Profit is the amount left after subtracting your expenses from revenue. Cash flow, on the other hand, is the actual movement of money in and out of your bank account. A business can show a profit on paper but run into trouble if customers are slow to pay or if expenses come due before income arrives. Many businesses fail not because they weren’t profitable, but because they didn’t manage cash flow. Regularly monitoring both gives you a full picture: profit tells you if your model is working, and cash flow tells you if you can keep the doors open tomorrow.

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