Small business finance: 5 tips for managing cash flow effectively
The countdown to Christmas is well and truly on. Whether you own a restaurant or a store, prepping your business is essential to make the most of the holiday boom.
To help you make this year’s Christmas the best one yet, we’ve compiled a checklist. Check it out (and just like Santa, make sure to check it twice).
Christmas checklist
Stock up on inventory
When your business is teeming with merry customers, the last thing you want is to have to turn them away because you’ve run out of supplies. Stay ahead of the curve by ordering in ingredients, beverages, and crockery (breakages!) to keep your restaurant service smooth, or keep shelves stacked with plenty of products and packaging in your retail store.
Update your business information
It can pay to stay open longer, or on days you usually wouldn’t trade, in the holiday season. Update your website, Google listing, and social media accounts, and consider flicking an email to your subscribers, so no one misses out on your extended trading hours.
If you run an eCommerce business, make sure your customers know your Christmas order cut-off dates, as well as any shipping and return policies that may apply.
For your restaurant or cafe, consider taking bookings (even if you don’t usually) to secure tables ahead of time. You might want to consider taking a pre-payment/holding fee, in case of last-minute cancellations.
Streamline your sales and payments process
The holidays are the busiest time of the year, so make sure your sales processes are ready for increased volumes of customers.
To keep things moving at busy times, you can order more EFTPOS machines, and ensure they are integrated with your Point of Sale system, to process payments quickly and efficiently. You can even purchase a Tyro Go EFTPOS reader to complement your EFTPOS set up so you don’t miss a sale.
It’s also important to check that all the features on your EFTPOS machine(s) are set up, including Pay@Table, SplitBills1, Dynamic Surcharging2, and Tipping so you can simultaneously wow your customers with a superior experience while boosting business sales.
Moreover, you can review your transaction data from previous busy seasons on the Tyro Portal (select the Log in button in the top right corner) or Tyro App, and use them to guide your decisions for this Christmas season. You can also look at real-time data throughout the holidays to stay on top of your transactions and make business decisions.
Prepare your staff
Your staff make your business tick, so be sure that you have enough people rostered on for the holiday season.
It’s also important that your team is ready and engaged for end-of-year trading, and that everyone is on the same page when it comes to processes and managing the crowds. You could ask for your employees’ feedback on last year’s holiday season, so you can identify what processes to reinstate or avoid this time around.
Have fun
While Christmas is a pivotal time to bring in extra dollars before the year ends, don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the festive season. You’ve worked hard all year and deserve to celebrate your efforts.
1 Tyro’s Pay@Table, and SplitBills features are only available where the POS/PMS supports the integration. SplitBills is only available with Tyro’s Pay@Table/Pay@Bar feature.
2 Dynamic Surcharging is available for Mastercard, Visa, eftpos, UnionPay, American Express, JCB, and Diners Club on CounterTop EFTPOS and Mobile EFTPOS machines, and excludes Card Not-Present transactions. By default, we do not include your EFTPOS machine rental costs into the calculation of your cost of acceptance, however you may choose to apply these costs into your calculation of your cost of acceptance via the Tyro Portal subject to the surcharging rules as set by the RBA and enforced by ACCC.
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