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Don't Let Repairs Cripple Your Company!

The following article is a guest post and may contain affiliate links:

An ideal world, you’d invest in all the equipment and tools your business needs to keep ticking, and never have to worry about these kinds of expenses again. Unfortunately, we’re not quite there yet! No matter how carefully you choose your equipment, there are going to be little glitches and slip-ups which will mean you have to fork out for repairs. Here are a few tips for creating a solid budget for maintenance and repairs.


Set Out a Maintenance Schedule



Although you’re more likely to need some repairs more than others, maintenance and repair costs can apply to pretty much everything your company owns or leases. From your health and safety gear to your basic tools to furnishings to commercial vehicles, there’s no limit to the things you may have to fix. The one thing that binds all maintenance together is that it’s always cheaper to take preventative measures than to have to source a large amount of capital at short notice. If you haven’t already, go over everything that could possibly break down and cause issues for your business, and integrate it with a strict maintenance schedule. Things like commercial fridge repairs can be costly, but also essential to businesses in the catering niche. If you’re making sure everything’s getting checked over regularly, you’ll see these things coming from further away, and have more time to prepare your business finances for it.

Image from Wikimedia


Get a Rough Idea for A Maintenance Fund



If you really want to avoid any big repair expenses making a dent in your business’s cash flow, then you’ll have to build up an emergency maintenance fund. The challenge here, of course, is knowing how much exactly you should be setting aside for unexpected emergencies. Costs are going to vary greatly depending on the age of the equipment, the quality standards of the manufacturer, warranties, and liabilities which may be set out in rental agreements. While you can’t predict the future in detail, you can certainly reach out to other professionals in your industry, look up case studies for commercial repair firms, and find other sources which will give you a rough quota you should be working towards.


Budget Strategy



Aside from having a rough budget for your maintenance needs, you also need to start developing a systematic plan which will cover all the repairs, preventative maintenance, and in-house repairs for possible issues. Be sure to consider your business’s typical cash flow, and keep an accessible cash cushion to mitigate the cost of interest. Make sure you’re stacking all your regular operating and stock costs so that you can project cash flow if and when there’s a problem. You should also try to organize some regular inspections of both your equipment and premises to help you keep your budget updated, and leave yourself more than enough for repairs if and when something does go wrong. At times, there’ll be freak occurrences where a lot of your equipment or tools are going to fail on you when you need them most. Due to this, it’s important to prioritize the things that are most important to keep up your profit margins.

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