Top 3 Smart Financial Moves for Small Business Owners

Starting your own business takes courage, ambition and a thirst for success, but the whole process of striking out on your own and following your dream will provide you with a lot of steep learning curves.

Some of them will be emotionally exhausting, while others will be financially draining, but at least there are a few tips and tricks to help with the monetary side of running a small business. Make sure that these are three of the smart moves you make this year.

1. Cut expenses, not employees

One of the biggest errors that small business owners can make, is to look at their staff simply as worker bees and not as long-term investments. In a study conducted by Investors in People last year, they published some shocking statistics. Not only was job satisfaction deemed more important than pay by 44% of people surveyed nationally, but30% agreed that feeling valued at work by leadership teams wasone of the highest factors influencing their perception of current employment.

In other words, it has never been more important to invest in your workforce; satisfied, motivated and enthusiastic staff will not only remain loyal to you, but will be more productive as a result, informative and helpful to customers, thereby driving growth and profit. A smarter move is to cut unnecessary expenses and put that money into training.

2. Plan for large purchases and expansion

As part of a strong business plan, a smart business owner understands that planning ahead for big developments and purchases is key to a healthy company. You should always keep big plans for expansion or new equipment purchases in the forefront of your mind, so a smart move in 2016 is to get business credit rather than to rely on personal credit.

For one thing, it makes perfect sense; if something goes wrong, you are not the one personally responsible for it, and so your personal finances won’t suffer in future because of it. On the other hand, you get protection for these purchases as well as a sense of security, knowing that your plans for global operations won’t be hindered by a previous credit card bill.

3. Look into business loans

After gaining that all-important business credit allowance, make sure that you maintain a good business credit score with them and a strong relationship. Why? Because aside from the fact that they will be more inclined to offer you better interest rates in future, it will allow you to apply for something like an SBA business loan with far more confidence.

In an effort to give entrepreneurs a boost, the Small Business Association (SBA) guarantees most of a loan (around 75-85%) to the lenders who already offer them, in a bid to give lenders more confidence in the borrowing process.

These three moves could be the smartest ones you make to give your company the boost it needs. Have you heard of any other smart moves for savvy business owners?

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