It’s important for every business owner to be focusing on ways to produce revenue, but which revenue producing activities will grow your business? Here are 5 ways to do just that.
5 Revenue Producing Activities to help your business GROW:
Focus on VALUE
Bundle Products or Services
Offer Special Discounts
Extend Your Geographical Reach
Incentivize Your Team
As business owners, we’re constantly being pulled in multiple directions. It can be difficult to get the seemingly easiest tasks completed at times much less sit down to focus on ways of generating additional income. So, first things first. Find and make the time!
Some great advice from calendar.com
You either need to delete or delegate. Here are some things you can do to prepare yourself to spend your time on these activities:
- Delegate tasks that don’t directly produce income to someone else. This includes social media, administrative tasks, accounting, etc.
- Stop accepting opportunities that don’t lead to more money in the bank.
- Drop clients that don’t pay you enough and are a pain in your neck. It’s likely that they take up too much of your time anyway.
- Invest in tools that help you automate and free up your time. This includes Facebook ads and a social media scheduler.
Some further advice offered by this same source is to dedicate one specific day each week to focus on the activities that will grow your business. That’s great advice! Breaking it down into smaller bites of time makes it so much easier to get moving in the right direction.
Focus on VALUE
Here’s the thing. If you didn’t already have a way to make someone’s life easier through your product or service, you wouldn’t have a business at all.
Here are a few questions to get you thinking more deeply about the story you’re telling the world. What is it that you’re offering and why do you offer it? What makes your product or service special and something that I would want to purchase? What problem are you solving for me?
Show me. Don’t just tell me. Turn it into a presentation. You want people to know you’re here and that you can make their lives easier. That’s the whole reason behind your business.
The next step is to think about what you can add or how you can package things to add value to your already existing product or service. You can increase prices or lower them as much as your margins will allow but the real magic is in perceived value.
Are there ‘complimentary’ services or products that you can add to the existing package to make it seem more valuable to your customers? Will they be more likely to bite if you add something that will be more valuable to them?
I watch a lot of HGTV. One of my favorite shows (not to mention most of America’s), is Fixer Upper. One thing I have loved to see Joanna Gaines do is to present her clients with a choice with the ‘left-over’ funds. Through the magic of television, these funds always seem to be available no matter the contingencies that have already been dipped into. Don’t get too caught up with this small detail because there is an important packaging lesson here.
Joanna always presents options based on what she thinks will be seen as an added value by her clients. A little extra that they weren’t necessarily expecting but that they might like. She’s already worked the numbers and knows what is possible based on these figures. In the end, it’s perceived as a win-win by all involved parties! That’s what you want to figure out how to do for your product or service.
Action step: Have a brainstorming session to think about all the possible ways you can add value that will be perceived as extra by your clients. You will win here!
Bundle Products or Services
There will always be some products or services that sell better than others. This is just how it goes. I understand why companies and business owners think it’s smart to bundle and pair products in a way that creates exposure. It’s instinctual. We think we should pair a best-seller with the worst seller because that way we can essentially make people try them.
Katanamrp says the reality is that we view the value of a product bundle as the average of its parts, rather than the sum of its parts. That means that if one item in the bundle is significantly lower in value then customers will pick up on that and automatically lower the average in their mind. If you want to pair low and high-value items, then you need to make sure that they provide good overall value in terms of experience and congruity.
I know that when I’ve received bundled items with only one or two items that I actually like and will use, I feel like I’m wasting the other stuff – even if I don’t necessarily like those particular products. In the end, I feel somewhat jipped. I’d rather get more of what I like and will use.
Action step: Take some time this week to work the numbers. Remember to maintain the perceived value of a bundle by including the highly desirable items.
Offer Special Discounts
We all know we can offer special discounts at any time. However, what I really like is when a company acknowledges my loyalty (even if they’ve only seen me once). Offering a special discount to those who have purchased from you already. A regular discount can be given to people who purchase more than once within a specific time frame.
In an article about what science has to say about discounts, promotions, and free offers, CMCommerce mentions a study by Dr. Paul J. Zak. This study basically says, while not in these exact words, that you can make your customers fall in love with you. In this study, researchers were looking to learn how coupons impact people’s happiness, health, and stress. Here is the excerpt:
They discovered that coupon recipients who got a $10 voucher experienced a 38% rise in oxytocin (aka ‘love drug’) levels and were 11% happier than those who didn’t receive a coupon. Furthermore, their respiration rates dropped 32%, heart rates decreased by 5%, and sweat levels were reportedly 20 times lower than their peers. Consequently, they felt more relaxed and less stressed.
Action step: Think about some special discounts you can implement for new customers, current customers, and loyal customers. Unless you don’t care about people falling right in love with you.
Extend Your Geographical Reach
This is important. I firmly believe you shouldn’t be focusing on expanding your reach until you’ve perfected the product, process, and service. Once you have those down and they’re functioning on autopilot without too much effort or necessary help, you’re ready to move forward with this step.
If you’re extending your reach geographically, you’re probably focusing on acquiring mostly new customers. This is a good time to implement a special first-time-customer or on-boarding offer.
In order for you to expand, people need to know you exist. Depending on what your business is there are several ways to go about increasing exposure. If you’re a brick-and-mortar, you’ll obviously be likely opening a new location. Be sure to do your market research for that particular area. Another great way to try an area is to do a pop-up type shop.
If you have a rather large blog and/or email following you’ll have some pull with other businesses that you’re not in direct competition with. Decide where you want to ‘pop-up’, and target small businesses that could benefit from your following. If your customers are coming for you, the other business owner will benefit too. Not just from the hopefully nominal pop-up fee you are able to negotiate with them, but from your customers who will undoubtedly be introduced to their business.
With the economy taking such a hit in 2020, businesses are likely to be more open to negotiating something with you.
Action step: Make a list of types of businesses that compliment your product or service. Decide where you’d like to try your pop-up. Do some research on businesses in that particular area you’d like to target when you’re ready.
Incentivize Your Team
Who doesn’t like getting extra for giving extra? I sure do! We all know it’s important to acknowledge hard work, but of course, it’s even better to earn something fun (can you say money), for putting in the extra effort.
There are many ways to incentivize your team. From giving a gift, using a tiered commission structure, regular bonuses, and hosting a fun party with quality food and drinks. But, it’s important to remember that everyone is different. Putting the effort into thinking about specific team members and what they might like is even better than a one-size-fits-all approach. I have two gift cards I’ve had for YEARS collecting dust because I don’t really like either restaurant.
In addition to incentivizing your actual sales team, remember that happy customers often become a voluntary sales-force. Of course, you can also offer them perks for bringing their friends and family. That’s always a winning recipe!
Action step: Make a list of specific ways that you can acknowledge specific people. Do any of them like a certain store or restaurant.
Put in the extra effort to give them a gift card to that place. It can help to keep notes for each person that you can add to when you hear them mention something specific. This is an excellent way to tell someone you appreciate them.
We know that you want to be a confident local business owner.
To do that, you need to increase cash flow. The problem is you don’t have enough cash to expand your business, which makes you feel frustrated. We believe attracting new customers should be easy. I understand the frustration of spending too much time doing things that don’t generate revenue, which is why we created this PDF “You’re Losing Money By Not Doing These 3 Daily Activities.”
Here’s how to get the best results:
2. Pick 3 Things From The List & Engage
3. Enjoy Attracting New Customers
So, download the PDF. So you can stop worrying about how to increase sales and instead have consistent sales to expand your local business.