by Lina Martinez

When starting a business of any kind, your first investor should be yourself. Get to know the relationship you have with yourself and what you want to see happen. The relationship should also be with your own cash and with collateral on your assets. You want to prove to your bank and to your investors that you have a long-term commitment to your business and that you are willing to take risks. 

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You will possibly need a grant to get you going in business. The chances are if you don't have your own funds, then you won’t have any money to inject into the business. You may need to provide:

• A detailed project description

• An explanation of the benefits of your project

• A detailed work plan with full costs

• Details of relevant experience and background on key managers

• Completed application forms when appropriate

Once your business plan is in place there are a number of other things to take into consideration. How are you going to source your products, what do you offer and what systems and computer networks do you need? Are you working with a lot of money, if so how are you going to transfer this money well? If you are going to send money, what program will be best? 

Follow business trends to maximise your business. This is so important because it is going to be the best way for you to start learning how to finance your business. What is working now in your industry? How can you keep improving it? Be on top of all business trends to work out a clear path for your finances. 

Look at investing in the following: 

• Accounting Software - Keep accurate financial records so that you can use this for tax purposes or for any type of financial need if you need to present it legally. 

• Budgeting Tools - You need to know your budget and know how you are going to spend it to get the most out of it. If you don't budget correctly then you are likely to over spend. 

• Payroll Management System.

• Agile Billing. 

• Financial Dashboard. 

• Cash Flow Analysis - This should be done every month or quarter and you should be looking at what is working and what must be changed. 

• Inventory Management - Do you have too much stock or not enough?

• Expense Tracking - Who is using the expenses and why and can it be done differently such as meetings via Skype. 

Educating yourself and acquiring financing tools will enable you to invest and make the best decisions in order for you to grow. This is why it is important to have good financial information available all the time and a team that you can trust to help you put all this together.  Strict accounting and financial management will most likely offer more benefits to your company. So it’s time to get your finances in order and start to see your SME grow. It’s more than doable, so make the best decision today for a better tomorrow.