What if you never had a lack of cash? What would it be like for you? Would you have less Stress? Would you buy new equipment? Give yourself a pay-cheque?
Yes, cash flow issues and contractors go together like white and rice. This is nothing new..
But…
Some of you are like a fish in water. You’re not aware that you’re living day to day with massive cash flow issues that are stifling your business and stunting your growth.
You’ve been living it for so long that you forgot what anything else feels like.
So here are 7 tell-tale signs…
..That you’re *not so good* (to be polite) at controlling your cash flow:
Sign #1: YOU’RE SCARED TO LOOK AT YOUR BANK ACCOUNT
Does this sound like you?
You’re going through your day, handling business, when suddenly that thought, yes, that thought, the one you’ve been trying to avoid since last month (maybe since last year) pops into your head:
”How much money am I working with?”
”How much cash have I really got?”
You take a deep breath and you think about it…
You’ve been taking on lots of jobs lately, your crews are busy…. you’re certainly busy.
Yeah, you’ve been putting in “overtime” (which is now just regular time for you) longer than you can remember.
But despite that you know…
When you muster up the courage to stare down those digits next to your account, you’re not going to be happy with them.
So you don’t look.
“I should be fine for now,” you say to yourself and you decide that there’s no point in looking right now.
Sign #2: YOU’RE CONSTANTLY SHUFFLING MONEY AROUND FROM ONE SUPPLIER TO THE NEXT.
You look at the notifications on your phone and you see that you’ve got several voicemails…
You’ve got texts, missed calls and emails you still haven’t replied to.
Everyone is on your case, asking the same old question:
“When are you going to pay me”?
”Not today.” You think.
The money that’s coming in, is going out faster than you can hold on to it.
Plus, you’ve got another payroll coming up and you won’t allow your guys to go without a cheque.
Your suppliers are offering you discounts for prompt payment, but you’re struggling to pay them in 30.. or even 45 days.
You’ve got multiple lines of credit and you’re dealing with different suppliers – maxing out on one and then going to the next and then the next…
You know things are approaching a disastrous state but you only have enough cash to pay just one of your suppliers.
You’re building up so much debt that sometimes you fear you’ll never be able to recover..
But you hold your head high, and you move through the day like nothing’s wrong. And no one seems to notice anythings wrong because you don’t want to burden them.
Little do they know (or maybe they do) that you’re in a constant, low-level state of fear because you’re not really sure where the money is going to come from.
At least not yet.. you always do seem to find a way, but who knows how long until you’re completely tapped out.
Sign #3: No matter how much work you land, no matter how many hours you put in, no matter how much babysitting you do, you’re still broke and never have enough money for anything.
You’re looking for as many ways to save cash as possible. You’re driving old trucks, using old tools and old equipment that’s all way beyond it’s life cycle….but what else can you do?
Everyone you talk to tells you the same story:
“It’s just part of being a contractor”.
You’ve thought about shutting down the business and that maybe you would be better off being an employee instead of an employer
Sign #4: You feel like you’re a bank to your clients. There are more people who owe you money than there are people who’ve settled up
This one’s a classic..
Everyone wants to get paid but nobody wants to pay you.
You can’t stop thinking about who you need to call and collect money from. Sometimes you think about picking up the phone and yelling at them before your better sense gets a hold of you.
Next, you wake up in the middle of the night. The 3rd time in a week and you can’t get back to bed…
”Who have I invoiced this week?”
”Who’s paid me this week? What money is coming in?”
The thoughts ring a large church bell in your head.
You can’t turn them off. So you toss.. and turn.. and accept that it’s just going to be another two coffee morning tomorrow.
Sign #5: YOU CAN’T PREDICT YOUR CASHFLOW.
Your cash goes up and down following the seasons like a roller coaster. You struggle to predict or control it.
The busy season means too much work… Which leaves your cash out on the streets and tied up in payroll.
Too little work means that no cash is coming in and you’ve got a crew full of guys that now you can’t keep busy.
Every year is like groundhog day. You know it, your team knows it and your family is living it.
Sign #6: ANOTHER QUARTERLY TAX BILL CAN’T BE PAID
Another government quarterly tax bill has come in and you can’t pay it.
The penalties are severe. So you start panicking, dropping your prices to get more work to pay the bill but it just gets worse…
Sign #7: YOU PAY YOURSELF LAST INSTEAD OF FIRST
You keep telling yourself:
”I’ll pay myself just a little so that I can help the business grow”
When you look closer into it you’re actually the least paid person in the company.
You sit down and figure out what you are actually making per hour and you wonder:
”Why am I even doing this at all?”
Conclusion
Cash flow issues for contractors aren’t going away… But there’s actions you can take to leave the 99% and join the 1% who’ve got control of their cash-flow and are true, champion CEOs.
The first is becoming aware of the signs that you’ve got big problems with your cash flow.
The second, is committing to taking action to solve these problems.
Of course, this is easier when you have a road map, proven strategies and templates and someone who’s been there before to guide you.
Register for our free training on Cashflow Mastery and I’ll show you the 10 specific areas that cause MASSIVE cash-flow issues and show you how to identify WHICH strategy is going to have the biggest impact on your business in less than 2hrs.
