By Joanne Kuipers

Plan your work and work your plan. Lay out your business goals and create a map on how to get there. Just write it down. Only 3% of us do this but it is so important and it is the starting point of all success.

Goals

By how much do you want to increase your business? 10%, 20%? How can you achieve that? Invest more in marketing your business, figure out how to increase sales with add-on, increase your profit per sale, hire more salespeople, etc. Do some brainstorming. Ask a friend or other business owner for help. You’d be surprised at how many people are willing and able to help. Just ask.

Investing in Small Business Marketing Strategies

By investing wisely in advertising and promoting your business you can get an excellent return on your investment or ROI. Ask yourself ‘What the most successful promotion I have ever done in the past for my business?’ Do it again. It’s that simple. So many times we get caught up with life and overlook the obvious.

Know what your average sale is and base your sales or promotions on that. Can you afford to give $10 off or $20 off, or something away for free? Use your average sale to answer that question. Also ask yourself ‘What is a new customer worth?’

Appreciate Your Customers for Add-On Sales

If you have regular customers why not figure out what else they might buy from you. You could even ask them or do a survey. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Sometimes you are so close to your business that’s it’s hard to see it through a customer’s eyes. Ask a friend. It is very important to remember that the number one reason why a business loses customers is not because of sub-standard product or service, but because of customer indifference. What do I mean by that? Make them feel special and appreciated. It’s the little things that make the difference.

Making Each Sale Count More

The most obvious way to increase your bottom line would be to charge more for your product or service. But when you do that you may also want to increase the value that the customer receives from the purchase. Longer warranty, return policy, satisfaction guaranteed, etc. You may want to just focus on your higher quality products or services and also focus more on your higher value customer. Figure out who they are and how you can increase that relationship. Maybe even ‘fire’ your less profitable customers. Quite often they take up most of your time as well.