During their first year of business, many entrepreneurs don’t even break even, let alone make a significant profit. However, consistently increasing profitability is necessary for any business owner who wants to be successful and continue to grow.
Aside from making more sales calls, there are some other effective but often overlooked strategies that can help you bring in more revenue. From creating useful digital assets your customers will love to outsourcing smaller tasks, members of Forbes Coaches Council share some out-of-the-box methods to boost your bottom line.
Forbes Coaches Council members share strategies to increase profits that new businesses often overlook.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.1. Mine Your Network
If you are a new business owner, it’s important to begin by mining your network. Everyone you know—past colleagues, friends, family members or even distant acquaintances—can provide an opportunity to increase sales. Everyone knows someone who needs what you sell. Reach those people by mining your network for introductions and referrals. Selling couldn’t get any easier. - Shawn Casemore, Casemore and Co. Inc.
2. Don’t Try To Do It All
As a new business owner, don’t try to do too many things. Focus on the things your team does best and double down on them. Then learn how to manage conversion rate optimization well. Your daily habits are what will improve your performance most, so examine them carefully and make continuous improvements over time, which will lead to a windfall later. - Pam Boney, Tilt 365
3. Promote Higher-Margin Items
Identify what the highest-margin items or services you sell are and heavily promote and encourage people to purchase them. For example, in a restaurant, if your chicken sandwich has the highest margin, but is less expensive than something with a lower margin, you are better off promoting the chicken special. At the end of the day, the revenue may be the same or less, but the profits will be greater. - Rick Itzkowich, Vistage Worldwide, Inc.
4. Nourish Current Customer Relationships
New business owners are often so motivated to find new customers that they forget to nourish their relationships with the customers they already have. You can do this by creating multiple profit centers that intrigue the same client profile or by asking for referrals and testimonials. - Jim Judy, TryFranchising.com
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
5. Create Digital Products
Some new business owners often overlook the profitability of creating digital products. For example, online courses offer a unique opportunity for creators to share and sell information that adds a new revenue stream for profitability. Digital products such as e-books and workbooks offer creators the opportunity to earn residual revenue, and the buyer gets DIY information at an affordable price. - Lori A. Manns, Quality Media Consultant Group LLC
6. Hire Cost-Effective Labor
New business owners can try adding services and/or products by hiring cost-effective labor to perform or create these products or services. Business owners frequently get so caught up in what they can do themselves that they forget about what others around them can do to grow their business. - Carlos Then, Mr Then Consulting LLC
7. Outsource Tedious Tasks
As a business owner, your time is your most valuable asset. Focus your time on the things that only you can do—the things that create value for your business. Outsource time-consuming activities that take you out of your zone of genius. Anything that takes you away from your core business (think calendaring, invoicing and so on) can be outsourced by leveraging technology or partnerships. - Kathleen Woodhouse, Nova Leadership
8. Build In-Depth Relationships With Current Customers
Business owners spend a lot of time and energy marketing to new customers. In this process, they may underestimate the value of their current customers. Building in-depth relationships with existing customers and better serving their needs can generate more revenue and loyalty from them, as well as revenue from referrals to their friends and family. - Lori Wilson-Hudson, Energy Wellness Coaching
9. Define Your Target Market More Narrowly
One counterintuitive method of driving revenue is defining your target market more narrowly. New business owners often cast a wide net and try to be everything to everyone, which makes it harder for people to know when to call you and to remember you. In fact, we tell the clients for whom we do marketing: When you’re pigeonholing, you’re winning. - Precious Williams Owodunni, Mountaintop Consulting
10. Do More Things Yourself
New business owners need to be willing to optimize their time and save costs by doing a lot of things themselves. While outsourcing is an option later, learning new skills and doing things yourself gives insight into the nuances of the business and helps in hiring the right people later. With technology on hand, a good size of work can be done internally to take care of revenue and profits. - Jaya Bhateja, Abhyudaya Consulting Services
11. Pay Attention To Your Costs
Paying attention to costs is one sure way to increase profits as a new business. You’re not in business to impress others but to offer value and make money. Make sure you’re getting the best deals from suppliers and negotiate if need be or change suppliers if their rates are not competitive. You should also think of maximizing your physical space—you don’t need a big space if it is not making a profit. - Oluwashogo Oyeniyi, Dr Shogo Consulting
12. Entice Your Existing Customers To Spend More
New business owners should find creative ways to entice current customers to spend more money. I sell digital marketing certifications with one year of access. At the end of the year, I now offer another year for 75% off. About 30% of our customers renew! I sold certifications for over 10 years before someone on my team suggested this strategy. Think of the money left on the table. - Krista Neher, Boot Camp Digital
13. Try Advertising
Advertising is a great way to increase your business and make more money, but it's important to know where you can advertise and what kind of advertising will work best for your business. Online advertising is done through Google AdWords, Facebook ads and other social media platforms, and print advertising includes flyers, brochures, catalogs and other materials printed on paper. - Willena Long, Career Boss Academy
14. Change Perspective
Instead of focusing on increasing profit, try also looking at how to decrease inefficiencies and waste. Eliminate unprofitable internal operations, system processes, old products, outdated services and even clients you’re carrying who are no longer worth their yield. Determine which and how many low-ROI areas can be eliminated and what the positive ROI will be on those savings. - Jay Steven Levin, WinThinking
