It's one of the most common — and most solvable — cash flow problems for growing small businesses. The sales are there and the business is busy, but the bank balance never seems to match — and it's keeping you up at night. Usually the cash isn't lost; it's trapped somewhere specific.
Below are the usual places it hides — with simple examples, and how we help you free it up.
Book a Free Cash Flow Call30-minute discovery call. No pitch, no obligation.
helps us keep track of cashflow, revenue/profitability projections and fundraising activity, all in one place
help us create a wonderful forecast that allowed us to focus on other areas of the business
As a self-funded startup, we cannot afford a full time CFO just yet
They turned complex numbers into something a 10 year old would want to look at
also helped us to understand our own business better
I wanted a model that helped me understand what was happening in my business and know what targets we needed to set
it has helped me plan and run my business day to day much better, so I can stay on top of what really matters
It has saved me thousands of dollars in the long run and reduced any major headaches
Monica is wonderful, calming and a great educator on complex matters
Monica was very detailed and also provided great feedback to enhance my cash flow model
Monica was a fantastic source of clarity, education and support
He quickly understood my business, built a model that actually reflects how a marketplace works in the real world
The level of clarity and simplicity in this product is truly valuable to our business
Numberly makes financials clear, informative, and easy-to-update
Despite all the inputs and variables, the Dashboard provides the overview that is simple for anyone to understand
Team has helped me to build a full financial forecast within the shortest time
She understands business fundamentals, delivers fully-fledged models that are easy to edit and work
She is patient, knowledgeable and takes the time to understand your given situation
Her clarity and insight made the initial stages of collaboration seamless
John's help building out our financial model gives us the clarity we need to better position for potential investors
They were professional and really helped simplify things for us
John was attentive, clear and very knowledgeable
I had worked with several financial planners and found that most approaches were far too convoluted
Eager to understand & extremely responsive to intimate forecast needs and requirements
Responsive, and clear communication over email and calls
Numberly’s model makes it simple to continuously update our data
She meticulously reviewed our financial plan, adeptly making adjustments
He took the time to understand our needs and create a customized solution and plan
Profit is counted the moment you make a sale. But cash only moves when money actually arrives in, or leaves, your account. A profitable, growing business can still run short of cash for one very ordinary reason: the money goes out before it comes back in.
The gap between those two numbers isn't a mystery. It has a handful of usual suspects, and they fall into three groups.
The everyday running of your business quietly ties up cash. The faster you grow, the more it swallows — because you fund the next sale before the last one has paid you.
Stock is cash in a box. Sales jump 40%, so you buy 40% more stock to keep up — and that money leaves your account weeks or months before those units sell. Grow fast enough and inventory alone can outrun your bank balance.
You invoice $50k and book the profit today. The customer pays in 60 days. Every new sale means fronting another two months of cash before it comes back — so growth widens the gap instead of closing it.
A big order needs 50% up front. You pay in March; your customers pay you in June. For three months that cash is gone — and the faster you re-order to keep up with demand, the more is out the door at once.
Not sure how much cash is tied up in your stock, your unpaid invoices and your supplier terms? That's the first thing we measure — and often the fastest to free up. Let's take a look at yours together.
Book a Free Cash Flow CallGrowth needs capacity — people, space, equipment. But capacity is paid for now, while the revenue to justify it arrives later. Get the timing wrong and you fund an empty seat or an idle machine out of working cash.
You buy the $60k machine with cash instead of leasing it. Your profit and loss statement only spreads that cost over several years — but your bank account felt the full $60k on day one. Owning outright can be the right call; the cash hit just rarely shows up where you're looking.
You hire three people and take the bigger unit for the growth you're sure is coming. Payroll and rent start immediately; the revenue to cover them is still months out. Build too far ahead of demand and the gap comes straight out of cash.
Wondering whether you've built ahead of your demand — or how to grow into it without a cash crunch? That's exactly the kind of call we help owners make. Let's talk it through.
Book a Free Cash Flow CallSometimes the problem isn't timing — it's the numbers underneath the business. Whether each customer really pays their way, and whether you have enough of them to cover your fixed costs, decides whether growth fills the tank or drains it.
A customer costs $2k to win and is worth $8k over five years — a great business. But you pay the $2k today and collect the $8k drip by drip. The faster you acquire, the more cash goes out long before it returns.
Not every customer, product or channel actually makes money once you count everything it really costs to look after them. If some lose money, winning more of them just digs the hole faster — and no amount of growth fixes it.
Every customer leaves you $400 after their direct costs — genuinely profitable work. But rent, salaries and systems run $20,000 a month, so it takes fifty customers just to break even. At forty, you lose $4,000 a month however hard everyone works. When each sale pays but there aren't enough of them, there are only two fixes: grow past that line, or cut the fixed costs you have to cover.
Not sure whether it's your customers, your pricing, or simply not enough sales to cover your fixed costs? That's exactly what we help you pin down — and whether the answer is grow, reprice, or trim. Book a free call.
Book a Free Cash Flow CallYou don't need to guess which of these is happening in your business — you need to see it. That's what we build. We connect to your accounts and produce a 13-week cash flow forecast, updated every week that shows exactly when cash gets tight and why, where it's trapped today, and how much you can free up. It's forward-looking financial analysis — not another look in the rear-view mirror. It's how you get on top of cash flow management, and actually improve your cash flow instead of just tracking it.
Most small business owners start with our fixed-scope diagnostic — the simplest way to get real help with cash flow. It pins down which of the causes above are draining your cash, and exactly what to do about each one:
Not sure where to start? Tell us what is worrying you and get a straight answer from a real CFO.
But the first step is just a conversation.
If any of this sounds like your business, the cash is almost certainly recoverable — once you can see where it's going. A free 30-minute call is the place to start: we'll get to know your situation, help you work out where to look first, and agree the best way to proceed.
Book a Free Cash Flow Call