Note: This is not a post about Johnny Cash impersonating Elvis. He’s too cool for that. It is, however, a serious post about how cash is king and how to avoid common pitfalls when managing your cash.

But I thought this title was more fun – don’t you think?

“It is important to remember when starting and growing a new company that cash is more important than your mother.” – Al Shugart, founder of Seagate Technology

Once your emerging company obtains cash, either via investment or revenue generation or both, its supremely important to monitor and manage that money so that you maintain positive cashflow. You need to keep a keen eye on your business, ie, do the right things and avoid doing the wrong things.

Cash is King – The Money Story, a recent white paper by NetSuite, reveals seven barriers that can hurt your cashflow. These are real-world scenarios that companies must address if they are going to survive in today’s rapidly changing environment. It tells how CXO-level managers must be able to see and tell how their company is performing, vis-à-vis from a cashflow perspective.

The whitepaper describes the obstacles including everything from The Hairball, in which there are many disparate, disconnected systems, which actually work against back-office automation vs helping its efficiency, to Misalignment of Strategy and Execution, which is exactly as the name states, where company goals aren’t being acted upon in a logical manner. Other items include lack of real-time information, billing and rev rec issues – and the penalties that come with non-compliance. The other issues, such as When an Upgrade Becomes a Downgrade, Uncoupled Product and Service, and Where’s the Money, are also touched upon.

The real red flag for all of these issues is that they grow more insidious as a company scales; that is, they grow exponentially worse over time, so the problems get bigger as the company gets bigger.

Of course all is not hopeless. There is a cure for all of the seven woes. And this cure starts with automating your back-office systems with an integrated, cloud-based solution: NetSuite. NetSuite offers a 360 degree view of your business, extending globally across time zones, regions, tax laws, regulatory compliance and more, allowing CFOs to quickly acquire real time data and then eloquently communicate the metrics in an easily digestible story that CEOs, Boards, investors, and customers alike can understand.

To get your copy of the Cash is Elvis King white paper, please click the button below and subscribe! 

All my best,

Kim