If you thought being an entrepreneur would help you sleep better at night, think again. As an entrepreneur, business leader, small business owner or anything else that falls within this bell curve, your mind constantly whizzes and whirs. It spins like a top twenty-four hours a day, probably three-hundred and sixty days a year. It’s part of the game you’ve entered. It’s how you’re able to be on the lookout for new ideas and new opportunities to grow your business and boost your profits.
But what if the solution to this cash-hungry mindset was staring you in the face and you just hadn’t spotted it yet? That’s right. What you might not have realized while you were thinking outside the box is that you can create a sort of mini-business inside your current business to really ramp up your profits.
To prove this to you, we’ve pulled together a list of profit-enhancing moves you can make that don’t require you to invest any extra cash into your operation. We’ll repeat that: these actions don’t require any further investment on your part. Cool, huh?
So, without further ado, here they are:
-
Raise Your Markups
We’re not going to stand here and claim this is some sort of revolutionary and innovative idea because it has long been used by businesses that need to boost their profits. Nonetheless, raising the markups on your products is a great way to boost your revenue almost instantaneously. It’s this idea of buying your products at the lowest price out there and selling them high – a business model that has made so many success stories possible. The trick is finding that balance between increased profits and maintaining the steady flow of consumers that come through your door, whether online or in real life. Master this and you might well have found an untapped profit-well for your to enjoy.
-
Collect Consultancy Fees
When we find that something we’re good at – that something we have a natural knack or passion for – it is only natural to strive for excellence in it and become the expert in that field. By practicing this expertise you are able to forge a career or even a business. That said, don’t just limit yourself to practicing it. Instead, become a consultant and collect a fee for teaching others how to do what you do. That could mean you become a traveling consultant that flies around helping companies, it could mean hosting a weekly seminar or monthly webinar, or just performing speeches all about your forte. There are no extra costs for adding this weapon to your arsenal and yet you could start reaping in additional profits, while simultaneously cementing yourself as the thought leader in your area. The tricky thing to wrap your head around will be knowing what you should be charging. As such, have a look around, check what other consultants in your field are collecting and then base your pricing strategy on what you see. For example, if you are more experienced, then you can try charging more.
-
Find The Hidden Cash
There could be very little point in boosting your workload in search of additional profits if you already have plenty of cash hidden in your business that you never knew about. We know this sounds crazy because, chances are, there are no hidden briefcases in your walls or an unlocked safe beneath a trap door hidden by carefully laid carpets. But that’s not what we are talking about. We’re talking about freeing up the equity that is tied up in your equipment. According to EquifyLLC.com, who specialize in asset-based lending and thus know how to help businesses use this equity and establish a healthy footing, a lot of businesses have millions and millions of equity tied up in this way. How you use this money is up to you. It could be to pay off debts, renovate your office space, boost your marketing or just to make you more cash-rich – either way, this little-tapped trick can drastically improve your lot.
-
Referrals Are Everything
To attract new customers and clients to your business, you invariably have to spend money, which is why you need to refocus your attention on your existing customer base. Generating revenue from these people – people that already know, like and trust your business – is always going to be a far more cost-effective strategy to embrace. There are no two ways about it. The trick is making sure you supply a superior product or service, and an experience that will live long in their minds. Do this and they will want to do business with you in the future. They will also be far more likely to send referrals your way. Of course, you don’t have to sit back with your fingers crossed and hope this will happen. Oh no. Instead, what we recommend is you set up a referrals program. It could be a discount on their next order, free services, free products or anything else that will encourage your current customers to refer you to new ones. Trust us, referrals are by far the best ways to exponentially grow your business year over year.
-
Pick Up A New Skill
Another amazingly untapped approach when it comes to boosting profits is learning a new skill, or even just adding extra knowledge to what you have. You might have a blogging a service, in which case why not do an evening course on copywriting and expand into everything from white papers to Facebook Ads like those behind Copper Milk Creative. If you are already pretty efficient when it comes to computers and IT, why not learn some new skills like application virtualization, which can be done online in case you were wondering. Of course, it doesn’t need to be a new skill in that sense. You might just find your voice and start practicing as a public speaker, which could help your move into consultancy. There are so many ways you can improve on who you are and what you offer; it is just a matter of knowing how to.
-
Share Your Clients
Everyone dreams of having a calendar that looks full for the next four months. It’s that glorious notion of knowing you are slammed for work and have built your business to a point whereby you have an unmanageable abundance of clients. However, there is a problem with this nice to have and that’s turning down work or, worse yet, clients. That’s not what anyone wants to do. So, instead of doing this, why not find a way to partner up with another business and share your clients in exchange for a cut of the profits they make. Perhaps you build and market websites, and charge a $3500 fee to do so. Well, if you are too busy to take on another project at this moment in time, why not pay another website developer and marketer $2500 to do the project for you and keep $1000 for yourself. That’s a grand for doing nothing but passing on a project. Of course, in order to make this work for you, it’s imperative you find a partner that’s great at what they do, otherwise, you will sacrifice your own quality and reputation and you don’t want to do that.
-
Add A New Profit Line
When you are succeeding in the world of business, it is so important you do all you can to ride the crest in order to keep the profits rolling in, and one of the best ways of doing this is to add a new product to your business or a new service. By doing this, you will be able to create an entirely new profit center. If you are in the cosmetics game, that might mean bring out a new range of special soaps or, if you are in the shoe-making industry, a new line of shoes. But it doesn’t have to be such a linear line. Just look at Extra Space Storage. As a means of attracting more people to their self-storage facilities, they have added electric-car charging stations. Not only is this a great idea because it’s the way the future is heading, it promotes them as a more environmentally friendly business. Very clever. Whatever you decide on, make sure it is in line with your current operation in some way or another.
-
Acquire Customers Creative Way
Okay, so customer acquisition can be quite expensive, but it does yield a business income and that makes it an attractive proposition. “By acquiring customers more creatively–and more efficiently–you can reduce your acquisition costs and therefore improve your ROI (return on investment)”. What this will do is help you benefit from a previously unexploited profit center. After all, enhancing your advertising and marketing is one of the most important things you can do for improved customer gain and retention.
Like we said at the start: (most of) these actions don’t require any further investment on your part.
