Given the rising cost of living and inflation, you may be searching for methods to increase your small business’s profitability while reducing expenses.
1. How to track and optimize your cash flow
Tracking your cash flow helps you know when is the right time to spend or reinvest, or when to wait to keep your business within your means. With the cost of living rising, your input costs (e.g. wages, materials, supplier price increases) may impact your profit margins, so you may need to adjust your prices accordingly. In the CommBank app1, you can enable a Business Cash Flow view2, which gives you key insights to help you understand the health of your business accounts. You can also set up smart alerts across the CommBank app and NetBank, which will notify you instantly if your account balance is low, high, overdrawn or if a payment has been made.
2. Find out about available grants and support
Have you checked whether your company can apply for government grants or discounts? You may be eligible for temporary staffing incentives, mentoring allowances, natural disaster response support, and more to help your company get on the offensive. Our benefits search tool has helped over 24,000 companies claim over $215 million as of December 2022. Try Benefits Finder3 for free to see if your business is eligible for financial support.
3. Check your utilities
Electricity providers are constantly competing with different offers and discounts. If you haven’t checked your plans or rates in a while, consider looking for better offers for electricity, insurance, internet, phone and more. Visit “Learn more” to learn more about your telecommunications needs. Eligible CommBank business customers can enjoy discounts on nbn®, mobile and business phone rates4. Offer expires 30 June 2025. Participation criteria and general terms and conditions apply. 5.
4. Stay updated
Keeping up to date on the latest news and events can help you identify opportunities to adapt if significant situations arise that may affect your business. Consider creating plans for various events such as natural disasters, and stay updated on political decisions that may lead to changes in policies and laws, events that may affect consumer attitudes, and industry-specific news. Check the Small Business Banking Portal to stay up to date.
5. Support your decisions with data and insights
Diversifying or updating your products can help your business stay competitive. New customer surveys and industry reports are published all the time, but with the wealth of information available, it can be hard to know what’s relevant and where to start. To provide you with targeted information specific to you and your business, NetBank’s Daily IQ6 helps you understand your customer demographics through local spending trends and other useful business insights. If you’re considering upgrading, do your research and talk to your customers to determine when and where it’s right to expand your business.
6. Separate your personal and business expenses
If you don’t have separate accounts already, you should make this a top priority to get on the right footing. Separating your personal and business banking will allow you to better monitor your day-to-day cash flow and stay on top of your overall financial situation. It will also be easier to track your work and personal expenses when it’s time to file your taxes, so you can accurately claim and claim deductions.
7. Get advice from an expert
Other small business owners often have to deal with similar situations, so they can be a great source of knowledge if you need it. Find the business community that works for you, whether online or in person, and get involved whenever possible. If you need expert financial advice on budgeting, credit, or other money issues, speak to a financial advisor or contact us for help.
