Scaling without a cash survival plan is like flying without instruments. You may be moving fast, but you have no idea when fuel runs out. A 90-day cash survival plan gives you visibility, options, and the ability to sleep at night.

This plan is not a one-time document. It is a 13-week rolling cadence with weekly ownership. When the forecast is updated every week, surprises turn into decisions rather than emergencies.

Week 1 is about clarity. Build a 13-week cash forecast starting with your current bank balance. List expected inflows by week: invoices due, likely collections, and any financing. Then list outflows: payroll, rent, subscriptions, debt, taxes, and vendor payments. Use conservative assumptions and update weekly.

Use a two-column approach: base case and conservative case. The conservative case assumes late payments and delayed deals. If you cannot survive the conservative case, you do not have a plan; you have hope.

Week 2 is about controlling outflows. Freeze nonessential spend for 30 days and review every recurring subscription. Negotiate payment terms with vendors, consolidate duplicate tools, and set a default policy to pay on the last day of terms rather than early.

During this week, also lock down procurement. Require approval for new subscriptions, contractors, or marketing experiments. Cash leaks most often through small, repeated decisions that are never reviewed.

Weeks 3 to 6 focus on collections. Send invoices immediately upon delivery milestones. Add automated reminders at 7, 14, and 30 days past due. Assign one owner to review aging receivables weekly. If cash is tight, offer a small discount for early payment or move to milestone billing.

Build a collections script and a schedule. A friendly cadence works: reminder at 7 days, follow-up call at 14, escalation at 30. If you are uncomfortable with collections, you will avoid it, and cash will disappear.

Weeks 7 to 9 focus on margin repair. Identify the bottom 20 percent of customers by margin and fix them. Increase prices, reduce scope, or transition them out. Do not keep loss-making work just to stay busy. Work that drains cash blocks the work that could save you.

Also audit delivery creep. Track hours per customer or project and compare to what was sold. If delivery hours are consistently above target, the issue is pricing, scope, or process. Fix the root cause before it erodes the next 90 days.

Weeks 10 to 13 build resilience. Create a cash trigger list: if projected cash drops below one month of payroll, you pause hiring; below two weeks, you stop discretionary spend; below one week, you initiate a bridge plan. Define the actions before the panic hits.

Include a funding readiness checklist. If you need a line of credit, prepare your last 12 months of financials, a current forecast, and a clear use of funds. Financing is easier when you are not in a crisis.

At the end of 90 days, you should have a clean forecast, tighter collections, improved margin, and a repeatable cadence for cash review. The plan is simple, but the discipline is what keeps you alive. Cash does not fail in one day. It leaks over weeks. This plan plugs the leaks before scaling turns them into floods.

The biggest win is not just cash. It is confidence. When you can see 13 weeks ahead, you can make better hiring, pricing, and investment decisions. That is how stable growth actually happens.