bookskeep

If cash feels tighter than it should, these 3 warning signs can help you catch the issue early before it turns into a bigger problem. Read the blog for the full breakdown.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝗜 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝗳 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺?

Most of the ecommerce sellers I work with don't realize they have a cash problem until it's already a crisis.

Their P&L looks fine.

Revenue is growing.

On paper, the business looks healthy.

But the bank accounts tell a different story, and by the time they realize they need help, they're already scrambling.

Here are the three signs I tell every seller to watch for.

Your bank accounts are getting smaller month over month, even though revenue is going up.

If sales are up but cash is down, something is off. Either money is going somewhere you're not tracking, or your P&L is hiding the full picture.

An inventory order is coming up and you don't know where the down payment is going to come from.

If the answer is "I'll figure it out" or "I'll put it on the card," you're not running a cash strategy. You're reacting.

You're using credit cards or lines of credit as an oxygen mask.

There's a difference between using credit strategically and using it to keep the business breathing. One is a tool. The other is a warning sign.

If any of those three sound familiar, you have a cash problem, even if your P&L is showing a profit.

The P&L can be misleading, and here's why.

That bottom line profit has to fund your inventory orders, pay back any loans, and cover your owner's draw.

All of those hide on the balance sheet which, as I like to say, is where accountants bury the dead bodies.

Because no one looks there.

The P&L tells you what happened on paper.

The cash in your bank account tells you the truth.

If you're seeing one of these signs in your business right now, schedule a call and we'll take a look together.

You can also take our Ecommerce Business Performance Assessment to pinpoint where the gaps are.

The earlier you catch a cash problem, the more options you have to fix it.

Cyndi

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝗜 𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿?

Here's what I see most often with ecommerce sellers.

They're not forecasting.

Most owners manage cash by checking the bank balance and making a judgment call.

That works, until it doesn't.

And when it stops working, it stops working fast.

If cash flow feels like a problem you keep solving but can never actually fix, you're probably missing one of three things.

Not all three, usually just one.

But that one gap is enough to keep the whole cycle going forever: good month, bad month, scramble, recover, repeat.

Here are the 3 problems:

A 13-week rolling cash forecast

This changes everything.

Not because it gives you more money, but because you see the tight weeks coming before they arrive.

You stop being surprised.

You stop making panic decisions.

You know what's coming in, what's going out, and exactly when the pressure is hitting.

That alone shifts how you run your business.

Which products are actually making you money.

This one surprises people.

You're selling, revenue is coming in, things look fine, until you look closer.

The scores from our Performance Assessment show 85% of ecommerce owners don't know their product-level profitability.

That means most sellers are funding products that aren't earning their keep, often with cash that should be going somewhere else entirely.

When you know which products are actually profitable, you stop pouring cash into the wrong places.

You make smarter inventory decisions.

You free up cash you didn't know you had.

Every dollar doesn't have a job yet.

This is where Profit First comes in.

When money lands in your account, it needs to be allocated immediately to inventory, taxes, profit, and operating expenses - all before you spend it.

Not after. Before.

When you spend first and allocate what's left, there's never enough left.

That's Parkinson's Law working against you.

When you allocate first and spend what remains, the chaos stops.

Not because you have more money, but because every dollar has a purpose the moment it arrives.

Most cash flow headaches come down to these three gaps.

The other pieces, inventory timing, debt management, platform fee pressure, those are real too, but they're manageable once you have forecasting, product insight, and Profit First working together.

If you're not sure which of the three is your biggest problem right now, start with our Ecommerce Business Performance Assessment.https://link.msgsndr.com/sp/7abcd53d2f8

It takes less than 5 minutes and will point you to your weaker areas.

You'll also get our free resource guide to start working on those issues.

Then schedule a call and we'll build the plan together. https://link.msgsndr.com/sp/67f23d1bc30

You don't have to keep solving the same cash flow problem every quarter.

Let's fix it one time, not all the time.

Cyndi

Learn how to manage your cash, plan ahead, and build a safety buffer—even if you’re starting small. Read the full blog to get started.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝗜 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝘆 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀?

I'll be honest with you about something.

Most ecommerce sellers I talk to don't have a cash strategy.

They have a revenue strategy. They have a growth strategy.

They might even have a product strategy.

But when it comes to cash, most are just watching the bank account and hoping it stays positive long enough to make it to the next payout.

I understand why they do it.

Ecommerce cash flow is genuinely complicated in a way that most business advice doesn't account for.

It can be confusing.

You're paying for inventory 60 to 120 days before customers ever pay you.

Your platform payouts run on their own schedule, not yours.

Ad spend hits immediately but the results lag behind.

Nothing lines up the way you'd expect it to, and nobody warned you about that when you started.

So, when I work with a new client, the first thing we do is map all of that out together.

What's coming in. What's going out. And when.

We use a personalized 13-week rolling cash plan that gets updated every week.

Each week you compare what you forecasted against what actually happened, and you adjust.

It makes everything a lot less surprising.

Over time you start to see the patterns.

You learn your business's rhythms.

And you stop making big decisions based on whatever happens to be in the bank that day, because you know what's really going to be there in the future.

Once you have that nailed down, the second step is making sure every dollar has a purpose before it gets spent.

That's exactly what Profit First does.

It takes the guesswork out of where your money goes so you're not constantly robbing one account to cover another.

And the third step is building a reserve, even if you start with just $500 a month.

I know that sounds small, but our data shows that only 7% of ecommerce owners have solid cash reserves.

That means 93% are one bad month away from a crisis they didn't see coming.

A slow sales week. A supplier problem. An unexpected return spike.

Any one of those things can unravel a business that has no cushion.

You don't have to be there.

Take our Ecommerce Business Performance Assessment and see exactly where your cash strategy stands today. Visit here: https://quiz.yourprofitteam.com/

And if you'd like to talk through what you find, reach out.

I'd love to help you build a plan.

Cyndi