Profit and cash flow are both important elements of a healthy, growing business, but they are not the same thing.
To manage your business, you must understand the difference between making money and managing money. Growing businesses often face tighter margins and increased expenses—and it’s not a good idea to try to “outearn” cash problems. Many business owners are great at selling, but it’s time to get great at forecasting and budgeting as well.
Profit is defined as revenue less expenses. It may also be referred to as net income. Cash flow refers to the inflows and outflows of cash for a particular business. Positive cash flow occurs when there’s more money coming in at any given time, while negative cash flow means there’s more money out.
Positive cash flow is not an indication that a business is profitable. Depending on the financial position of a business, a business may be profitable and experience negative cash flow. Earning revenue does not always increase cash immediately, and incurring an expense does not always decrease cash immediately.
Therefore, there may be a time when your business’s gross sales are up, even while your business has more cash outflow than inflow.
Both profitability and cash flow are important to a business. A business needs to maintain both to be successful in the long term. However, depending on the circumstances, one may be more critical than the other over a certain period of time.
For example, if a business is turning a profit but has too much cash tied up in inventory or receivables, there may not be enough cash to cover operating expenses like payroll. In this case, cash flow is more important than profitability in the short term.
Over time, if a business cannot reach profitability, it can have a negative impact on cash flow. If a business is unprofitable to the point that it threatens the business’s ability to operate, reaching profitability should be prioritized, since it is essential to a business’s existence in the long run.
Many businesses operate without seeing profits over a period of time. Keep in mind as well that when necessary, it’s possible to improve cash flow through loans, selling assets, or other ways of obtaining capital.
Free cash flow (FCF) is a measure of a business’s profitability, but is not equivalent to overall net income.
Net income is the amount of profit that a company has reported over a certain time period. Free cash flow (FCF) refers to the amount of cash a business has available after paying for operating expenses and capital expenditures (CAPEX)], and it represents the amount of cash available to a business at a given time that could be distributed to creditors or shareholders. FCF can be used to determine if your company is able to expand or restructure, or if it’s likely to see a growth in profits.
Let’s look at an example to illustrate how profit and cash flow differ.
Birchett Mowers manufactures and distributes lawn mowers through hardware stores and other retail locations. Here are three points that illustrate the differences between profit and cash flow:
Birchett sells a $300 lawn mower to a retail store on June 1st, and emails an invoice. The business posts $300 in revenue, but the retailer doesn’t pay the invoice until June 30th. Revenue is posted immediately, but the $300 in cash is not collected for 30 days.
Birchett pays $270 in expenses for the lawn mower that was sold. Those expenses are paid in April and May, before the sale of the lawn mower. The business has $270 in cash outflows in April and May before collecting $300 on June 30th.
The profit generated on the lawn mower sale is ($300 – $270 = $30), and that profit is posted on June 1st. In accounting terms, revenue can be recognized on June 1st, because the sales process is completed when the product is delivered. The $30 profit is not collected in cash, however, until June 30th.
While Birchett must wait to collect its receivables, other companies do not have this issue. Many businesses collect cash from customers at the point of sale. A retailer, such as Walmart, receives customer payments at the point of sale through debit card and credit card purchases.
This system allows a retailer to collect cash quickly, and makes the cash management process much easier. Birchett’s cash management planning, however, is more complicated.
Birchett earned a $30 profit on the lawn mower sale, but had to pay $270 in cash to make and deliver the product to a customer. The firm also had to wait 30 days after the sale to recover the $270 paid in cash and collect the $30 profit. The more products Birchett sells, the more cash it must spend. This situation requires precise cash flow management.
Here are several sources of cash flow for Birchett:
If Birchett issues stock, the owners are selling a percentage of their interest in the company. Issuing debt requires the company to make interest payments on debt, and repay the original principal amount borrowed on time. Companies may consider issuing stock or debt to raise enough funds to operate their business.
Every business wants to increase sales, but if cash collections do not increase at the same rate, a firm may quickly run short on cash.
Assume that Birchett shifts its marketing focus to a $300 lawn mower that generates a higher profit of $45. Total sales in July increase from 1,000 to 1,500 lawn mowers. While Birchett’s total profit is higher, the firm must have available cash to produce 500 more lawn mowers that are sold in July.
Situations like this can create a cash crisis . Birchett may accept orders for more lawn mowers, then realize that it doesn’t have enough cash to produce more products. The owners may have to quickly sell stock or find a lender to raise cash, which is not a choice the owners would normally make. Because the firm is under pressure, the owners may sell more ownership or pay a higher interest rate on a loan than they intended.
Higher profits are a great objective, but meeting the cash needs of your business requires careful planning. Make sure that you understand the differences between profit and cash flow, so that you can grow your business with sufficient cash flow.
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