FINSYNC’s all-in-one financial management platform gives entrepreneurs the tools they need to overcome the biggest hurdles that small businesses face.
By FINSYNC
Small business owners know something about what it takes to confront challenges on a daily basis. Often with little outside help.
But in many cases, hard work, tenacity, and long hours aren’t enough to keep their businesses from failing. About one-third of U.S. small businesses with employees fail within their first two years. Only roughly half make it at least five years, according to the Small Business Administration.
All too often, it’s poor financial management that sets the stage for bigger problems. And while many young businesses don’t make it, none of those that survive do so without a smart approach to effectively managing their cash flow.
Want to avoid joining the lengthy roster of failed businesses? Here are five of the biggest challenges small businesses face and how FINSYNC’s cloud-based, all-in-one accounting, payments and cash flow management platform can help you overcome these common pitfalls — or sidestep them entirely.
Problem: Poor Cash Flow Management
According to a staggering statistic reported on SCORE’s website, 82% of small businesses fail due to cash flow issues. Managing cash flow and coordinating various financial accounts is a common problem that can easily overwhelm over-extended small business owners.
Solution: Sync Accounts in FINSYNC
Having a reliable, real-time view of your company’s financial situation is an essential component of managing cash flow. Without it, you run the risk of a financial stumble. Like falling short of funds to cover payroll or other key expenses.
With FINSYNC’s integrated accounting system, you’ll be able to make payments and handle payroll in one place. Automatically giving you unparalleled control over your cash flow.
This allows you to easily project your funding needs a few weeks or months ahead, ensuring that you have time to plan and set aside the cash or seek financing to cover a big purchase order or necessary hardware upgrade.
The platform can also automatically send out invoices to your customers on a time schedule that supports your cash flow needs.
Problem: Time-Consuming Back-Office Tasks
We don’t need to tell you that small business owners are stretched thin. Who has the time to work on growing your business when you’re constantly drowning in spreadsheets, tracking down invoices and receipts, and juggling all manner of administrative tasks?
Solution: Automate Your Back Office
One of the benefits of using a cloud-based, integrated accounting system is the ability to automate many time-consuming back-office tasks that previously needed to be handled personally or by an employee.
Take processing payroll … instead of relying on employees to manually track and report how many hours they work a week, you can save time and money using FINSYNC’s employee time-tracking software.
This is also a great way to minimize data entry errors that could lead to problems when it comes time to process payroll. You’ll also consistently generate correct paychecks that are in compliance with tax laws, which can help give you a more accurate tally of your labor costs.
FINSYNC customers, on average, save 30% on payroll.
Problem: Access to Capital
It’s no secret that qualifying for a loan from a traditional lender can be difficult for small and newer businesses. Beyond the arduous application process, long wait times, and requirement for collateral, there’s the issue of finding a lender that’s willing to loan your business a smaller amount of cash (under six figures).
Solution: Alternative Lenders
Online lending companies are increasingly providing loans to small and mid-size businesses that might not otherwise qualify for credit from a traditional financial institution.
Consider that online lenders have approved more small business loans than banks for the past two years, according to the Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey.
These alternative lenders use technology to speed up the loan application process and assess the would-be borrower’s credit risk. They often look beyond collateral when determining whether a borrower qualifies for a loan.
The FINSYNC lending network matches applications from small businesses with the lender that has the best loan options for them.
Another way FINSYNC can help shore up your access to capital is through FINSYNC Pay, which lets businesses use their credit cards to pay for goods or services via email even when the payee doesn’t have a merchant account to process credit card payments.
This comes in handy when you’d rather hang on to cash and rely more on credit to cover things like your rent.
Problem: Thin Profit Margins
A lot of small businesses rely on guesswork when determining what to charge for a project to ensure profitability. It’s often only after a project is complete that a business can assess their earnings on any given project. All too often, this profit margin is much less than expected.
Solution: Project Tracking Tools
Filling in a bigger-than-usual order or taking on a more complicated project can be financially rewarding. Only if you manage to limit cost overruns.
FINSYNC can make it easier to track profitability on projects with features like built-in time and expense monitoring, automated invoicing and tools that can more accurately deliver project cost estimates in real-time. You can feel more confident that you’ll be able to complete a project on time and without exceeding your budget.
Problem: Hiring Employees
Hiring remains one of the biggest challenges that small businesses face. In addition to the time spent recruiting and interviewing candidates, paying a salary plus benefits can be cost-prohibitive for new and smaller businesses.
Solution: Independent Contractors
Successful small business owners eventually need to farm out some of their company’s tasks in order to continue to grow. Hiring a professional bookkeeper, accountant or other financial experts can be especially beneficial to a small business. It can save you money in the long run.
One option to consider is filling that position with an employee who works on a contract, or freelance basis, but does so from home. Remote workers are less expensive. This is because you don’t have to pay for health insurance, sick days, and other costly employee benefits. You can also hire professionals with highly specific skills on a temporary basis when you need them.
FINSYNC’s network of financial specialists provides businesses with unrivaled support for bookkeeping, accounting, human capital management, financial analysis and corporate strategy. You’ll get matched with a vetted candidate that’s best suited to help your business succeed.
Small businesses face challenges both large and small on a daily basis.
FINSYNC is here to help take on some of the toughest challenges you’re likely to face to save you time, money and maybe even your sanity.