3 Tips On Managing Cash Flow In Your Fashion Business
What is cash flow in business?
The amount of cash that passes in and out of a business is known as Cash Flow. It could be from operations, investing or financing. Cash received in a business is known as inflows, while cash spent is known as outflows.
The effective management of your cashflow plays a major role in the success of your business. So as much as you are trying to sort out operations, employees, and marketing, you also need to spend some time understanding the concept of cash flow as well as how to make the most of it.
Why is cash flow important for fashion businesses?
Having said that, you might still be wondering what does cash flow have to do with my fashion business ? After all Fashion is about dishing out good designs and getting people to buy them right?…Just saying.
You have to realize that Fashion is like every other business, with many channels and sections You still have to divert funds into the different stages of the business such as design, sampling, fabric sourcing, marketing, salaries, etc.
And as a start-up brand, you can only hope all these will generate enough revenue for you to plug back in against the next collection or season. If you neglect your cash flow and refuse to monitor it, you are definitely going to run out of business, no matter how creative you are.
So basically managing your cash flow helps you to do the following ;
- Settle debts
- Reinvest in your business
- Pay expenses
- Provide buffer against unforeseen financial challenges .E. t. c
Have you been monitoring your cash flow? If not, then this article is exactly what you need to get started!!!
How do you manage cash flow in a fashion startup?
#1 DO YOUR RESEARCH
As a start-up, you might feel there are a lot of things the business needs, and then you get carried away spending and probably not even taking time to know if you really need it. Perhaps you could have even gotten it at a better price somewhere else. You need to take your time to explore some options, you could collaborate to save costs, research the suppliers you were considering before you make any payment. Ensure you have defined your market strategy before you invest so much into marketing so you won’t be throwing away money.
Doing research might seem like a herculean task, trust me it will pay off. You don’t want to spend a huge amount of money on some fancy packaging material you just saw online, and you realize that might not be appealing to your type of market. Check out this article for important costs you need to plan for in your business.
#2 PRIORITIZE THE RIGHT THINGS
Have you ever heard of the phrase “misplaced priority”? It simply means giving attention to what is less important while ignoring the important one. So as a start-up Fashion brand, you don’t want to do this at all. At the end of your research, you should be able to understand what is important, urgent, and neither important nor urgent.
This will help you ensure you save some money rather than spending it on something that will not yield profit.
For instance, at the beginning of your business, you do not need to spend hundreds of thousands on a website when you could have gotten a cheaper one that you can manage effectively and then upgrade as the business grows.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying having a beautiful website is bad, but I am saying you could start with a free website, google my business, or even blogger. Then as you scale up, you can upgrade. You get my gist, right?
And finally for today!!!
#3 DON’T OVERSTOCK
This one is very important!! The fact that you have a large network of people around you does not necessarily mean they are your target market. If you rely on family and friends alone to buy from you, then you are not in for some business. You need to have a strategy to figure out your ideal market.
You may be tempted to start with a variety of styles, colors, and fabrics. That can make a big difference in your overall cash flow. Your inventory can be the difference between a successful launch and a flop–not to mention a number of problems with Money.
In conclusion, how you manage money in the early stages can set your business up for failure or give you a good foundation to build on. How else do you new fashion entrepreneurs can manage money? Share with us in the comments…
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