1. Never leave home without them. Before leaving home, your checklist should be expanded to include business cards, as part of "do I have my wallet/money, house keys, driver’s license?" Any “per chance” meeting is an opportunity to give out a business card. A morning run or a quick trip to local store could be an opportunity to network. My wife and I always ask each other “do you have business cards”, before leaving house. Make it a habit to carry business cards.

2. Insert a business card when mailing bill payments. Bills contain advertisements. Why can’t you advertise your skills or services same way? Insert a business card with your payment. You may not think a person in South Dakota who opens your credit card bill payment can help you. Never underestimate power of networking. A movie, entitled “6 Degrees of Separation” points out we are 6 people away from knowing someone of influence. You could be 6 people away from knowing President of United Sates, your favorite movie star or someone who is in a position to hire your skills or services. Each of us knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone etc. Developing this powerful networking attitude will be a fundamental source of continued success.

3. Use proper business card etiquette. Whenever you give a business card, ask for a business card. When given a business card, don’t just take it and place it in your pocket. Make person feel important by looking at their card for a few seconds. You might see something that could be a topic of discussion. Write comments on card such as date, location and common points of interest. These comments will prove valuable when following up with that person. This also demonstrates a sincere interest in other person. Then place it in your wallet. This lets them know they reside in a special place with you. "Skill with People" by Les Giblin is a book that expands on this approach. Make people feel important, in order to make yourself important to them.

4. Be generous. Give business cards out to everyone, including family and friends. Don’t let vanity stop you from giving out your last business card or giving 2 at a time to each person. I have met many people who have totally missed purpose of a business card. I once asked a person for a second business card, so I could refer his services. His response was "I only have a few cards left and I need them", as he looked again at his name on card. Hoarding your business cards only makes your wallet feel full, not your bank account.

5. Ask for referrals. When giving a business card, people feel more comfortable when you ask; “I would appreciate a referral, if you know anyone that could use my services”. Don’t make people feel like they are on spot. This approach disarms people much better than asking them, “is your company hiring?” People naturally like to do favors for people. Saying “could you do me a favor by referring my services to someone”. This always places you in a better position with them. They will feel better about helping you. Give them 2 cards.

The following are five strategies that will help you start to build a strong financial foundation and build value in your company.

1. Set up a financial control system

The first thing you need to start with is a control system so that there is consistency in your process and procedures. A control system is designed to prevent and detect errors in your daily activities. For example, is there is a standard way of processing your receivables, payables and inventory? If there are no standard guidelines to follow, there is probably no control system.

2. Have daily access to your account information

Make sure that you can access your account information every day; it is invaluable to managing your cash effectively. With most banks providing internet access at a reasonable cost, there is no reason not to have instant access to account information.

3. Manage your cash components

Concentrate on managing your three main cash components: accounts receivable, accounts payable and inventory.

Let's take a look at each component:

Accounts Receivable

Make sure your credit and collection system is working efficiently. Any excess investment in accounts receivable increases need to borrow more money to avoid a cash flow deficit. That means that if you are carrying excess receivables you are probably carrying excess debt and you have a direct cost of having to carry that extra debt in interest payments. Even if you finance receivables through internal equity, there is still an indirect cost; opportunity cost of using that equity elsewhere which could include expanding your inventory to increase sales, reducing debt or earning interest on cash balances.

Your accounts receivable collection period defines relationship with cash flow process. Every month you should be calculating your collection period and comparing with previous periods and relating those results to industry averages. Any material differences should be investigated.

Your credit policy can influence your cash flow and earnings. Longer credit terms can increase sales and earnings, but any decision to offer more liberal terms requires an estimate of trade-off between cost of larger investment in accounts receivable and bottom-line benefits of a higher sales volume. Remember that increasing your credit terms will bring in less credit worthy customers which can increase your bad debt expense. You can, however, use price increases to offset more liberal credit terms.

When you develop a receivable policy, consider following:

.Check financial health of customers before offering them credit. Consider obtaining cash on first order. .Do not make your invoice terms too generous. .Charge interest to customers who pay late. .Give discounts for early payment. .If you are offering discounts, terms should be attractive enough to encourage customers to take discount. This can also serve as an early warning signal; if a customer doesn't take discount, or all of a sudden stops taking discount, then you may want to investigate further before extending credit as it could be a sign of financial trouble. .Do not wait longer than 30 days for a late payment before you take action; you need to minimize your company's exposure to bad credit. Put it into dollar terms, if you have a $1,000 bad debt write-off and a 10% profit margin, you need to generate an addition $10,000 in sales just to make it back.

Inventory

First, keep in mind that because of carrying costs such as warehousing and insurance it is more expensive to carry inventory than to carry accounts receivable. That is, reducing an investment in inventory provides you a larger bottom-line benefit than a comparable reduction in accounts receivable because you are also reducing carrying costs.