Nearly all business owners suffer from cash flow problems.
From the mom and pop to the fortune 500, cash flow is on the mind of every business owner.
We’ve all been there, sweating bills, payroll and how to get everything done and try to put a little food on our own table.
Self-employment is not for the weak.
The closest thing I think you can find to parenting, is self-employment because for whatever reason you decided you were going to do this thing and then you find out it’s not as easy as you thought.
Worse than that, there are a lot of people out there who claim to know how to help you but they are just winging it themselves.
If it’s any consolation, I’ve been winging it for the past 27 years, so I have some level of experience but I still struggle from time to time.
To help you, I wanted to give you 6 of my go-to methods to generate cash for your business.
So here we go.
- Decrease Expenses
Eliminate waste and sell surplus items.
Sounds easy but eliminating waste usually requires time and energy.
You have to analyze to decide what to eliminate.
This is the difference of owning your business or working for your business, aka being owned by your business.
Schedule a few hours a week to work on your business, looking at it from the 10,000-foot view and look for places to cut costs and areas to increase revenue.
By all means, sell anything you haven’t used in the past 2 years.
It’s just taking up space anyway.
Decreasing expenses shouldn’t be as big of a deal to you but you can cut some things from your budget. Don’t spend as much time here as you would on increase.
Decreasing requires negative thought which can imply to your subconscious mind that you are lacking.
I typically recommend decreasing expenses and selling surplus no more than once or twice per year.
- Increase The Number Of Leads
The best way I know of to increase the number of leads is to have a direct response customer acquisition system in place which starts out by providing value to your ideal prospect in exchange for the right to speak with them.
Think of it this way, you want to tell your prospect how your product or service will make their life better or solve a problem they have.
They do not care about all the features and technical specifications, they want a better life.
We all do, this is human nature.
To get more leads you want to provide value, your prospects will see the value and will see that you are an expert and when you have a method of connecting and talking to them, you will get lots of leads by using LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
My favorite is LinkedIn because it’s all business, no singing dogs and no political BS.
Don’t get me wrong, I do like singing dogs.
- Turn More Of Your Leads Into Customers
If you have a good amount of leads, but not enough customers, you need to work on your message.
Your message needs to focus on them, your ideal prospect.
Show them how you will improve their lives and tell them often.
Sending an email or mail piece once a month is not going to cut it.
A quarterly newsletter just tells them you are barely breathing.
I show business owners how to create a direct response customer acquisition system that includes good copywriting and a fully automated follow up funnel.
Copywriting is selling in print and you may want to consider hiring a copywriter but we come at a fairly sizable price tag.
Well worth every penny for a good one but it’s really something I believe anyone can learn.
In every course I teach, there is at least one module on creating good lead magnets.
A good lead magnet will increase your leads and a good funnel will turn more of them into customers.
You may consider a couple of books on copywriting, Dan Kennedy’s The Ultimate Sales Letter and Ray Edwards, How To Write Copy That Sells.
These two are a great start to understanding how to convey a message to your prospects that will increase lead conversions.
- Sell More Products Or Services To Existing Clients
Trust is the number one thing that will persuade someone to buy from you.
If someone likes you, they will listen to you, if they listen to you, they will believe you, if they believe you, they will trust you and if they trust you, they might buy from you.
But no one will buy from you unless they trust you on some level.
If someone has already purchased from you, they are over 80% more likely to buy from you again over a new customer because you have already gained their trust.
As long as you do a good job of making them happy, they will keep buying from you.
Seek out products, preferably with high margins, that will make your customer’s lives better.
Then all you need to do is send them a series of emails or letters and show them all of the ways the new product or service will improve their life or solve a problem for them.
Some of them will make a purchase because they trust you.
- Increase Prices
No one likes to increase prices but if you have noticed everything costs more over time.
You have to stay ahead of this and to provide the most value for your customers you need to be profitable.
If you are not profitable it’s not good for you or your customer and a 3 to 5% price increase is not going to make anyone go to your competition.
Besides, if they just want the lowest price you don’t want them for a customer anyway.
It’s ok to fire your customers if they are not a fit for you and your business.
Anyone who does not care whether or not you are making money is not worth having as a customer.
I know that may sound harsh but we have all had that customer who beats us up every time we quote a price and when we finish the job they are still trying to squeeze more money out you.
A price increase will make this type of customer go away but will be heavily offset from the ones who stay.
I am making the assumption that you do your best to satisfy all of your customers.
If you struggle in that area, a price increase will allow you to focus more on making each customer happy rather than just finishing the job and moving on to the next one.
- Increase Profit Percentage Per Sale
The best way I know of to do this is by selling high margin products in a direct response customer acquisition system. Use a highly profitable product that will make your customers live better or solve a problem. Your lead magnet should be designed around a product or service that you offer that offers the most value to your customer and the highest profit margin to you. By attracting your ideal customer with this method, you start out making money every time you get a new customer.
This way for every dollar you spend to acquire the customer, you will get 10 back in return.
If you would like to find out how you can increase cash flow quickly, I will show you how you can create your own direct response customer acquisition system.
I will do a live webinar on Thursday to show you how to use LinkedIn to get new customers. For details click here.
To your lifelong prosperity,
David Mulvaney