After more than five years of running my own business, through prosperous times and leaner ones, I know how strong that pull to lock down can feel. Like 22% of other female founders, I've found myself holding on tight to cash because seeing that consistent balance made me feel safe while other elements of my business, client pipeline, bottom line costs, the general economic mood, felt precarious.  

But it's a false sense of security. While being careful with reinvestment and favouring larger reserves often feels like the smart thing to do, we have to remember the risk that comes with holding cash too. We're used to seeing cash as the safe option, to feeling held and comforted by the balance in our account, but the reality is that with every week, month and year, the value of that cash is being eaten up by inflation, and we are losing spending power within our business. 

Phoebe Waller-Bridge understood this instinct when she created Fleabag: a small business owner with a café, a whole heart and a cash flow problem she never quite solved. The café stayed precarious because Fleabag never changed her relationship with money. Most of us who run our own businesses have been her at some point. The difference is knowing what to do next. 

According to Tide, almost four in ten female founders agree that running a business is harder now than it was a year ago, with consumers spending less, costs still rising and investment even more difficult to raise. And while we keep pushing on, using all of our resources to find success in spite of tough circumstances, our defensive instincts automatically kick in when it comes to managing the cash in our business accounts. 

As a coach, many of the women I work with come to me looking to make their money work harder for them in their personal accounts. Often, their savings are all in one place, all in cash, and we explore the ways that we can split out those funds to find the right balance of security and growth for them. More and more women are waking up to the potential of investing, and to the fact that keeping all of their money in a standard, low-interest saver might not be the smartest move. What we need to do now is translate that mindset shift over to our businesses. 

The key to building confidence when moving and managing funds within your business is to first land on a structure that works for you. Cash plays a role in this, you need liquidity to cover costs, pay yourself and make sure any tax bills are paid on time, so start with this layer. Using a product like Tide's Instant Saver means you can earn up to 4% interest without paying penalties on withdrawals. A robust personal emergency fund also helps to relieve pressure on your business finances, meaning you can be more flexible with company funds.  

Once you have worked out how much you need to keep in cash, it is time to put the rest of that hard-earned revenue to work. The Tide Investment Account, built in partnership with Vanguard, simplifies investing for your business. You can choose Balanced or Growth according to your appetite for risk and set up the account directly in the Tide app, bypassing analysis paralysis and stepping forward without overthinking it. Being able to manage your business investments in such a hands-on way could help you to grow your confidence as you grow your funds, developing a tolerance for the peaks and troughs of the market, safe in the knowledge that the basics are covered. 

The truth is that, as important as it is to keep our business and personal finances separate from each other, the same is not true of the skills we learn and the mindset we apply. The women who are forging ahead with their finances are those who allow the lessons from their personal finance to enrich the way they manage their business and vice versa, keeping the two working in tandem. The more resilient we are in one area, the more confident we feel in the other. 

This can take a while and a bit of practice to put into place, but you can be certain of one thing: cash is not always the life raft that you think it is, and clinging to it is not always the answer. Unlike Fleabag, you have everything you need to close the gap. You are bold in business. Be bold with your money too. 

This piece is in partnership with Tide.

Your capital is at risk and the value of your investment can go down as well as up. Tide Capital Limited is an appointed representative of P1 Investment Services Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 752005).