Opinion piece by Miguel Ángel Lacoma Cambra. If you're a business owner, before you log off, ask yourself these three questions.
August. The office is half-empty, the phone rings less, and for the first time in months, the business owner can actually think. But I arrive with the usual awkward question: while you're disconnecting, who's keeping an eye on the numbers?
I'm not talking about the accounting. That's handled by the accountant (sometimes the accounting firm), and hopefully, it's up to date. I'm talking about something else: knowing how much money will be coming in and going out these next few weeks, and whether the company can weather the shutdown without any surprises.
The numbers are stubborn. If your clients pay late in August—and almost everyone does—the payments don't stop: September's payroll, insurance, leasing, the regular supplier. A company that invoices €30.000 a month and collects payments in 60 days needs a €60.000 cash reserve to operate smoothly. How many SMEs in the Bajo Cinca region know how many days of cash they have available? Very few. And it's not their fault: no one has taught them how to look at that figure.
I know of a business owner who had to cut short his vacation and return from the beach because his bank account was overdrawn. He hadn't done anything wrong: he'd billed more than the previous year. But in August, no one paid him, even though the stock had been purchased in July, and the taxes paid as well. A few days without checking his cash flow, and a whole year's work was jeopardized. The solution isn't to sell more: it's to know in advance.
Therefore, before switching off, I propose twenty minutes of voluntary boredom. Three questions:
1. How many days could your company survive without selling a single euro? If the answer is less than 30, August is not a month for improvisation.
2. What fixed payments do you have due in September? Salary, taxes, fees. Write them down before you leave.
3. What payments are you really expecting these weeks? Not the ones they promised you: the ones that are actually going to come in.
With those three answers, summer takes on a different flavor. Not because the problems disappear, but because they cease to be a surprise. And in this, as in almost everything, the entrepreneur doesn't need magic: he needs numbers in front of him and twenty minutes.
May your vacation be a time to rest. And to return with everything in order.
Opinion piece. The opinions expressed in this text are the sole responsibility of its author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial line of this publication.
