Being owed money is not being paid

A business can be profitable on every job and still fail, because profit is a calculation and cash is what pays your rent. That distinction is the most important thing in this course.

How it happens. You deliver work in January, invoice on the last day, the client pays in March, and meanwhile you have paid for materials, for a subcontractor and for your own living. On paper the job was profitable and in February you had no money.

It gets worse as you grow, which surprises people. More work means more money spent before being paid, and a rapidly growing business with thin margins runs out of cash while looking successful. This is a common and avoidable ending.

The two numbers that matter. How long from doing the work to being paid, and how long your money lasts if nothing comes in. Most small businesses here know neither.

The arithmetic of late payment. A client paying at sixty days rather than thirty is using your money for a month, which for a small business is the difference between comfortable and anxious.

Late payment is normal in this market, which does not make it acceptable and does mean your arrangements have to assume it rather than hope otherwise.

So the whole of this course is about shortening the gap between doing the work and having the money, which is more valuable to a small business than increasing revenue.