Immersed fully in the summer months, we know that your sales will decrease unless you dedicate yourself to selling ice cream or floats in the form of unicorns or flamencos.
Therefore, you must avoid incurring debts that hinder the maintenance of your economic activity or future survival in the summer period.
Here are a series of tips to avoid the debts that may appear and return after the summer with the “duties done.”
Take Good Management of Your Accounting
It is the first step, and, apart from being mandatory, updating your accounting will help you know the details of your business and the health it enjoys.
Keeping track of your expenses and income shows you your strengths and threats because you can easily observe what you are failing and improving. Or what part of your business is doing better, and you should invest more effort and resources for profitability.
We know that accounting takes time, and they are not always prepared to face it, but the summer months can become an excellent time to catch up.
Know Your Business Model Thoroughly
When an activity starts, uncertainty is the general tone. That “the movement demonstrates walking” means you must live in a business until it stabilizes and picks up pace.
But once your path is already marked, you are more than capable of knowing what expenses are necessary and what is leftover so that your activity marches properly and avoids debts.
The lower activity of the summer can be a good ally when sitting down with a paper and a pen and putting on the table (with the greatest sincerity) how your business is—the good and evil.
The conclusions of that analysis should lead you to plan the investment of time, money, and effort in what is going well to give you benefits. In the same way, you must open your eyes to not waste more energy and capital on what is preventing your business from growing without offering profitability or pushing you to contract excessive debts.
style=”margin: 0in; text-align: center;”>Avoid Unnecessary Expenses
With the first and second points, you can avoid unnecessary expenses by keeping good accounting records and thoroughly knowing your business model.
In a straightforward example, if you are a grocer and the analysis of your business has shown you that the trend is that your sales are reduced in July and August by 20%, notify your supplier and do not buy a raw material that will spoil. They will be safe losses, and you will stop investing or saving efficiently.
If you determine that the packaging (or packaging) you put on the product you sell is more expensive without contributing to the user experience, rethink if your expense is necessary.
Try to Save
There are things within a business that you cannot control, from a catastrophe to the breakage of machinery or customers’ non-payment. That is why it is so interesting to look for, from anywhere, the ability to save. And I know that the self-employed do not have it easy at all.
The advantage is that if you can create a “cushion” when the unexpected arrives, you can face them without needing to resort to loans that will force you to assume some interest and, therefore, increase a debt you could eliminate with the savings.
If You Already Have Debts
If you already see yourself with the “water around your neck, ” you must face the dreaded debts … The first thing is to analyze the situation. Breathe, and write down each and the amount of them.
Once you have them clear, order them from minor to major. Face the situation by paying the “easiest” (the smallest) first because that will make you feel relieved and encourage you to continue working to cancel the rest.
If you already have debts contracted, it is best to go back to review points 2 and 3 to see if you can restructure your business model, eliminate capital flight points, and find unnecessary expenses that you can do without (at least during the period in which you settle your debts).
After reading this article, you should see a unique opportunity to catch up with your business in the summer. Take advantage of less busy times to take stock and do self-criticism. From this reflection and analysis, you reinforce with benefits that will accompany you in the future and feel strengthened when “the return to school” arrives.
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