Emergency savings are a necessity for us all. But this is especially true for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers. For such folk, a major unpaid invoice can fall on the same month as an unexpected household emergency — like your oven calling it a day or your air conditioner packing it in the middle of summer.
Having a safety net in case of emergencies in our personal lives can take the professional pressure off, allowing small business owners to focus energies elsewhere — such as on growing and strengthening the company.
Read on to learn of the ways that technology and automation can help you to boost your emergency savings.
There are hundreds of invoicing and payment apps that can give you real-time updates on your incomings and outgoings, helping you track unpaid invoices and view profit and loss reports.
Such accuracy will give you all the information you need to decide how much you can afford to spend on an average monthly deposit into your emergency savings account. As a rule of thumb, 10% per month is advised, but this may need to be adjusted based on the financial fluctuations of your small business.
If an emergency arises and you don’t have sufficient savings —that is, you haven’t accumulated enough ten percent yet — reach for your laptop, phone, desktop, or tablet and research online lenders who might be able to help. Visit lenders like Fora Credit to learn about online lines of credit and see what you need to apply.
Online loans are a safety net. They’re there for occasional help when your budgeting falls short. It should be straightforward to bypass this route by accurately calculating your monthly deposit and following these tips.
Once you’ve established a comfortable monthly allocation, automate your contributions by creating a standing order that automatically switches the money to your standalone emergency savings account.
Having an account dedicated exclusively to emergency funds is important. If a balance slowly accrues here for this purpose, you’ll be less likely to dip into it and spend the money elsewhere.
For the financially savvy, some apps are integrated with software to help you accurately file your taxes. Managing this process alone, without the help of an accountant or bookkeeper, will immediately save you money — money that can be invested back into the business or deposited into your emergency savings account.
Any opportunity to save time saves money. By using scheduling and calendar apps to keep track of meetings and appointments and by letting clients book meetings without you on the hook to negotiate and email back and forth, you’re immediately saving your own valuable time.
That’s time that can be spent working on projects and following leads, consequently banking extra cash.
Technology can be used to your advantage — even if it’s not a core element of your business. It can expedite scheduling, streamline accounting, and empower you to take control of once-scary facets of entrepreneurship — like taxes — all at the touch of a button.
Any opportunity to save and reclaim money means you can cushion your emergency savings and invest elsewhere in growing your company.
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Barsha Bhattacharya is a senior content writing executive. As a marketing enthusiast and professional for the past 4 years, writing is new to Barsha. And she is loving every bit of it. Her niches are marketing, lifestyle, wellness, travel and entertainment. Apart from writing, Barsha loves to travel, binge-watch, research conspiracy theories, Instagram and overthink.
