As a small business owner, you’re always juggling different priorities and responsibilities, and overseeing your finances can sometimes fall by the wayside. But keeping a close eye on your business’s financial metrics is fundamental to making educated choices that can drive development and maintainability.
By following key financial metrics, you’ll pick up profitable bits of knowledge about your business’s financial well-being, recognize areas that require change, and make data-driven choices to remain ahead of the competition. In order to help you gain control over your finances and ensure the long-term success of your firm, we’ll go over seven essential financial metrics that every small business owner should regularly monitor.
1. Cash Flow
Keeping an eye on and tracking your business’s cash flow is imperative to remaining profitable as a business owner. Cash flow compares the amount of money going into and leaving your business. Positive or negative cash flow is possible. A company with positive cash flow has more money coming in than going out.
A negative cash flow means that more money is leaving the business than is coming in, which makes it difficult to make investments in it. Setting up an invoicing system for quicker payments can also help to enhance your cash flow because late payments from clients can often result in negative cash flow. You can easily set up your very own invoicing system with the Dukka app and keep track of all your business’s cash flow.
2. Sales Revenue
Before deducting business costs, revenue is the sum of money a business makes from the sale of goods or services. This metric enables business owners to determine whether or not their business is profitable as a whole.
Small business owners can gain a deeper grasp of their sector by continuously monitoring the changes in their inventory and sales. You can discover your most lucrative goods and services, as well as the occasions and seasons when you typically sell the most. You can use it to determine which goods and services are less profitable for you and which need more advertising and marketing.
3. Operation Costs
As a business owner, it is important to have a clear understanding of your operating costs. What quantities of goods can you purchase from your suppliers? What are your fixed and ongoing costs? To establish a rapport with your suppliers, you must be aware of these and be timely about payments. While still getting top-notch results, you want to keep running costs as low as possible.
You might need to cultivate ties with many suppliers to receive better prices and improve your operations. If your rent is excessive, think about relocating to a less expensive but still profitable area. You must keep an eye on operation costs because they are not always fixed if you want to maintain a balance.
4. Gross Profit Margin
This metric shows what portion of revenue is left over after deducting the cost of products sold. Gross profit margin is a critical metric for determining the profitability of your business. A healthy gross profit margin means that your business is earning enough to cover its expenses and make a profit.
In addition, the gross profit margin can be used to compare your business to others in the same industry or market. If your gross profit margin is higher than that of your competitors, it may indicate that your business is more efficient at controlling costs or has a stronger pricing strategy.
5. Accounts Receivable
This metric measures the amount of money owed to your business by your customers. To make sure you’re getting payments from your clients on time, keeping track of accounts receivable is crucial. Late payments can hurt your cash flow and impact your business’s financial health.
Accounts receivable is also an important financial metric for small business owners since it allows them to evaluate how well their credit and collection procedures are working. Small business owners can track accounts receivable to find any problems with their billing or collection procedures and fix them to ensure that payments are made on schedule.
This can include following up with customers who are late on payments or implementing stricter credit policies to minimize the risk of late payments.
6. Accounts Payable
This metric measures the amount of money that your business owes to suppliers and vendors. You must keep track of your accounts payable to make sure you are paying your bills on time and avoiding late fees and penalties.
Analysis of accounts payable can assist small business owners in handling their money better, getting better payment deals from suppliers and customers, and preventing money problems.
7. Cost of acquisition
What does it cost to bring in a new client? For business owners who wish to expand, tracking this is essential. The correct product and the ideal market are excellent, but if you are spending more to attract clients than you are bringing in revenue, you will be in the red.
Your marketing expenses might be greater than your revenue in the early phases of your business, but a timeframe should be in place to guarantee that this changes.
The acquisition cost should go down as your business expands. When figuring out your cost of acquisition, consider the amount you spend on marketing initiatives such as advertising costs, salaries for sales and marketing managers, and even business meetings.
Bottom Line
Tracking the right financial metrics is essential for any small business owner who wants to stay on top of their company’s financial health. By monitoring their businesses’ key performance indicators, business owners can gain valuable insights into their company’s financial performance and make informed decisions about how to manage their finances better.
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About Dukka
Dukka is a leading bookkeeping and payments app. We provide bookkeeping and payment solutions to small businesses in Africa. We are building an OS for commerce for African merchants.
Click on the link below to download Dukka, and take your business to the next level.
