Managing debt in your small business is essential in maintaining the financial health of your business as well as preventing bankruptcy.
Consider the following tips to ensure your small business debts do not spiral out of control:
Reshuffle or remove expenses
Reviewing your expenses is one of the first steps to take when tackling debt. Look at the costs you can cut out and find alternative solutions. Whether this means cancelling unnecessary subscriptions, getting rid of expensive systems or selling assets such as a company car. If you cannot completely cut out costs plan to delay them. For example, take the full amount of time to pay an invoice so you have some extra cash to pay for unexpected expenses.
Increase revenue
Consider incorporating low-cost marketing techniques to generate additional revenue. Create low-cost promotions, such as special discounts for loyal customers, coupons, limited-time sales or offering discount codes in your email marketing for subscribers. Look for opportunities for improvement within your business – there may be an underutilised area that could make more sales and needs heavier promotion.
Prioritise debts
Evaluate all of your debts and prioritise them according to the size of each debt and interest rates. Depending on the debt amount and what types of debt you have acquired, you could either choose to pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first or pay off the smallest debt first. Paying the smaller debts first may help psychologically as you may feel as though you are making progress. However, paying off debts with higher interest rates can help you save money on interest over the long run. Regardless of which option you choose, be sure to continue making the minimum repayments of all your debts.
Talk to creditors
Don’t be embarrassed to contact creditors to inform them of your situation. Letting your creditors know your financial situation may put you in a better position to negotiate payment terms and conditions. For instance, if you have debt through a bank you may be able to arrange a hardship plan or consolidate your loans into one single monthly payment and so on.