What Is Working Capital?

When your company needs products or services in the short-term, you use working capital to pay for it. Unlike cash flow, which refers to money going in and out of the company, working capital is a snapshot of a company’s financial health. You can figure out what your company’s working capital is by looking at the value of your company’s assets minus your liabilities. This is the amount of money you have on hand to meet immediate expenses–in other words, your working capital.

Why is it important?

It’s obvious that a company should have the working capital it needs to pay its employees and purchase inventory, but your available working capital is also a good measure of your company’s overall financial picture. If you have access to sufficient or even plentiful working capital, you can rest assured that you have the resources to manage your upcoming expenses. If your working capital is low, you can run into problems.

Additionally, working capital is essential in helping businesses maintain and grow their operations in the future. With enough working capital, a business can cover its expenses even if there are outstanding payments from customers. In the best-case scenarios, businesses can use extra working capital to reinvest in their operations by buying additional inventory, launching marketing and promotions, and hiring additional staff. 

Every business should strive to have ample working capital, but this can be a challenge, particularly in times of economic downturn.

4 Tips To Improve Your Working Capital

1.Get a Cash Flow Forecast

It’s easier to get where you want to be if you have a clear picture of where you are. A cash flow forecast is a financial projection that shows how much money your company can expect to receive and when. Make sure you look at revenue, expenses, and net cash. With this information, you can make better, informed decisions about spending. 

2.Automate Business Processes

Your working capital relies on receiving payment, so it makes good business sense to streamline the invoicing process. Using an automatic invoicing system, particularly one that’s tied to the delivery of your product or service, will free up time and, importantly, ensure your invoicing isn’t delayed due to busy employees or time constraints. The ability to track your invoices can make your working capital more predictable, which will allow you to make educated decisions about spending.

3.Incentivize Receivables

If you run a small- or medium-sized business, you’ve experienced late payment, or even worse, no payment at all. Following up with outstanding invoices is time-consuming and frustrating, so it’s smart to bake in incentives for customers, suppliers, and vendors who meet their obligations. Incentives could be monetary or symbolic in nature. The idea is to encourage good business practices while fostering positive relationships.

4.Improve Inventory Management & Avoid Stockpiling

Inventory management is the process of matching your company’s inventory to expected sales. The trick is to make sure you have enough–but not too much. Stockpiling inventory is expensive, and money tied up in overstock can’t be spent on more immediate needs. Consider investing in a digital solution.

Access to sufficient working capital is a great indicator that your business is healthy, and a healthy business is one that’s positioned to grow and take on new opportunities. 

The thing is, when you’re an SMB, it can be tricky to figure out just how much you should be spending. The answer, of course, is it depends–-on your industry, your goals, and your costs. Still, setting aside money for marketing is not a nice-to-have. You’ll have to market yourself if you want to compete. 

Why is marketing so important? 

Marketing is the tool businesses can use to introduce themselves, to engage with potential customers, to drive sales, and to foster loyalty. Without it, you’re missing an integral piece of your business model. While word-of-mouth is one way to get customers, it’s not easy to reach people as regularly and in sufficient numbers as you’ll need to sustain your business. Here’s where to set aside some budget.

Invest in awareness 

Marketing encourages interest in your products and services which is why you can’t afford to do without it. 

Marketing for customer acquisition is a strategy that tries to reach customers who’ve never bought from your company before. It’s obvious why this is important: your customers are the ones who make purchases. 

Customer retention marketing focuses on nurturing existing relationships to make sure that your clients will not only want to be repeat customers, but also want to refer your business to their friends. Leveraging customer loyalty is not only good business sense, it’s also generally more affordable than attracting new customers. 

Budget for marketing 

You’ll need to invest strategically in your marketing, whether in traditional methods like newspaper or television, or in digital advertising platforms alone. In any case, you need your business to be on the internet. In some cases a simple (but well-written and SEO-friendly) website showing location, services, and hours will suffice. Other businesses will need something a little more robust.

Social media is just as important when it comes to your digital presence. Consider having at least one account on a top platform where you can publish contests, promotions, or interesting news from your industry. Social media is a powerful way to direct customers to your main site or to make sales. 

Managing your marketing budget 

Your business needs a marketing budget, but how much should you be spending? The most effective way to assess a realistic but effective marketing budget is to research, measure, and then evaluate. 

You can arrive at a preliminary budget by looking at your revenue and determining what strategy will most help you reach your goals. For example, are you hoping to get more customers, have your current customers make more purchases, or have your customers pay more for more premium products or services? 

Make sure that you have clearly defined and measurable goals. If you’re looking to increase web traffic, determine how many site visits you’re aiming for. If you want to see more engagement with a certain market segment, define as many characteristics as possible. This kind of granular thinking will enable your marketing team to tailor their efforts to your desired outcomes. 

Record what you spend on each kind of marketing so that you can measure the return on investment and refine your efforts going forward. 

Finally, schedule a review each quarter and adjust your budget accordingly. 

Marketing will help your business meet its goals–but only if you invest in it. If you need help budgeting for your marketing plan, iCapital can help. Contact us here.