FinancePaper 03

Why You're Running Out of Cash

Even Though You're Profitable

What You'll Learn

How the cash conversion cycle explains why profitable businesses go broke

The three phases of the cycle: Days Payable Outstanding, Days Inventory Outstanding, and Days Sales Outstanding

Why improving one phase without understanding the others can actually make things worse

Concrete strategies to improve each phase of your cycle

How to calculate your CCC and benchmark it against your industry

Preview

A profitable business can run out of cash. You've probably experienced this — you're hitting your revenue targets, your margins look good on the P&L, but your bank account is getting tighter every month. It doesn't make sense. But it does, once you understand the cash conversion cycle.

The cash conversion cycle measures the time between when you pay your suppliers and when you collect money from your customers. In that gap, every day costs you money. Miss that gap is why businesses that are mathematically profitable still struggle for cash. A manufacturing business that needs to pay for raw materials 30 days before it gets paid by customers has a very different cash problem than a service business that invoices weekly.

Most business owners focus only on revenue and profit. But cash is king. Understanding your cash conversion cycle — and how to compress it — is the difference between a business that can invest in growth and one that's always borrowing just to pay suppliers.

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