CASH is the Essential Four-Letter Word

It’s easy to find people who will critique your business and tell you how to run it. But no one actually explains the hard part: how to make money. I know many women entrepreneurs who, like me, tend to focus on the creative side of business, with a thousand new ideas racing in our brains, but we don’t want to always deal with routine tasks like accounting. But if you can focus on what aspect of your business makes you the most money right now, you’ll have CASH in the bank. With that comes the freedom to experiment, to grow your business in new directions and take it to the next level.

The pivotal moment of understanding the power of CASH in my career came when I ranrna creative photography business. It was doing well. After ten years of major setbacks, financial worries and the threat of bankruptcy, I got to the break-even point. But little did I know, until (I hired) a particularly brilliant controller who understood running financial spreadsheets like no other, and showed me exactly which revenue streams produced the most—and least—income. As it turned out I was doing fantastic with direct sales in my photography business in Europe, but next to nothing in the U.S. Once I saw what my business looked like on paper, broken down by months, regions and countries, I knew exactly where most of my income actually came from. So I doubled my sales efforts in Europe and the result was a 300% income increase in only a few short months! Two years later, I sold my company to Bill Gates and made a fortune. To read more: http://goo.gl/y7vHy

So what are your numbers telling you? Where should you put your efforts immediately to get the cash in the bank? Focus on what makes you the most money right now. You can always branch out later.