Making More Money! What we all want to do! Part 3 of 3
Making More Money! What we all want to do! Part 3 of 3
This list of Top Ten Tips is going to be focused on some ways to increase your bottom line by implementing some marketing principles and focusing on things in your business that make you more marketable.
So as the media keeps flooding us with bad news about the economy, let’s use tried and true principles, be honest with ourselves about our companies and see if we can flourish during a time when things are not just perfect.
1. Marketing is one of the bigger challenges in small business. The most effective marketing is sometimes the one-on-one approach, or more personal approach with cold call marketing. You can hire someone to do this or you can use resources to do this, just google sales leads or cold call marketing, and you will find businesses that will do this for you. In this marketing approach, it is extremely important to determine what your company does that is “stand out” or extraordinary in your industry and then find what the issues are for your customer market niche and see if you can supply the answer to their need in your “extraordinary way.”
2. Market research is sometimes a very viable option as part of your marketing plan. Sometimes we just don’t know what our customers are looking for and how to enlarge our piece of the market pie. Sometimes our sales are declining and we just don’t know why. This is money well spent to figure this out and get your company back on top.
3. A common marketing mistake is casting your net too wide, thinking you will get more business that way. If you narrow your market niche, you can become an expert in your field, and you will be able to target your customer better. The old saying, “You can’t please all the people all the time!” is exactly true. Don’t try to sell to everyone, find your niche and focus your efforts.
4. Along with #3 is the idea that you have to take every job or project that comes your way. This is not true! Taking on a job or project that you will loose money on is not worth taking. You will end up not having enough money to pay your labor and/or buy materials to do the project, but you will have the commitment to finish it. This is a very difficult place to be in. If you are more choosey, you will actually end up making more money and adding to your bottom line, even though you may not be doing as many projects or jobs. Which would you rather have—you do 100 jobs in a period of time and have a bottom line of $5000 or do 50 jobs in the year and net $20,000 for that period of time? Think about it!
5. Being choosey on jobs: if you pick “money making” jobs or projects, then you end up having the appropriate number of employees to support your money making efforts. When you take on “No Profit” jobs or projects, then you have to hire more people to do them, and then when they are done and you are out of money, because you lost money in these efforts, you have to let them go or struggle to support them. This is a loosing proposition and will take your boat down eventually!
6. Another way to add to your bottom line is to up sell services or set up something where they have a membership with you for something and you get regular money coming in each month from the membership fees. Along this same lines, brainstorm with your management or sales team and think of other income streams that you may have at your finger tips that you had not thought of before, that is associated with your business already.
7. Customer Service: You cannot put a price on this! If you value this and your employees value this, and you provide reliable, constant and professional customer service at all times, you will always stand out in your industry. Excellent customer service is so hard to find, that even if your prices are a bit above the competition, your customer will be willing to spend that money because of your customer service. If you as the owner value this, then this will trickle down to your employees and your reputation in the industry will be one of excellence and reliability. In order to do this, you will need to have protocols and procedures in place with helpful technology that makes providing customer service fun and easy, and something that everyone from the top down takes pride in.
8. Another marketing idea is to market your services to a company that you can partner with. They have the customers; you just provide the services as a part of their team. You are in a sense riding on their coattails. It is an effective way to increase your sales, without a lot of marketing dollars spent.
9. On the heals of the above tip, if you outsource things like bookkeeping and collections, etc, then you, the owner will have time to make your company a “Shining Star” in your industry. Determine what your strong characteristics are, and make your company the expert in it and then you will have customers coming to you! This is what a business owner can do and it is something harder to outsource. Nobody loves your business like you do!
10. Finally, one of best ways to make more money is to HONESTLY analyze your financials monthly. If you are constantly in the red, then use the tips from this three part series to find where your holes in your boat are, and work at patching them immediately. Remember, as the owner, no one will care about your company like you. You are the only one who can set things in motion to patch the holes in your boat, so that you will not only be securely floating, but maybe even getting going at a high speed heading to where you want to go.
Making More Money What we all want to do Part 3 of 3 - To learn more about this author, visit Jacquie M. Adkins's Website.
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This is the 3rd part in our little mini series on the subject that we are all the most interested in doing, which is, “Making More Money!” As stated before, these tips are meant to be hard hitting, realistic ways to bring in more income and save more money, so that at the end of your month, you see an increase in your bottom line. And isn’t this what it is all about, when it comes to business in our small business world?
This list of Top Ten Tips is going to be focused on some ways to increase your bottom line by implementing some marketing principles and focusing on things in your business that make you more marketable.
So as the media keeps flooding us with bad news about the economy, let’s use tried and true principles, be honest with ourselves about our companies and see if we can flourish during a time when things are not just perfect.
1. Marketing is one of the bigger challenges in small business. The most effective marketing is sometimes the one-on-one approach, or more personal approach with cold call marketing. You can hire someone to do this or you can use resources to do this, just google sales leads or cold call marketing, and you will find businesses that will do this for you. In this marketing approach, it is extremely important to determine what your company does that is “stand out” or extraordinary in your industry and then find what the issues are for your customer market niche and see if you can supply the answer to their need in your “extraordinary way.”
2. Market research is sometimes a very viable option as part of your marketing plan. Sometimes we just don’t know what our customers are looking for and how to enlarge our piece of the market pie. Sometimes our sales are declining and we just don’t know why. This is money well spent to figure this out and get your company back on top.
3. A common marketing mistake is casting your net too wide, thinking you will get more business that way. If you narrow your market niche, you can become an expert in your field, and you will be able to target your customer better. The old saying, “You can’t please all the people all the time!” is exactly true. Don’t try to sell to everyone, find your niche and focus your efforts.
4. Along with #3 is the idea that you have to take every job or project that comes your way. This is not true! Taking on a job or project that you will loose money on is not worth taking. You will end up not having enough money to pay your labor and/or buy materials to do the project, but you will have the commitment to finish it. This is a very difficult place to be in. If you are more choosey, you will actually end up making more money and adding to your bottom line, even though you may not be doing as many projects or jobs. Which would you rather have—you do 100 jobs in a period of time and have a bottom line of $5000 or do 50 jobs in the year and net $20,000 for that period of time? Think about it!
5. Being choosey on jobs: if you pick “money making” jobs or projects, then you end up having the appropriate number of employees to support your money making efforts. When you take on “No Profit” jobs or projects, then you have to hire more people to do them, and then when they are done and you are out of money, because you lost money in these efforts, you have to let them go or struggle to support them. This is a loosing proposition and will take your boat down eventually!
6. Another way to add to your bottom line is to up sell services or set up something where they have a membership with you for something and you get regular money coming in each month from the membership fees. Along this same lines, brainstorm with your management or sales team and think of other income streams that you may have at your finger tips that you had not thought of before, that is associated with your business already.
7. Customer Service: You cannot put a price on this! If you value this and your employees value this, and you provide reliable, constant and professional customer service at all times, you will always stand out in your industry. Excellent customer service is so hard to find, that even if your prices are a bit above the competition, your customer will be willing to spend that money because of your customer service. If you as the owner value this, then this will trickle down to your employees and your reputation in the industry will be one of excellence and reliability. In order to do this, you will need to have protocols and procedures in place with helpful technology that makes providing customer service fun and easy, and something that everyone from the top down takes pride in.
8. Another marketing idea is to market your services to a company that you can partner with. They have the customers; you just provide the services as a part of their team. You are in a sense riding on their coattails. It is an effective way to increase your sales, without a lot of marketing dollars spent.
9. On the heals of the above tip, if you outsource things like bookkeeping and collections, etc, then you, the owner will have time to make your company a “Shining Star” in your industry. Determine what your strong characteristics are, and make your company the expert in it and then you will have customers coming to you! This is what a business owner can do and it is something harder to outsource. Nobody loves your business like you do!
10. Finally, one of best ways to make more money is to HONESTLY analyze your financials monthly. If you are constantly in the red, then use the tips from this three part series to find where your holes in your boat are, and work at patching them immediately. Remember, as the owner, no one will care about your company like you. You are the only one who can set things in motion to patch the holes in your boat, so that you will not only be securely floating, but maybe even getting going at a high speed heading to where you want to go.
Making More Money What we all want to do Part 3 of 3 - To learn more about this author, visit Jacquie M. Adkins's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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