I signed up for Twitter in March 2022.
By March 2, I had already seen at least 5 different versions of “Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king” from CFOs, operators, and founders.
The issue with all these tweets?
They didn’t give me any real advice on how to actually improve cash flow. So like a total rookie, I Googled “how to increase cash flow” and got hit with all the generic stuff: extend supplier terms, shorten lead times, get customers to pay faster. [sigh]
But I wanted to know what I could TODAY to keep more cash in my business bank account for longer. And I wanted to know the answer without paying $10k/mo for a fractional CFO.
After being in ecom communities for 5 years, here's a list of ways to improve your cash flow TODAY:
1. AMEX Plum: This card allows you to carry a balance for 60 days without interest. If you make a charge at the beginning of your billing cycle, you could have up to 90 days to make a payment. It comes with a $250 annual fee.
2. Melio: Melio is a payment platform that lets you pay suppliers using your credit card - even if the supplier doesn’t normally accept cards. If you’re using an AMEX, you can only pay U.S. suppliers, but Visa and Mastercard work for international payments too. There’s a 2.9% fee for credit card payments, but if your card gives 2% cashback, your effective cost is only 0.9% - a small price to extend your cash flow.
3. Alibaba Credit Card: This card is specifically designed for purchases made on Alibaba. You can either get 3% cashback on your spend or take advantage of 60-day interest-free terms - giving you more runway to sell through inventory before paying it off. It’s one of the few cards that aligns directly with sourcing products overseas while still helping with cash flow.
If you have US suppliers, then you can stack AMEX Plum + Melio, unlocking up to Net 90 terms even if your supplier makes you pay upon shipping.
👉 First time reading? Read the full FBA Notebook here.
If you’re looking for a daily P&L dashboard, SellerRise is my favorite. Use THIS link to get 10% OFF Sellerise for 12 months. It’s $16/mo for loads of beautifully organized Amazon data.
Tools I use in my business (with discounts):
👉 Scale Insights for PPC automation (10% off for life)
👉 DataDive for in-depth keyword research ($50 off per month)
👉 Finaloop for amazingly clean bookkeeping (50% off for 3 months)
Keep building,
Evan
113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205
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