You're making sales. Customers are coming. Revenue is moving. And somehow, at the end of the month, there's still nothing in the account.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. It's one of the most common and most confusing experiences for Nigerian business owners. It has a name: a cash flow problem.

And the first thing worth knowing is that cash flow and profit are not the same thing. A business can be profitable on paper and broke in practice. The difference is everything.

Revenue is what you're owed. Cash is what you actually have. When a customer buys on credit, that's revenue, not cash. When you deliver a job and invoice for it on 30-day terms, that's revenue, not cash. When the government contract "is being processed," that's revenue, not cash.

Meanwhile, your suppliers want to be paid now. Your staff are due now. Your rent, your fuel, your operating costs, all now.

The gap between when money is owed to you and when money is owed by you is where good businesses go dry. Not because they're failing. Because of timing.

What's actually draining you

Four things, mostly. Late-paying clients, the single biggest cash flow killer for Nigerian SMEs. Over-stocking, inventory sitting on a shelf is cash that can't move. Uneven revenue cycles, spending in the lean months like the peak months will last forever. And growth without financing, winning a contract sounds like good news until you realise you need to buy materials, hire, and deliver before you see a naira of it.

Each of these is fixable. None of them mean your business is failing.

The point

A cash flow problem is not a failing business. Sales prove the business works. Cash flow is what keeps it alive long enough to prove it again next month.

EazyCredit's business products: Eazy Biz, Eazy Invoice, Eazy Asset, are built for exactly this gap.