Money, money, it's funny in the business world

For the masses, payday can never come soon enough, the amount is piffling, invariably squandered quickly and the remaining days until the next payday stretch out ahead like stars in the Milky Way.

Payday for the business owner is something completely different. Almost every day, it seems, salaries are due. The numbers are astronomical and barely have you scraped together enough for one month that the next payday seems to be hurtling toward you like an angry comet.

The issue is not just about payday, it is about cash flow. And cash flow for the entrepreneur is the oxygen we breathe. Yet for most, figuring out cash flow is one of the many details that just distracts us from the fun we have building businesses.

You see, entrepreneurs have a wild sense of adventure, an appetite for risk and a complete disregard for common sense when it comes to cash. We have to be daring; who else would try and set up a business? It is statistically silly. And we have to be unreasonably optimistic. Denying the truth of how bad the numbers really are is the only way we can get through those cold days alone.

One thing they do not tell you at Entrepreneur Business School is that the problem with cash flow never goes away. I used to wonder why it was that our clients who were often valued in the millions of dollars would still be trying to steal a percentage point here, or a 90-day payment term there. The dirty secret of the business world is that almost every company struggles to move around enough cash each month to service payday.

As entrepreneurs continue to explore strange new worlds, spare a thought for them the next time you cash your pay cheque. But, do not lose sleep over it. The minute you start spending your hard-earned cash, you are allowing another entrepreneur to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Callum Laing is the founder and owner of several businesses with a presence in six countries. In his spare time, he runs XL Thailand, part of the largest social entrepreneur network in the world.