Matt is the owner of Renovations by Matt, and went into the home renovation business 4 years ago after leaving a successful career working for a large construction firm.

As is common with a new business, Matt had recorded losses for a number of years, but this was his first year of profitability. Even though he has reached this milestone, it's been difficult to cut cheques when he needed to. Cash flow was Matt’s main concern.

Matt Found $22,757 with Blueprint for business Check-Up

To gain some insight on his cash flow challenges, Matt spent 5 minutes utilizing one of our online cash flow tools, called Blueprint for business Check-Up. Matt wanted to clarify the actual source of his business’ cash flow challenge. The entire process is documented via an e-mailed report that contains valuable links to resources, articles and podcasts. It was the first step in creating a roadmap for Matt’s business and is our way of demonstrating our desire to help him reach his goal to become financially better off.

Matt started the process by entering 3 key pieces information on his business. To illustrate how small changes in receivables and payables will affect the business’ cash flow, Matt was presented with a ‘slider’ tool that effectively highlighted the relationship between cash flow and collections/remittances.

7 Easy Questions

Matt answered 7 key questions pertaining to 3 critical cash flow elements; receivables, payables and inventory:

1. What payment terms do you offer to your customers?
   
   
2. How many days following delivery of your product or service to your customers do you invoice?
   
   
3. How many days does it take from cutting the invoice to mailing it?
   
   
4. On average, how many days elapse between mailing your invoice and receiving payment?
   
   
5. How many days elapse between receiving a customers cheque and depositing it in the bank?
   
   
6. How frequently do you purchase your supplies, inventory for sale and/or components?
   
   
7. How many days prior to payment deadlines do you pay your suppliers or vendors?

By understanding Matt’s business practices, we are able to make suggestions around specific best practices and tactics and quantify the dollar value impact. The running total of these impacts are tracked throughout the process. In this way, Matt is clearly able to see the cash flow impact his business decisions have had.

Matt found that by changing some of his current practices, he could improve his business’ cash flow. Matt had now seen the opportunities and our report is the first step to transform this opportunity into a reality.

Matt’s e-mailed report, is a valuable resource which recaps the cash flow impacts of our suggested tactics and best practices. In the report, he is provided links to resources, articles and podcasts to get him started. After reviewing these resources, Matt decided he needed to speak with one of our Small Business Specialists. Based upon his business information, the report advised him of the nearest Scotiabank branch and the appropriate contact information.

Try the Blueprint for business Check-up for yourself and find out what 5 minutes is worth to your own business!