Money Smart: Financial Management Recap

Our April Money Smart for Small Business class dove into the world of financial management basics as an essential first step to building a better financial future for your business. Financial management includes bookkeeping, projections, financial statements, and financing. These factors form the foundation for reaching your goals through sound business decisions. During the class, our instructor, Katy Woods, helped attendees understand and identify best practices, tools, and resources available to their businesses.

At the end of the class, there were seven key points Katy wanted the attendees to remember.

1. What is financing? It’s getting the money you need to start, operate, or grow your business. Have questions on how to get financing? The fastest way to get answers might be by contacting your Banker. If your business is less than 24 months old, read our blog, Business Financing under Two Years.
2. Start with a budget. A budget can help you plan for expenses, track your spending/account payables, identify areas where you can cut costs, and make a profit. You may already have an annual budget, but you can read the tips in this blog to clean up your current system: 8 Tips to Spring Clean Your Business Finances.
3. Sound bookkeeping is the basis for all financial management. We talked about this in-depth at our March Record-Keeping Money Smart class. You can get more info here: Money Smart: Record-Keeping Recap.
4. Invest in financial management software and learn how to use it. We reviewed the importance of using software and the options available in the Record Keeping Recap, but popular systems are QuickBooks, Wave, and FreshBooks.
5. Three statements — balance sheets, cash flow statements, and profit and loss statements — provide a compelling story to describe a business and help you make smart decisions for your business.
6. Separate personal and business records and funds. If you’re unsure if having your finances separate is for you, look at our blog Reasons to Keep Personal and Business Finances Separate to help you decide.
7. When trying to get a loan, factors that affect your outcome are credit score, equity contribution, repayment ability, and loan-to-value ratio.

This and the other Money Smart classes are designed to provide you with the skills and knowledge you need to manage your small business effectively. If you want to talk to us about past classes, you can reach out to your Banker! Or, if you would like to sign up for future classes, you can register here: https://www.coastalbank.com/money-smart/