Your company needs more revenue and it needs it now. What is the best way to quickly increase your income? While you can invest in ways to grow your business (such as increasing marketing expenditure or hiring more staff to take on more work), this requires spending money first (which you may not have) and the increased revenue may not be instant. Instead, you need to explore low-cost short-term ways to boost your income. Here are just a few effective solutions.
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Increase your prices
If you can’t sell more, charge more. Higher pricing will lead to higher profit margins, but you need to be careful not to increase the price too much and this could scare away customers.
Do competitor research to see what other companies are charging and try to stay in a similar price range. If you sell lots of products or services, you may be able to strategically increase the price of certain products/services while keeping others low priced (for example, a restaurant might increase the price of its drinks while keeping food attractively priced).
Consider looking in CFO services for small business support – such services can advise you on how to strategically adjust pricing without losing customers.
Up-sell and cross-sell
Up-selling is a simple way to boost the value of each sale. It involves promoting add-ons and extras with each sale (such as asking a hotel guest if they want to upgrade to a suite or asking a customer in a coffee bar if they want to upgrade to a large coffee or add a syrup).
Cross-selling is similar but involves promoting items that a customer might commonly buy with a certain product. Retail stores often gently cross-sell items by stocking items beside each other that are commonly bought together. Online stores can meanwhile recommend products similar to items in a customer’s basket during the checkout process.
Promote bundles
Bundles involve selling several products or services together at a discounted price. Even if you’re getting a little less profit per item, you could make more profit overall by encouraging customers to buy extra items they might not otherwise purchase.
Insurance companies will sometimes bundle home and car insurance together or employer liability with public liability cover. An infant supply company meanwhile may offer a bundle in which you get a pram, car seat and changing bag together.
Introduce subscriptions or memberships
Surviving on one-off payments can be difficult. Consider introducing subscription services to get customers paying for products monthly or introduce a membership that gives customers access to discounts or unlimited monthly access.
Subscriptions can keep revenue coming in during low sales seasons, while memberships may help to keep customers coming back.
Reach out to old customers
Attracting new customers can be difficult for some businesses. Re-engaging old customers is easier – they’re already familiar with your company and may not take much convincing to come back if they previously received good service.
Discounts are a great way to get old customers returning. If you have their contact details and their consent, reach out either via email or text with a coupon or news of an upcoming deal or event.
