In the vulnerable start-up phase finance is probably the biggest threat to survival. We often need to inject considerable amounts of working capital to keep the business floating until the sales take off. A lot of us like to focus on immediate rewards and put all our efforts into the day-to-day running of the business. However, it is well worth taking some time before, or during the initial start-up, to really get to grips with the finances. You might not find it exciting and you may have a real phobia about figures, but get over it. Finance is the lifeblood of your business and you need to be in control of it – anticipating all possible outgoings and surprise expenses, and being absolutely clear about how your business needs to perform in order to meet those outgoings during the start-up phase, until you have built up some emergency capital resources.
