👉 Show Me The 💲💲 Money! 3 Simple Ways To Find More Dollars In Your Small Business

In case you missed my previous blogs, I’ve outlined the 5 Foundation Bricks essential to building a simple profitable brick business you actually love. 

1.    YOU - Embrace Your ROLE

2.    PRODUCTIVITY - Focus Your TIME

3.    PROFITABILITY - Design Your MONEY TRAIN

4.    PEOPLE - Guide Your TEAM

5.    PERFORMANCE - Grow Your BUSINESS

And they all impact on each other so if you don’t truly Embrace Your ROLE and Focus your TIME, then cracks will appear in every other foundation brick.

Once you've made some tweaks and hard decisions on wearing the title of small business owner as a badge of honour and how you value your time, you can then target it more strategically to build/rebuild the 5 Foundation Bricks which will actually improve the profitability, productivity and performance of your small business.

In this blog, I’ll share 3 simple ways to find more money in your small business which in turn will improve your productivity, profitability and performance.

💲 FOUNDATION BRICK #3: PROFITABILITY – Design Your MONEY TRAIN

Every small business owner wants to grow their business and one of the ways to do that is to increase your turnover (aka get more sales).

But sometimes we forget about the easy ways to do this and focus on the wrong strategies rather than the low hanging fruit which is staring us right in the face.

Now whether you’re just starting out or a veteran owner like myself, it’s important to stop to see if you’ve got some ‘hidden’ opportunities so let me share with you 3 simple ways to find more money in your small business.

💲 👉3 Simple Ways To Find More Money In Your Business

👉 SIMPLE WAY #1: Stop Thinking EVERYONE Is Your Ideal Customer

As small business owners, we’re driven to helping as many people as possible because we want to make a difference which of course is commendable.

But from a marketing perspective, this is unfortunately our downfall because by thinking everyone is our customer, we don’t have a clear message and we’re not talking to the customers we really want.

Pretty much, it’s a throw mud at the wall and hope something sticks strategy.

And a ‘we can help everyone’ approach also means it’s very difficult for people to refer you to potential customers.

When eg you list the 15 industry sectors you work with, people’s eyes just glaze over because it’s too hard to remember. 

Whereas if you said, we specialise in helping businesses working in the childcare industry, I can easily remember that and if I’m at a BBQ and someone tells me that’s what they do, I can quickly suggest they contact your small business.

In my case, I specialise in coaching small business owners with up to 20 staff who are….

✅ FRUSTRATED because they know something's WRONG but they don't know WHAT it is

✅ CONFUSED because they know WHAT is wrong but don't know HOW to solve

it

✅ OVERWHELMED with managing their growing business BECAUSE what was working now isn't.

And then when I’m chatting with potential clients, I’m also listening to see if they’re ready for me ie are they coachable and ready to make some changes to grow their business.

So if you want to find more money in your small business, spend some time thinking about who your ideal customer/client is (and is not) including:

-           are they individuals or businesses (B2C or B2B)?

-           what industry sectors (no more than 3) do you specialise in? 

-           what turnover do they need to have to work with you?

-           how many staff do they need to have to work with you?

-           what traits do they have to have? 

If you’re not sure, then think about your best and worst customers/clients and this will tell you what you’re looking for.

So please stop marketing to everyone.

Otherwise, all it does is show you’re just like every other small business rather than what’s really different about your business from your competitors.

👉 SIMPLE WAY #2: Mine The Gold In Your Database

If you look at marketing strategies these days, they are all focused on getting new customers and it’s the new customers who get the better deals.

Look at any Telco or Insurance ads and see the deals they are offering only new customers.

Yet the loyal customers – the ones who’ve been there the longest and stayed with them through the good times and bad – they usually get none of these opportunities.

Ever done a price comparison on your insurance and when you go back to your provider with a better offer, they’ll probably say ‘sorry we can’t beat that, or we can only do that price for new customers’. 

Which means they’d prefer to focus their time and energy on getting more new customers then keeping their existing customers happy and truly loyal. 

Result:  You move to their competitor – something I’ve just done with my car insurance after being loyal for 14 years!

Outbound Engine’s article compares customer retention marketing versus customer acquisition marketing and states that acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer.  

And Jenn Donovan in her webinar shared that 68% of customers leave a business because…

They don’t believe you care about them.

Good business thinking says we need to do both (retention and acquisition) but too many small business owners see this as a ONE or the OTHER strategy versus using the 80/20 Principle of 80% Nurture and 20% New.

❓ So are you spending most of your valuable time and energy in getting NEW customers OR instead, are you invested in NURTURING the customers who know, trust and buy from you to ensure they DON’T leave your small business?

Let me show you what this means.

One of my coaching clients runs first aid training and struggled to get enrolments.  When we chatted, I asked about their enrolment strategy and it was focused on getting new business rather than ensuring their existing database did their 2 and 5 year renewal training with them. 

So I helped them to develop a system showing everyone’s renewal date including an automated email reminder sequence 90 days, 60 days and 30 days from this date with a link to enrol in the upcoming course. 

If they still hadn’t enrolled by then, I told them to call and enrol them whilst on the phone, telling the customer they didn’t want them to lose their job because their first aid accreditation had expired.

By implementing this new and simple enrolment strategy with the supporting systems, they increased their customer retention rate from less than 50% to over 80%, providing a huge increase to their bottom line – both in dollars and productivity.

Remember: We have to make it easier for our customers to buy from us and sometimes, sending someone to your website to complete a form instead of doing it for them on the phone can be the difference between getting the sale or not.

❓ So can you do something similar to my client to start mining the gold in your database?

By contacting customers who already know and trust you, you will undoubtedly increase your sales.

👉 SIMPLE WAY #3: Get The Best ‘Salesperson’ Responding To Enquiries

In many small businesses, the owner or CEO is actually the best salesperson because they know the product/service being provided and the benefit to the customer.

But often, this job is delegated to administration or sales staff so the owner can spend their time on more important work. 

Which in theory sounds great but what if this decision is actually costing you money rather than bringing in the dollars?

One of my coaching clients did this and although his staff were knowledgeable and great at their jobs, they weren’t converting enough enquiries into sales.

He had a great website enquiry system showing him what they wanted and the potential revenue of that enquiry.

When we examined this, I could see a large amount of enquiries would lead to over $50K worth of work for the month that hadn’t been converted. 

I said, ‘if you rang these 5 people about their enquiries, how many would you convert into business?’. 

His answer was ‘probably all of them’ so I said, ‘then why aren’t you spending the first hour of every day looking at this data and ringing every enquiry that’s over say $5K?’.

He then looked at me and said, ‘what a great and simple idea!’. 

By changing the process to this and including some more detailed automations for the lesser amount enquiries, his bottom line significantly changed overnight.

So if you are the best person to bring in the money for your business, what system can you implement and what needs to change in how you focus your time to gain a similar result to my coaching client?

Whilst it’s great to delegate tasks to your team to free up your time, you have to make sure they’re the right tasks to benefit you and the business.

❓ What’s Next?

Which of these three strategies do you need to implement in your small business to increase your profitability – one, two or all of them?

Do you need to re-think and change your strategy between now and the end of the year?

Even just doing one of these strategies can reap amazing benefits and financial rewards for your small business and who doesn’t want that?

And here’s my final thought:

You’re the coach of your small business so it’s up to you to not only come up with the strategies to grow it, but also to provide the support and steps to your team to ensure it actually happens.

Which is great but what if you’re not sure what to do next?

And who’s supporting and helping you?

A Business Coach is the best way to get the Strategy, Support and Solutions you need to grow your small business, and I’m not just saying this because I am one. 

My mental health and wellbeing and my business all changed for the better once I got the right business coach.

And of course, just like your team need to be coachable, so do you.

So if you’re looking for someone to…

✅ solve frustrating problems

✅ simplify overwhelming systems

✅ support you in times of confusion and uncertainty

✅ find hidden opportunities

✅ give a little bit of tough love

Then let’s chat.

Because wouldn’t it be great to fix the 1 frustrating problem keeping you up at night or stopping you growing your small business – all in 30 minutes?

Cheers Tamara