If you're like most business owners or managers, you'll experience the occasional “dry spell” – a period when cash is especially tight.  No question about it:  tight cash flow makes life difficult.  But with creativity, hard work and a bit of luck, you may be able to free up cash much faster than you think.

       Use these thirty cash-building tips as starting points:

1. Appeal.   Ask suppliers for temporary concessions, such as lower fees or waived charges for certain services.
2. Confer.   Ask outside professionals, such as your small business advisor or accountant, for cost-cutting and cash-boosting ideas.
3. Consult.   Ask your suppliers for suggestions on how to reduce costs. 
4. Create.   Turn your attention – and your staff's attention – to non-traditional work that has the potential to generate additional cash.
5. Decrease.   Watch your utilities expenses.  A few degrees difference in heating or cooling – accomplished through temperature setback technology, for instance – can save considerable sums of money.
6. Discount.  Offer discounts to customers who pay cash.
7. Exploit.   If things don't begin to look up, consider using any available lines of credit you might have available.
8. Halt.   Freeze all purchases other than essentials, and centralize responsibility for whatever purchasing you do.
9. Increase.   Consider slightly increasing prices or fees on items that might not be particularly sensitive to competition.
10. Invest.   Maximize the value of all available cash by investing it in interest-bearing money market accounts.
11. Lessen.   Cut all but essential telephone services.  For instance, you might cut caller ID features, lines not currently needed, or special long distance packages you're not using.
12. Limit.   Eliminate or limit overtime pay.
13. Manage.   If you're faced with the need to hire more help (and adding to overhead), consider running some operations with seasonal or temporary workers until the fiscal situation improves.
14. Market.   Take a look at those customers or clients who are especially sensitive to competition.  Let them know you want their business, and you want the opportunity to beat your competitors' prices and terms.
15. Minimize.   Watch your inventory.  Stockpile popular items, but minimize your investment in items that don't turn over fast.
16. Negotiate.   Attempt to negotiate time payments on services provided over the course of a year, such as insurance.
17. Pay early.   Attempt to negotiate early payment discounts with longstanding vendors.
18. Promote.   Sales slow?  Offer discounts and incentives to push slow-moving goods and services.
19. Pursue.   In many businesses, a relatively small percentage of customers or clients produces a disproportionate share of accounts receivable problems.  Take time each day to contact delinquent customers with significant account balances.
20. Push.   Make followup telephone calls to any customer not paying invoices within 48 hours of the due date.
21. Reduce.   If your income is declining over the short term, consider reducing the amount of the estimated tax payments you're sending to federal and state taxing authorities.
22. Re-Engineer.   Switch to a twice-monthly statement mailing, instead of the traditional monthly statement.
23. Reward.   Offer incentives to the people around you to cut costs.  The principle:  reward employees with a portion of the savings incurred as a result of their suggestions.
24. Solicit.   Obtain bids or quotations on all purchases, and be sure prospective suppliers understand that you're aggressively searching for the best possible price.
25. Speed.   Issue invoices for goods and services immediately after purchase. 
26. Spread.   If things get really tough, try to negotiate time payments or extensions on large orders. 
27. Study.   Review the costs of outside services (consultants, insurance, and cleaners, to name a few) and renegotiate their duties and fees.
28. Tap.   If all else fails, use credit cards to obtain short-term cash advances.  But beware:  interest rates can be high!  Be sure you have a realistic “payback plan.”
29. Unite.   Join with peers in non-competing businesses and purchase key goods and services in bulk, hopefully at a discount.
30. Wait.   Don't tie up your cash by paying bills early; pay them just before they're due.