it incredibly easy for anyone to create their own company. This additional competition in almost all industries means that in order to succeed as a business owner, you need to have your eyes firmly fixed on not only how much money is coming in to the business, bit how much is going out. Today we are going to focus on where you can stop your business from unnecessarily losing cash.

Chargebacks

Chargebacks occur when someone uses a fraudulent credit card or when a buyer claims against your business at the bank for what in fact was a legitimate charge. Far too many people write this off as a ‘cost of doing business’ when in fact, this is simply not the case. Your business should have an aggressive approach to chargebacks and you can actually recover lost revenue from chargebacks. It is estimated that business lose just over $300 for every $100 of chargebacks because of the time, wasted effort, admin fees and penalty costs which they incur, no business can afford to lose money like this and you need to be firm on your approach to chargebacks.

Overdue Invoices

How good is your business at challenging overdue invoices? The speed of business can often mean that smaller invoices that are yet to be paid, are not uppermost in  our minds with regards to chasing them up. You may not feel like that $50 or $300 bill is crucial to the business but that attitude can mean that invoices pile up and before you know it you are not only letting people get away with non-payment, a damaging precedent to set, but also that you have lots of money not accounted for.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions are a small cost but a regular and unnecessary leakage of money that could occur in your business. Businesses are regularly offered free trials for magazines, software and other paid-for services which have an automatic subscription at the end of it. Many business owners fail to cancel the subscription and if it goes unnoticed, this could lead to months or even years of subscriptions to products which are never used.

Disorganized Finances

Speaking generally, disorganized financing could prove to be the downfall of your business and it is vital that you ensure that this is an area of your company which is ran with precision, militant organization and a ultimately a system that runs like clockwork. Poor finances could lead to late taxes which incur charges, failure to invoice correctly or even failure to pay invoices on time which could also result in penalties. Having a poor financial system truly is an own goal when it comes to running a business and if you want your business to avoid any unnecessary money leaks, then this is where you should start.

Whist it is of course important that you and your business is constantly searching for growth and higher profits, you should spend some time each quarter reviewing what is going out of your business. This should be done in two different ways, firstly you should be reviewing what your company is actually spending money on and how best you can save or cut costs when it comes to spending. The second method is to look into the practices around your business and identify which of them are costing your money or worse still, preventing you and your business from making you a higher return on your investment.