Being a small business owner can go from exhilarating to overwhelming quickly. You may do great one month, making more sales than you imagined, only to experience a massive drop the next and be wondering how you’ll make ends meet.
If you’ve put a lot of your own money into getting your business off the ground, then you likely can’t afford to take another major hit sustaining it until your cashflow increases. As an entrepreneur, it’s always good to have a plan B, C and D. You may be a risk-taker, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some reliable strategies on the back burner.
If your small business is low on money, here are a few tips you can try to boost revenue and earn more.
Start Billing Now
Avoid delaying invoices at all costs. This can cause severe delays between payments which may have otherwise kept your business afloat. You may also consider implementing a policy for services that require a down payment equal to a percentage of the final bill.
This will ensure you always have some money coming in, even if a client disappears or takes a while to make their final payment. So, avoid batch invoicing. Write receipts and bill clients as soon as possible, preferably when they make a purchase. There’s no sense in delaying the money your business is due.
Reevaluate Your Inventory
If you’re in e-commerce, then you should take a hard look at your store’s statistics over the last month. Which products have been the most profitable, and which haven’t? Which generated a lot of clicks but did not result in more purchases?
Identify the cause, and start adjusting your offerings to provide more of what your customers have proven to like. Optimizing your store will help reel in more cash in surprisingly easy ways. Sometimes, it’s a matter of changing an image or rewording a product title for better SEO.
Others, you’ll find that some stock simply isn’t selling, so swapping it out with items similar to top-sellers can get the cash register ringing again.
Start A/B Testing Marketing
Do you know what compelled some buyers to invest in your business and others to walk away? Marketing is an ongoing effort. Every social media post needs to contribute to a larger story. Even promotional material can be revamped.
Source: optimonk.comDo your ideal customers respond better to the color blue or red? Did they click through to your site more when you advertised a promotion on a photo or in a caption? Pay attention to seemingly small details like this, and you will unlock the secret to marketing to your audience.
Look Into Personal Financing Options
Sometimes, you simply can’t wait for the profits to rise again, so you have to dip into your own wallet. This doesn’t have to be as disastrous as it sounds. For starters, you should take a close look at your finances and find anywhere you can make an improvement.
For example, you may consider refinancing student loans or consolidating credit card debt to free up room in your budget. You could also look into borrowing a private loan to get the additional funds you need to make greater space in your budget for business expenses.
The debt snowball effect is the act of paying off as many small balances at once so you can focus more on greater bills with less stress. In many cases, borrowing a personal loan to pay off small debts and long-standing bills will give you much more freedom to save and spend how you need to.
Look Into Your Suppliers’ Terms
You may be able to delay paying your suppliers to save a little money. In some cases, you can talk to them about postponing a payment in order to keep more capital in your business. This may not work for everyone, but if you have a strong, long-standing relationship with them, it’s worth a shot.
You can also examine whether there are any additional fees or charges you’re incurring that you can opt out of. You may even go so far as to look for a more affordable supplier altogether. Either way, you can come out on top and save more money in the long run.
Run Promotions
Stagnant prices don’t draw in new customers as much as flash sales and limited-time offers. People are more likely to make a purchase if they feel like they will miss out on savings. Have you ever seen an item that’s been around for a while but suddenly felt compelled to buy it because it was half off for the next 24-hours?
This is due to a psychological bias known as loss aversion. The loss aversion bias is similar to FOMO on social media. People are more likely to buy something if they feel like they’re going to miss out.
You should also bear some other marketing psychology biases in mind as you run sales. For example, the framing effect states that decisions are made, and thus able to be influenced, by the way information is presented to us.
The best way to describe this phenomenon is by looking at the difference between seeing a glass as half-full and half-empty. One is positive, promotes growth and elicits feelings of optimism. The other is more pessimistic and emphasizes loss.
Host a Giveaway
The last thing you want to do is lose products while you’re trying to make money, but just wait. Giveaways are an extremely effective way to boost your social media visibility, particularly by making one of the entry requirements sharing a post and following your account.
Source: sproutsocial.comThe more people who see you, the more likely you are to get more business. This is especially true if you support your active giveaway campaign with consistent content that gently pushes your products and/or services.
Although they may not lead to more sales right away, giveaways are effective at expanding your reach, growing your email list and getting to know your audience. This gives you marketing insights you can leverage in future promotional campaigns.
Author: Drew Allen
Bio: Drew is a financial enthusiast, seasoned blogger, music and sports fanatic. He enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and daughter fishing and boating. He is dedicated to his 15+ year career in the banking, mortgage, and personal finance industry.
