Cash flow and business sustainability
In Luxembourg, nearly one business in two does not make it past five years. In France, it is around one in three. The difference between businesses that last and the rest often comes down to their ability to anticipate, to structure their growth and to surround themselves with the right partners.
5 good habits for managing your cash flow
In France, according to INSEE, 69% of businesses created in the first half of 2018 were still active five years after they were set up. This means that around 31% had ceased trading before reaching their fifth year (source: INSEE Première no. 2070, published on 3 September 2025).
In Luxembourg, the 5-year survival rate of businesses created in 2018 is 55.3%. In other words, 44.7% of businesses disappear before their 5th anniversary (STATEC data on the 2018 cohort observed in 2023).
On both sides of the border, business owners have a strong need for support in making their business sustainable and secure. More often than not, the first obstacle to their growth is financial. Cash flow is therefore an essential part of running an SME.
Among the key points to monitor day to day to keep your business healthy, here are a few good practices to put in place:
1. Anticipate your cash flow needs
List all your sources of incoming and outgoing money, without missing any. Do not limit yourself to items related to your sales activity: remember your overheads, as well as all current and upcoming exceptional expenses. Prepare a summary of them as a table, including VAT.
This review will help you plan ahead for the next few months and give you better visibility. You will quickly understand how to set the targets to reach and how much revenue is still needed to get there, while limiting the risk of an overdraft or of having to take out a loan…
The Document and Statistics modules in eKo CRM help you keep track.
2. Keep control of your cash flow every day
Log in to your bank accounts every day and reconcile all the transactions you are working on. If your expenses are rising faster than your income, react without delay.
To help you with this, discover the Bank module in eKo CRM: it synchronises all your transactions 1 to 3 times a day (depending on your bank), makes it easier to reconcile receipts and payments, and even includes an AI agent that suggests matches to make your life simpler!
3. Speed up your cash inflows
It is vital to check that your customers respect their agreed payment terms and not to hesitate to chase them as early as possible: the survival of your business depends on it. They accepted your products or services; the invoice that comes with them is also part of the commercial transaction, and so is compliance with payment terms that should not be too long.
To secure your payments as much as possible, consider deposit invoices or offer instalment payments… Some businesses now even send payment reminders before the due date, to jog their customers' memory. You can also charge late payment penalties, as provided for by law, if the legal notices on your invoices are up to date.
And if that is still not enough, consider the factoring solutions offered by banks, or call on a debt collection agency, a lawyer or a bailiff…
The Document module in eKo CRM helps you track the invoices to chase, and even generates the reminders for you.
4. Reduce and optimise your cash outflows
Keep a very close eye on all your supplier invoices and upcoming due dates. You grant payment terms to your customers, and your suppliers grant them to you too: make the most of them, while respecting the deadlines so as not to fall out with them, and preserve your cash flow.
And remember: the cheapest invoice to pay is for the purchases you did not make! No unnecessary spending!
With the arrival of e-invoicing, it is even easier to track your supplier payment due dates in the Document module.
5. Invest wisely and profitably
Every penny counts! Before spending one, remember how hard it was to earn… To spend without risk, assess your cash position and your self-financing capacity. And if the upcoming investment is significant for a business of your size, it may be worth consulting your accounting firm or your fiduciary to present your plans…
In summary
Remember that money is still the lifeblood of business! Managing incoming and outgoing flows day to day is essential, and to do so you need tools that are effective, simple and, ideally, inexpensive… otherwise it would not be a wise and profitable investment. Think eKo CRM!
