You cannot escape the importance of cash flow in the successful running of a small business. Cash flow covers the movement of money through your company from the initial sale to receiving payment. If your business can get cash to flow through it faster, you are going to have more opportunities presented to your company as well as solidifying your operations.

Give your customers an incentive to send in an early payment. This can be price discounts or special bonuses if they pay early. This should be prominently displayed on any marketing material or contracts the company uses so that the customers are well aware of the early payment opportunity. You do need to make sure that the discount costs you less than the advantage you receive by getting an early payment.

Establishing an online payment system can dramatically reduce the time waiting for payments in the mail. Instead of sending a check, your customers can access the online payment system and promptly pay their bills. This also saves time since the money can be deposited directly in a designated account and you do not have to physically take checks to the bank and wait for them to clear. Services like Bill.com provides these types of electronic transactions and will help you set it up for your business.

When your business has to put out a great deal of money for a customer’s order, it is important to receive as much of what they owe you as possible in a short amount of time. This situation will change depending on the customer’s order and how your competitors deal with this issue. The important thing is to ask for payment on receipt of the initial invoice or on the shortest possible terms you can do. This will help with both your cash flow and guarding against the customer not paying the bill.

Credit cards are a viable way to speed up cash flow. There are fees involved with accepting them as payment, but it may be desirable it if the costs are worth getting cash faster. If you strictly do online orders you are going to either have to use a service like PayPal or arrange for merchant services with your bank.

If you break the large sum a customer owes you into smaller lump sums, it will help the customer pay you faster. There are going to be times a customer may need more time to pay their receipts, but you can receive the smaller lump sums quicker than if you have to wait for the customer to come up with the entire amount. You will also be reducing your chances of the customer not paying on the entire bill.

Check with your customers about their cash flow. This will give you insight into when they are best able to pay their bills and you can plan accordingly. You can better gauge your inventory, have a better handle on your cash flow, and firm up the relationship you have with the client.