Money-making tasks are a fundamental component when it comes to growing a business. Without prioritising these important tasks your sales will decrease and that’s not good for the longevity of any business!
By its very definition, a business makes money by providing a product or service to its customers. So, if you’re not taking regular action to grow your business and your income, do you really have a business or is it more of an expensive hobby?
Business planning is a great way to organise, structure, and prioritise the various tasks that are part and parcel of running a business.
Here are five money-making tasks that will lead to increased income and business growth…
Email Your Customers Regularly
Despite what many people believe, email marketing is NOT dead! It remains the easiest way to stay in touch with past/present AND potential customers. I’ll talk more about this in a future blog post.
There are so many things you can include in your emails, tell a story from your business, behind the scenes images, share tips & tricks, latest industry news, to name just a few. The idea is to nurture the relationships, so they see the value in your emails and are more inclined to buy when you DO send a sales email.
Top Tip – Send high value emails on a regular basis to stay forefront of your customer’s minds
Focus on Customer Service
It’s inevitable that customers will contact you directly with questions or refund requests so be prepared to answer these requests in a timely manner. Have a procedure in place for refunds (this step is vital if you offer money-back guarantees). It will allow you to politely and methodically deal with refund requests without allowing your emotions to get in the way.
We never want to have to refund anyone but if it does happen, we at least want to do it with grace and professionalism. Provide your customers with a positive experience and they are more likely to become a buy from you again.
Raise Your Prices
Many small business owners are reluctant to charge higher prices for the fear of losing customers and/or sales.
However, depending on your business model, you may be able to use a price increase to your advantage. This would involve setting a date for the new pricing to commence, and highly publicising the date the increase comes into effect and encouraging customers to buy now before the price goes up.
Here’s some things to consider when reviewing your prices…
- When did you last raise your prices?
- Have your business running costs increased since you set your current prices?
- Are your prices still competitive within your market and industry?
- Do your prices reflect your level of experience?
In an ideal world you should be able to raise your prices every year. Some businesses, particularly the larger corporates, increase their prices annually to stay in line with inflation, growing business expenses, etc.
Top Tip – Give your ‘current’ customers a grace period before the increased price will apply to them
Create a Customer Exclusive
Create a new product/service exclusively for your previous customers. They have first-hand knowledge of your experience and appreciate your value, sometimes even more so than yourself!
People buy from people they know, like and trust
To get quick-action results you could make your offer time-sensitive.
How Do I Know What to Offer?
This is a common question for business owners, and it boils down to knowing your target audience and their needs.
- What do they struggle with and how can you help them resolve it?
- What are the brand new trends or hot topics in your industry, that they want to learn more about?
- What can you provide to compliment what they have previously bought from you? For example, if you taught something, could you provide a refresher training?
By far, the easiest way to identify what they want help with, is to simply ask them!
It’s significantly easier to fit these money-making tasks into your business when you have a plan in place. Business planning and setting out the necessary action steps is crucial for business growth and I’m presenting a free online class on this very topic….
Register for this FREE masterclass recording, where I share the secrets to successful business planning.
Including how you can get better results for your efforts, how to create your personalised plan and how to implement strategies that will increase your income.
We'll also take a look at how you can use the planning process to improve your productivity.
