Sam Kahn has been part of multiple successful and not so successful businesses throughout his career. He is no stranger to the world of loss, Sam says “I remember a time when I had to say no to buying pens for the office”.
Kahn, has always been a savvy businessman- starting from a young age he always enjoyed the adventure of business. Sam is no stranger to the world of pressure, not knowing how you will feed your family is a tough gig, especially when you are a family with 10 kids!
Sam understands the financial struggle of growing families and startup businesses, Samuel Nathan Kahn from Manchester shares some of his experience below.
Cashflow Budgeting;
Sam believes that cashflow is king, he believes that keeping money in the bank is a crucial part of your business success. Kahn from Manchester says “most businesses fail because of cashflow problems, this means that putting a big emphasis on what you are spending on is crucial ”. There are many different saving techniques one says that you should spend 50% of your income on your obligations such as utilities and mortgage payments. The other 50% should be spent as follows: 20% should be saved and 30% should be on your entertainment, meaning if you earn £1000.00 you should take £500.00 for all your bills etc, then take £100.00 and put it in savings and £400.00 for your entertainment. This is similar for business, if you take £500.00 and pay your office bills and then take £100.00 and put it in the bank for saving and then take £400.00 and reinvest or spend this on marketing then this should help you stabilise your business. Some people prefer to take more as savings and some prefer to spend more, for example the rule above is the 50-30-20 rule some people prefer to follow the 70-20-10 rule. This is personal preference and whatever feels good to you at the time, the key is to ensure you are saving something personally and in business for a rainy day as well as investing in your life or business to encourage growth.
Samuel Nathan Kahn, who lives in Manchester, UK, is a big supporter of growth, he believes that the best way to do business and grow is to expand rather than consolidate when in times of need- he says “its a bad business move to fire staff through struggle, this is not the way to hit your goals”. However, he does believe that sometimes just watching the small stuff or doing payments slowly and monthly can help save cashflow which in turn allows you to maintain the business the way it needs. Managing the way you spend sounds hard but once you start it is relatively easy. Just remember to try and do the following at least once a week:
- Track your income vs your outgoing- keep a basic google sheet of this. It doesn’t have to be anything super fancy but just something you can easily monitor and update.
- Monitor your expenses and what you really need– no point having a subscription to something if you do not need it- have what you need.
- Invest wisely– marketing and branding is really important for your business so remember to invest in this as your business will not move without it.
- Stay strong– It’s ok to have a bad month, it happens- just monitor the general business patterns and act accordingly.
- Watch your cashflow- You don’t need that coffee machine right now, don’t just spend for the sake of it, if you can do cashflow projections then do this and if not then learn as these are really important for you to manage your cash.
Sometimes learning to be creative can help you a lot, utilise your team creatively if you can, you don’t need 3 members to do the same job and you would be surprised at how talented most of your team are so give them more work rather than paying more wages.
Remember to keep your cash safe, don’t put it all in one bank so that if you accidentally get yourself locked out you are not left with nothing. A good business decision cannot be made with struggling eyes so keep yourself calm with the rollercoaster ride you are on. As funny as it may sound when Samuel Kahn gets stressed this is what he says “I think to myself what is the worst thing that can happen, and then I ask myself and then what and by the end of the conversion with myself I realise that I would just pick myself back up and start again” as hard as that sounds that is Sams method, you will create your own that works for you.
Sam believes that when it comes to progress, business, and life, especially when money is the driver for you. You need to have at least one person you can trust, someone you can talk to about it all and know they ‘have your back’ 100% of the time, even if you are not acting the way you should be.
Samuel Nathan Kahn from Manchester learnt that patience and good planning is key to long term success.