When you’re starting your own creative business, one of the most important things you need to focus on is cash flow.

Cash flow refers to the movement of money into and out of your business. Your inflows are your revenues, and your outflow is your expenses.

Each month you want to have **positive** cash flow for your business. Operate too long at a negative and you’ll either go out of business, or need to find some cash inflow from other sources like debt or investment.

If you can figure out a way to have positive cash flow with your business, you can survive for as long as you like, which means you have more time to learn, grow, contribute, and serve your clients.

Going out of business means you aren’t able to do those things anymore.

So, how do you “focus on cash flow”? Simply look at how much revenue you bring in each month, and how much expenses are going out.

Are you left with a positive amount or a negative?

Then ask yourself “what can I do to increase revenues (inflow) and decrease expenses (outflow)?”

Think of your business as a simple system like a bathtub. Water goes in from the faucet, and water goes out through the drain.

What would you do to increase the amount of water in the tub?

Do the same for your business and you’ll start getting more of the results you want - more positive cash flow, a greater ability to grow and contribute more of your work into the world.

@darentsmith | daren.blog