5 Smart Ways To Increase Your Small Business Profits!

Are You Really Concerned About Making Money With Your Small Business?

In a recent research, it was revealed that 54% of small business owners worry about money. This means that, more than half of small business owners let the thought of money keep them up at night

Specifically, business owners worry about cutting costs, increasing profits and improving their bottom lines.

If you are among the 54% stressing over the thought of how much money your business is making, fret not!

5 Smart Ways To Increase Your Small Business Profits – Consider the following ways to make money with your business:

Analyse Your Financial Statement

The first thing you must do is to understand what it really means to make a profit. The money that comes into your business is known as revenue – that’s not your profit so you can’t put all of it in the bank. You must pay for costs including salaries, rent, tax, supplies, and other expenses. Whatever you have left is your profit margin. That’s the figure that determines whether you remain in business or not.

You must also have a good grasp of financial terms and, the ability to interpret your financial statements. Without that, you won’t be able to tell if you are making progress with your business or not. If you are able to read and understand your balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement, you will notice easily when things are not right and be able to participate in discussions that will quickly improve your profit margin.

Draw A Business Map

If you do not have a map, you will not be able to get to your destination. A successful business begins with a business plan or a business map. A business map will not only contain the direction to get you from one stage of the business to the next, it will also include different strategies that gets you prepared for the likely situations that may confront you on the way and connect you to your main business goal.

Business mapping helps you track your progress towards your goals and make changes to your business as you learn more about your customers.

Set Practical Goals

Goals are resolutions to achieve desired results. They could be short or long term, they provide a clear understanding of what you are striving to accomplish with your business. Setting short term goal will help you reach related long term goals faster. This is a very important key to your business success. Having goals make everyday task more defined and clarifies the reasoning behind every business decision you make.

For a lot of small businesses, including yours, it is easy to start thinking about the end goal when the business is still at the startup level. If you are planning to make massive profit from the beginning, you will miss out on the opportunities along the way and become overwhelmed easily.

Instead, set SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Sensitive. You must write down your goals and set forth a plan that outlines your probable methods of accomplishment. You can modify your goals along the way but don’t abandon them unless it is absolutely necessary. Don’t get distracted by quick fixes or get caught up in competitive race. Monitor your goals regularly and produce status report. This will help you establish your future goals.

Add Value To Your Product Or Service

In today’s marketplace where so many products and services are viewed as commodity, the ability to add value to your product or service is an absolute necessity. In the absence of value-added components virtually any product or service will be driven down to the most bottom line – price.

Now, the problem is, when you are selling only price you’ll never be able to sell any level of high margin sales and that is where profitability, long term growth and sales success is located.

When customers finds a product or service that fills a need that they can’t find anywhere else, they fall in love with it. You can add value to your product or service no matter what you sell. How?

Prioritize your market research to understand your customer’s lifestyle and taste. Once you inhabit your customer’s mind and preference, you will be able to create compelling innovations customised for your market. And, as you do that, track your customer’s response so that you can adjust your strategies where necessary.

Stay Visible And Connected With Advertising

One thing all small businesses have in common is the fear of spending money out of their lean budget on advertising. Have you ever wondered, how advertising can help your small business grow?

Advertising, when done right, will attract new customers to your business and help you sell more of your product or service to existing customers. It will increase your profitability too. It will also increase visibility within your industry, helping you attract partners that can expand your business.

Indirectly, advertising will help you grow word of mouth referrals. The more new customers you gain through advertising, the more word of mouth those customers in turn will share with others.

SuccessDigest Marketplace has created a simple cost-effective way to promote your business both online and offline. We give you the opportunity to advertise your small business on a shoestring budget. With just N2,500 per insertion we will advertise your product for a whole week not one day as is the case with the daily newspapers.

That’s not all…

Your advert will appear online at SuccessDigestMarketplace.com and offline in SuccessDigest Marketplace Advertiser’s Catalog published every Wednesday along with Digital SuccessDigest magazine.

Visit www.successdigestmarketplace.com/adverts-rates today or send an email to our customer happiness desk at [email protected] to advertise your product and increase your profit margin.

Finally, as you are working on making more money with your business, you must also take an objective look at your entire organisation. Identify what is currently preventing you from making the money you know you are capable of making, Is it lack of viable leadership skills? Is it a problem with your sales team? It could also be that you are emotionally holding on to something that is limiting your business growth. Once you have identified what the problem is, seek out personal or professional tools and advice needed to breakthrough your barriers.

Is there a topic or question that you would like answered? Send your question via email to [email protected] and we will get back to you with an answer!