How to create cash flow forecasts and budget - Start Your Own Business podcast

When a business fails it’s normally because it has run out of cash and can’t pay its bills on demand. This can happen to successful businesses, with attractive products and services, healthy sales and profit margins. Ensuring that your cash flow remains healthy needs to be a key priority for your business. That means not only not spending more than you can afford, but also, if you allow your customers a certain amount of time to pay, ensuring that they pay you on time. Cash flow forecasts can enable your business to avoid cash flow problems, but how do you create them and how do you set budgets that help you to manage your costs in the first place?

In this episode, sponsored by investment platform Lightyear, we speak to serial entrepreneur Darren Fell, founder and CEO of Crunch Accounting. Darren offers practical tips on how to create cash flow forecasts and set budgets.

How to create cash flow forecasts and budget – show notes

Creating cash flow forecasts

Essential guide to managing your cash flow
Managing your cash flow – checklist
Raising start-up funding and cash flow – podcast episode

Work with an expert

Sales pipelines

How to cold call your way to new customers – podcast episode
How to generate sales leads for your business – podcast episode
How to increase online sign-ups, enquiries or sales – podcast episode

Bootstrapping your business

How to start a new business on a shoestring budget – podcast episode
How much does it cost to set up a business?

Navigating cash flow challenges

Budgeting

About our sponsor Lightyear

Life as a business owner can be unpredictable. You need a cash flow cushion for any bumps in the road. But, this doesn’t mean you need to leave your cash languishing in low interest accounts.

Instead, you can earn a daily, variable rate of 4.6% AER with Lightyear’s business accounts. Lightyear makes this possible by giving small businesses like yours, a solution traditionally reserved for the big corporates: money market funds, managed by the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock. These are low risk investments, usually only accessible with a minimum deposit of £5 million pounds. With Lightyear, you can access them with no minimum deposit criteria.

There are no fees to open, bank transfer into, withdraw from, or maintain your business account, and your money is always easily accessible.

You work hard for your income as a business owner. Lightyear lets your income work hard for you. So, rather than spending weeks trying to open an account with low rates and high fees, open a Lightyear business account in one day, and start putting your money to work.

Whether you choose to manage your company cash on Lightyear’s slick app, or the web platform, the interest you earn could mean you can hire that new employee, or take that holiday you know you deserve.

Visit lightyear.com/donut to find out more, or set up your account in just a few taps. And remember, when you invest, your capital is at risk.