Tag: cash flow management

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Strangely disappearing cash that can’t be explained

Bay of ICE
Bay of ICE (Photo credit: Odalaigh)

Have you heard about the big problem Cape Town has with its beaches quickly losing sand and disappearing into the ocean?

The nudist beach at Sandy Bay has lost so much sand, the Cape Argus reported this week, that 25,000 m³ of sand is being taken from Hout Bay to Sandy Bay “as a last-ditch effort to try replenish the beach’s stocks”.

On the West Coast Langebaan’s popular beach is under threat of completely disappearing unless something is done to stop sand erosion. “The beachfront houses here are in big trouble,” Jaco Kotze from the Langebaan Ratepayers’ Association, told the Argus reporter. Continue reading “Strangely disappearing cash that can’t be explained”

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How much pain can you take before you act on your cash flow?

English: Fish seller in Kalk Bay, Cape Peninsu...
Fish sellers in Kalk Bay, Cape Peninsula, South Africa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One Christmas morning not too long ago I was walking after church with my children in Kalk Bay when I came across an old friend who I had fished with on the wooden commercial fishing boats when I was growing up. He looked in a bad way. One leg of his denim jeans was ripped. He had a gash on his big toe. His face said it all: he had a dreadful night alone on Christmas Eve.

I shook hands with my old fisherman friend and wished him Merry Christmas. We spoke briefly about fishing. There was a promise that someday we’d fish again on one of the commercial boats that go out from Kalk Bay hunting for yellowtail and snoek. Continue reading “How much pain can you take before you act on your cash flow?”

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You’d be crazy not to get your cash flow into shipshape with rampant over borrowing

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Read this first (then my blog post): Ensure your cash flows in faster than out. Fill your email address in the blank space at the end of this post in confidence and I’ll send you, “The 10 warnings that your business needs a cash flow tune-up”.

The huge drop in the shares of South Africa’s biggest unsecured lenders after mounting investor fears of a bubble in the unsecured lending sector should be a wake-up call to small business owners. The local banking sector’s total gross unsecured credit exposure increased to about R441 billion in the quarter ended December 2012, which gives one an idea of just how big the problem is. Continue reading “You’d be crazy not to get your cash flow into shipshape with rampant over borrowing”

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Small businesses owners living close to the edge need to act fast

It’s just amazing how the cost of doing business has risen. Consider fuel costs – they have sky rocketed  Electricity prices have gone through the roof. Rentals, wages and business services are all shooting up. The inflation rate running around 5,8% lulls one into thinking that everything is not as bad as it seems. But costs of products and services that are essential for doing business are increasing at an alarming rate. Continue reading “Small businesses owners living close to the edge need to act fast”

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Don’t let this happen to your small business

English: Apalachicola, Fla., July 20, 2005 -- ...
FEMA photo/Andrea Booher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An iconic politician is auctioning off her silver tea set and other items to pay off a debt she owes to a school. A bus company faces liquidation if it does not repay a multi-million loan to its bank. A small business owner receives a red final notice for an overdue account from a debt collection agency – with grave warnings about loss of directorship under the companies act and sequestration.

A sign of the times. Consumers and businesses are finding it hard to pay back their debts as tough economic times continue without any end in sight.

The statistical release of February 2013, “Statistics of liquidations and insolvencies”, makes for concerning reading. A total of 271 liquidations were recorded in February 2013, showing a year-on-year increase of 35,5%. Continue reading “Don’t let this happen to your small business”

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Starting your business is hard enough … and then you get this

Just think about it: you can come up with a new idea for a business that you are passionate about. You get excitedly busy implementing your idea, trying to break into a highly competitive and crowded market. The idea you started with doesn’t seem to be working as well as you thought it would and through innovation you get things on the right track. That’s what every rookie entrepreneur wants to see and experience – their initial business idea transformed into a viable product or service, making money for them and their family. Continue reading “Starting your business is hard enough … and then you get this”