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How to Make Your Money Grow in Business

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Growing Your Business|How to Make Your Money Grow in Business Making money as an entrepreneur has so much to do with your ability to identify opportunities and make the most of them. If you’ve started a business in the first place, then this means you’ve found a gap in the market that you can fill. In light of this, you should always be thinking about how you can grow beyond where you are and ultimately increase your reach and income further. There are several ways to achieve this, and all require you to get out of your comfort zone. If you consider that being uncomfortable is typically where all of the magic happens, then you’ll be more enthusiastic about exploring new territory. Below are practical ways to make your money grow in business.

Be Frugal

Just because you’re making money as a business, it doesn’t mean that you have to spend it at the same pace. It is crucial that you learn to manage your money and be frugal if you want to see your money experience steady growth financially. To be a frugal CEO, here are three approaches you could take.

Budget on Office Set Up: When setting up your office, it can be tempting to go all out. However, spending exorbitant amounts on furnishing isn’t necessarily going to give you the best return on your investment. Instead, look for ways to furnish on a budget such as by getting furniture that is slightly used or on clearance. The charity shop often also has fairly used or even new furniture that you can get at an affordable rate. Ask around to see how you can find affordable functional furniture so that you save space and money.

Control Legal Fees: Every business needs a lawyer but be careful not to spend too much on legal fees. These fees can eat out of your finances if they aren’t carefully managed. Focus on setting clear expectations with your lawyer before meetings, especially when their cost per hour is high. In some cases, you may even find that it’s better to pay on a per project instead of an hourly basis.

Monitor Cash Flow: As above use a fixed monthly fee accountant to keep your cash flow up to date on a monthly basis. 3 in 4 startups who do not monitor cash flow fail whilst 3 in 4 who do monitor their cash flow succeed. Be sure to shop around to find an accountant at the right cost.

DIY Marketing and PR: Aside from the mentioned, you should also make the most of the cost-effectiveness of digital marketing. Instead of hiring a PR firm in the early stages, try doing the pitching yourself to begin with. Doing this could also help build both trust and a good rapport which are tools that will get your business far. Social platforms are also ideal ways to get your brand out there without spending thousands on advertising too.

Consider Mixed Use Development

Mixed-use development is a way to grow your money as an entrepreneur. In case you’ve never heard about it before, in summary, it refers to buildings that have multiple units that are used for different purposes which are usually residential as well as commercial. You may be wondering how exactly this could benefit you as an entrepreneur. How it would work is that you could buy one or more mixed-use buildings and run your business in the commercial area while you live in, lease out or sell the other units. This could serve as a great business opportunity so read more here to find out how you could go about doing it.

Offer New Products and Services

Another straightforward way to make your money grow when running a business is to offer new products and services. Learn from the performance of your current range meaning you should do more of what’s working and improve on what isn’t. If, for instance, your customers seem to love a certain product, take the feedback and see how you can create something even better. Here are a few tips to consider when you want to launch a new product or service.

Ensure it Solves a Problem

Whether you’re launching your second or tenth product or service, you want to be certain that it solves a problem. If you look at some of the most successful ones you know, you’ll notice that they make people’s lives easier in one way or another. Creating a product that sells is about making something that’s simple, interesting, meaningful, entertaining, and long-lasting. The more value that it adds, the more likely it will do well in the market.

Build Buzz

Before launching a new product, it’s so essential that you first take the time out to build buzz. This is key as you want to build excitement and get people to anticipate this product and the value it could add to their lives. By doing this, you’re more likely to get the kind of response you want form customers and prospects.

Devise a Strong Strategy

A product launch strategy will help you map out how to launch your product from start to finish. Start by doing this as it will work as a guiding force to help you execute your plan. When you have an effective strategy in place, you’re less likely to miss out on important elements of a product launch and also more likely to prevent major mistakes. With that being said, there are several templates you can use online to help you flesh out your strategy.

Have a Growth Strategy

Earlier on, it was mentioned that you should have a strategy for launching a product, but you should note that you also need one if you want to grow. When you have a growth strategy in place, you’ve got a better idea of where you’re going as a business and how you’re going to get there. You may decide that you’re going to start with one product for the first year and then diversify your income as a business in the second year of operating, for instance. It’s essential that you think through what direction you want to grow in, so you put measures in place to ensure that you get there.

Every business has to steadily grow if they want to remain in business and expand on to do bigger and better things. However, in order to see the growth you want, you’ve got to commit to learning and trying new strategies.

How to Reduce Business Costs

Every business will have various costs, which are, unfortunately, unavoidable. While many expenses are inevitable, there are always ways that you can reduce them which could have a significant impact on your bottom line. Even the tiniest alteration could have a considerable impact in the long run, so it is certainly worthwhile making a few changes – provided that it does not impact the quality of the product or service that you offer to your target customer. Additionally, it is important to re-assess your costs regularly to make sure that you are not overspending. Here are a few ways that you can reduce your business costs.

Outsourcing Work

It can be helpful to have employees, and in some cases, you will need staff that you can rely on, but for certain aspects of the operation, you may be able to outsource the work. Doing so is beneficial because you do not have to pay a salary and instead it can be on a per-project basis. This could free up a tremendous amount of cash and drastically reduce your costs without impacting the quality of work (just make sure that you use specialists!). You can also use interns so that you have staff onsite but without the costly salary.

Encourage Remote Working

Another good way to save money when it comes to staff is to encourage remote working. What this means is that you are using much less energy in the office, plus it can also bring various other benefits for both the company and the employee. Technology has made remote working a viable option and should be encouraged by all employers.

Use Time More Effectively

Wasted time means wasted money so it is worth identifying a few ways that you and your staff can use your time more effectively. This could include:

  • Eliminating unnecessary meetings
  • Minimizing distractions
  • Using software to track time usage
  • Setting goals
  • Incentivizing staff
  • Creating a weekly schedule
  • Using technology to streamline/automate specific tasks

Lease Equipment

Most businesses rely very heavily on equipment and technology for their operation. It can be expensive but often the technology and equipment will quickly become dated, plus there could be maintenance costs to factor in. Leasing equipment will prove to be cheaper in the long run, and it gives you the chance to upgrade to the latest technology when developments are made (which is often in many cases).

Software

Again, most businesses rely very heavily on software for their operation, and this can be a considerable expense. While there may be specific software which is essential for your business, you will find that often there is a free open-source alternative available. This option can sometimes be better than expensive software packages.

Switch To Alternative Energy

In a time where environmental damage is a significant talking point, it is crucial for businesses to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint. One of the most effective strategies for this is to switch to alternative energy. In addition to the environmental benefits, this will also prove to be cost effective in the long run despite the initial price.

Go Paperless

Similarly, going paperless is vital in terms of reducing environmental damage, but it can also bring a few benefits to any business. First, you can cut costs as paper and printing can be costly over the course of a year, but it can also improve the organization of your operation. This is because digitizing documents can free up space in the office and make it much easier to find what you need (just be sure to backup regularly and having a digital storage system in place).

Switch Providers & Suppliers

It is also worth listing all of your utility providers and suppliers to see if you could be making any savings by switching to another company. It can be a complicated process, but if you can make long-term savings, it is certainly worthwhile considering.

Do Your Own Marketing

One of the most significant yet most important expenses is marketing. Every company needs high-quality marketing in order to increase awareness about your brand and to increase your visibility online, but this can be expensive. It is for this reason why it is a smart move to do your own marketing. You can complete an online MBA in marketing which will teach you everything that you need to know to market your business across multiple platforms. This, in turn, should help to boost your sales, making it a highly valuable and worthwhile course to complete.

Purchase Second-Hand Furniture

It is crucial that you create a comfortable and practical work environment for your employees so that they can be productive each day and to keep morale high. Office furniture can be expensive, and it is important to have quality items, but you could make significant savings by merely buying second-hand furniture or by searching online for free furniture that people are giving away.

Insurance

Having insurance in place is an absolute necessity as it could be devastating to the company if you do not have this and something were to happen. There are a few different ways that you can save money on insurance. These include:

  • Comparing providers
  • Asking your current provider to match the best rate that you find
  • Consolidating insurance policies
  • Making sure that you are not overinsured or have duplicate coverage

Downsize Business Premises

It is nice to have a big open office, but this can be a considerable expense and often is not necessary. Especially when first starting out, it is a good idea to opt for somewhere smaller which will still allow you to work comfortably and you could then look to upgrade when you are in a healthier financial situation or if you are going through an expansion.

Every business owner should regularly look at their operation to see if there are ways that they can reduce costs in order to maximize profit. In most cases, you will be able to find a few ways that you are able to cut down on costs and even a small change could have a big impact in the long run.