Is almost every dime of income your business makes pouring down a black hole to pay bills leaving you asking ‘Where did all the money go?’ Want to know an important principle about managing money?
You must make more money than you spend!
How do you do that? It’s called INCOME PLANNING. I’ve listed 5 things you can do to make more money in your business.
RESEARCH YOUR TARGET MARKET - As a first step, figure out what services or products your clients want you to make available and then offer what they want. One simple way to figure out what your customers want is to look over receipts from your past sales, and figure out what service or product is the biggest seller. Question your customers about 1) why they purchased that item, and 2) how they expected the product or service to benefit them. Now use what they said in your advertising campaign to promote that service or product.
PROMOTE TO YOUR MARKET - There is an art to promoting something so that it will be responded to by your customers. Advertising does not have to include offering a reduced price. It’s much more important to find out why a customer needs or wants what you are offering, and what they will base their buying decision on. Price may be less important to them than quick delivery and dependable service.
Find cost effective methods to promote. When you meet a potential client, get their business card, and mail them a personal letter letting them know how your services and products can help them. That is one of the most personal, least expensive promotional activities you can do. A series of postcards mailed at regular intervals to potential and current clients has proven to be an effective way to promote.
Another effective way to get new customers is to ask your satisfied customers for referrals. You can make it fun for your clients to participate in referring new customers by creating a referral game they can play, where they get something in return for a certain number of referrals who buy. Allow your clients help you out. They really do want you to succeed in your business.
SELL AND DELIVER - Selling is easier when you are genuinely interested in your clients and want to help them. ASK your customers what they need. Then it becomes much easier to sell them your services or products. Here’s an example, a young single person who wants a 2-door convertible sports car is going to walk off in disgust if the salesman insists on showing them 4-door sedans, even if it’s the deal of the century.
After you’ve made the sale, courteous, professional, fast delivery is necessary to ensure your customer’s satisfaction. If you are in a service business, this is doubly important. Delivering what you promised, when you promised it, can mean repeat purchases and referrals of new customers.
PREVENT THE WASTE OF MONEY - For every dollar you agree to spend in your company, ask yourself how it is going to bring $5 or more in income back into your company. Carve out a percentage of the weekly income to fund an advertising budget and then work out the most effective ways to reach your customers within the budget. It is no laughing matter when the income you worked hard to earn gets wasted on things that fail to give you a profitable return on your investment.
REPEAT SUCCESSFUL PROMOTIONAL ACTIONS - Take a look back in the past to when you were last making the most sales. Figure out what your successful promotional actions were at the time and do those actions again.
There is a revolutionary new money management software tool available to help you focus your time, energy, and creative thinking power on planning how to increase the income. That action gets the CASH FLOWing into the business. It helps you manage your money so you can put your attention back on customer service and you will enjoy your business even more.
Sandra Simmons, President of Money Management Solutions, has years of experience helping business owners manage their income to reach their financial goals. To learn more about the Money Management Software she created, visit her website and watch the FREE 5-minute demo video at www.moneymgmtsolutions.com
- Sandra Simmons
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