Normally I have a monthly finance routine, but I’ve increased the frequency to weekly. I’ve done the same thing with my personal finances as well. 

I’ve found that by checking in with your finances more often, they’re at the forefront of your mind, and you’re way more likely to remember last week’s cash flow rather than last month’s cash flow. It just keeps you a bit closer to the pulse. 

Time is money. It makes sense to identify what’s best done by you and what’s best to outsource. Outsourcing, of course, comes at a cost – so I’ve found myself doing more things by myself. I’m a content creator, which involves things like editing, and in terms of help with creating content, I’ve taken that more in-house.  

Since the pandemic there is more understanding around working from home and doing things digitally. Working from home limits things like co-working and office costs, but also the associated costs like travel and buying food out. 

I must say that it is important to go outside to see and work with other people. Just keep in mind that if you have premises or a co-working space, that can be quite a major overhead. 

So far, I’ve been invited on to LBC [radio] to discuss it. I’ve also worked with charities such as Crisis UK, a homelessness charity, and Turn2us, a charity that supports people in financial hardship. I’ve found that, because I am a financial content creator, by talking about the issues that matter most, that means more people are willing to engage with it.  

If all your revenue or income was to dry up, for how many months or weeks could your business survive based upon the cash that you have in the bank? 

You’re not going to know that unless you work out your core monthly overheads – staff costs, premises costs, office costs, and any professional services you’re using. Work out that number, then take the amount of money that you have in your business bank account and divide it by that number – that’s your monthly run rate. That’s how long you can stay afloat for.  

If you’re worried that costs are getting high, see where you can cut back, not permanently, but just during this period that we’re in. 

You can save money by not using particular services, by downgrading to a free tier on certain services, or even by bringing things in-house just during this period.  

In my business bank account, I actually took out 12 months of pay and moved it to a separate part of the account. Now, when I look inside it, there’s just a small amount of money, which is a bit like starting from zero again. 

I know that if the income does dry up, I have this ‘break glass in case of emergency’ pot of cash sitting somewhere else. 

Please note that the views and information have not been endorsed, issued or approved by NatWest. Any views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of NatWest. 

Read more about news and insights for your business as costs rise.