Mike certainly sounds as though he is on top of his cash flow management which is one of the most important areas of running any business. He asks what should be done if sales go through the roof, but equally, we should be able to plan ahead to cover them going in the opposite direction. One answer is to get an effective Cash Flow Management System in place and monitor it.

Here are my 5 top tips for doing so:

Do banks understand risk? This is a question many business owners are justifiably asking, but circumstances have changed over the last few years and although the answer is yes, they are more risk averse.

This makes it important to do your homework before asking a bank to risk their money! Develop your business plan and realistically consider how you plan to finance your business.  Just like on Dragons Den, your bank expects you to know the basics before you walk in their door.

On the topic of how to obtain business funding, Marcela asks about a typical funding arrangements during the first couple of years of business life in her recent blog.

My initial response would be that there is no such typical scenario. Why? Well to start up in business, entrepreneurs will have come from a diverse range of backgrounds and be going in very different directions with completely different products, services, access to capital and cost base. That said, there are traditional avenues to explore when looking for new (and established) business funding:

Performance Management is a tool which comes to mind in response to the Head and Griffiths' three questions about Targets, Responsibilities and Accountabilities and how they might best be organised for the development of their business.

Effective Performance Management can benefit both employee and organisational results in many different types of organisation.

fishbowlhq says: As one of our inafishbowl.com Experts, Crispin Read joined the Expert Panel at our recent inafishbowl.com Business Clinic Live event. Here, he discusses how the Big Brother style of inafishbowl.com brings interest to watching the Businesses grow, and what he thought of inafishbowl.com Business Clinic Live.

As our first Fish come to the end of their term and new recruits are being sought, I thought it might be appropriate to think about business plans and why we need them. For Matt, Marcela, Owain and Dominic, it may be a good time to review the effectiveness of their original plans.

Stepping out into a future as a business owner, even if you are not the most organised or logically-minded person in the world, the plan that you write for your business is, simply put, the most important document you could ever write. As both a roadmap for what you are going to do and how you are going to do it AND if you are ever going to need investment, or financial support from a bank or business partner, it will prove to be essential.