Financial Management

Most aquaculture businesses require substantial amounts of startup capital – which brings risk. Initial investments in gear, vessels, processing equipment, infrastructure, and more can create cash-flow problems if not properly managed. Loans and equity can help finance these costs.

1. What is your cash balance right now? Is the business in a cash surplus or a cash-deficit?
2. What do you expect your cash balance to be six months from now?

If you don't know the answers to these questions, you may be in dangerous financial waters.

Off-the-shelf accounting systems such as QuickBooks can be a good place to start. Hiring a qualified accountant to help you organize and monitor your businesses finances is also an good option if you have the funds.

Cash flow is the movement of money, most commonly via payments, into or out of a business. Many businesses fail because of cash-flow problems despite being profitable overall. This is one of the three pillars to a successful business:

1. Cash-flow
2. Financial position
3. Profitability

In the aquaculture industry, revenue is often seasonal and it can take years for products to reach market size. A proper aquaculture business plan considers the months/years when revenue is not yet coming in. Other common pitfalls of cash-flow budgeting are overestimating production yields, overestimating sales price, underestimating expenses, and omitting costs such as loan interest and principle payments or replacing items that wear out (e.g., cages, bags, lines, nets).

You should evaluate your cash-flow situation every month. This will help your business avoid a difficult financial situation that you can’t get out of. Also, it is critical to stay on top of your accounts received if you sell to restaurants, because a failing restaurant may let payments to vendors slide.