Recent economic woes have meant that some businesses have had little growth and disappointing profits. Sometimes that’s just the way things go in business, but it doesn’t mean that business owners have to sit by and let it happen.
There are many different ways for your business to increase profit, even if it has been having a downward turn. If things have been running smoothly, then growth and profit should be the next step.
Branch Out
One way to ensure more money comes into the business is to branch out. You can do this by adding complementary services to the products you already provide, which is good thinking since the major infrastructure of the company is already there, along with clients.
Extra services could include reseller web hosting from a company like Dream VPS, or storage space if you have a big enough warehouse. There are thousands of different ‘add-ons’ that can bring in a big increase in revenue.
Go Further
If your business concentrates on a small area, you might find that you saturate the market. If this is the case, your profits won’t be getting any bigger, and they could easily fall.
Check a map and draw a circle around the area you currently operate in. Are you able to make that circle bigger?
Could you sell items online if you don’t already, for example?
Or if you provide a service, could you take that service to more people?
Try the next town, try the next state or county. Try the next state if it’s possible. A bigger area means more people and more profit.
Bundles
Bundling products together may seem like it’s going to give you a loss, but in reality, these bundles bring in more profits when they are done right, and they could be exactly what you need to do.
Bundling products means selling a group of items together for less than if you were to buy them separately.
If you were selling hats, for example, you might add gloves and a scarf to the bundle. Or if you were selling notebooks, you could package them with pens.
Do the math right and bundles have a higher overall profit even if the price of buying the items separately is higher – and you will sell more of them.
Find Your Old Customers
Finding new customers costs around five times as much as retaining old ones, so it makes sense to concentrate on the people who have already bought from you.
Remind them that you exist with a mailshot or email. You might even want to offer them a discount for coming back.
Your marketing could talk about how much you’ve missed their business, and let them know that you have a lot of new stock or exciting new services available. Persuade them back and do a good job and they’ll wonder why they ever stopped buying from you in the first place.
Layaway
If you can’t or don’t want to reduce your prices, then you could consider a layaway program.
The buyer pays an initial deposit, and then either weekly or monthly they pay the rest of the cost of whatever it is they want to buy. When the entire price has been paid, they can take their item home.
It helps people purchase items that they might not be able to otherwise, and it enables businesses to sell more.