Tactics for business growth and business survival

• Get feedback from your customers

Your existing customers are the best people to give you feedback on how well you are serving them, as well as providing useful insight into where you could or should be taking your business.

• Don’t rely on a single big customer

You can’t always anticipate or be advised of changes within your customers’ businesses but you can make sure you’re not exposed by relying on one or two large customers for your income. Time-manage yourself, however limited you are, to finding new customers and developing your relationship with them.

• Try and earn more from each sale transaction
  

Think about other complimentary products and services that your customers may be interested in. If you’re a copywriter, for example, you could approach a local print company or design agency so that you can offer your clients a complete brochure design and production service. You may be able to earn additional income by adding these services to your portfolio under a resale agreement, or you refer your clients to these companies in the hope that they will reciprocate by referring business to you.

• Know who your competitors are
  

Keep an eye on your competitors: what they’re selling, who they’re selling to, how they’re selling, and at what price. You also need to watch out for new competitors. Don’t limit your vision to your direct competition however. If you’re running an Indian takeaway your competitors are not only the other Indian takeaway in the next street, but the Chinese takeaway across the road, the fish and chip shop around the corner and the supermarket next door with their ready meals that can be heated up at home.

• Measure how effective your marketing activity is
  

If any of your marketing activities are not bringing in more business than they’re costing, it’s time to stop and try something else. If you can’t measure how much business they’re bringing in, it’s definitely time to stop! All marketing activity should be measurable so always set targets for each activity and review performance regularly.

• Keep costs to absolute minimum

Identify where your major areas of cost are and ensure your spending patterns correspond with your key business objectives. For example if you’re planning to hire more direct sales staff you don’t necessarily want to be increasing your advertising costs by 50%. Once you know where your main costs are and have aligned them to your key objectives for the year you can then consider whether you should be making any savings. To remain solvent you always need to ensure you can meet your expenses. Keeping an eye on costs will help, as will making sure you’re paid on time.…

• Keep the cash flowing: chase money that you’re owed

After all, you’re not a charity! Cash flow problems are cited as one of the main causes of business failure so it’s important that the money you’ve earned actually reaches your bank account. Your invoices should have a ‘due by’ date on them and if payment is not received by that date get on the phone straight away. Check that the invoice has been received and that there’s no query with it and then politely ask when payment will be sent.

Some phrases you could use to chase payment of an overdue invoice are:
Have you received our invoice?
We don't appear to have received payment. Is there a problem with the invoice?
The invoice is due now, how will you be paying? We accept cheque BACS or payment via PayPal.

 

More guidance on Improving your cash flow

For guidance on creating invoices see Information that needs to be on an invoice