7 ways to find more money in your business

Everyone wants their business to make more money. That’s a given and quite honestly not an interesting enough topic to blog about.

But how we go after finding that money is where this conversation gets fun! Finding money in your business is more fun than an Easter egg hunt! I’m not a financial advisor or an accountant. But honestly, you don’t have to be to be wise with your finances. And every business owner needs to embrace the job of creating a profitable business.

I’m not “all about the money” in life. I’m a pretty simple person and it doesn’t take big fancy things to make me happy. I like giving back. I like serving. BUT I see too many business owners using humility, simplicity, and generosity as an excuse for why they are poorly managing their businesses. There is no justifiable reason for not protecting your business’s financial health. If you haven’t done a good job in the past, it’s time to forgive yourself, and create a better plan. If you are an amazing money manager, give yourself a pat on the back and then feel free to add your own strategies for finding more money in your business.

1.Re-negotiate with current suppliers, or look for new suppliers with better rates. If you use goods and materials to produce a project, or as supplies that support your service based business, then this is a critical place to look for money. Make sure you review your vendors a couple of times a year to ensure that you are getting the best price possible. I’m not suggesting that you haggle with everyone over price or try to gouge your vendors. But don’t just pay the first price that comes along. Do your research. Spend time speaking with vendors and making sure that you have a great deal on your materials and supplies. When you don’t, go elsewhere. And look beyond your geographical area. I live in Georgia, but my printer is in Utah. Even paying for shipping, my Utah printer saves me a couple hundred bucks every time I print materials. It’s worth it!

2. Review for any unused, or under utilized services. We do a regular review of subscriptions, services, and software. It’s really easy to sign up for this free trial and that free trial and then forget the cancellations. Old school software was bought from the store with a floppy disc and then installed on your hard drive. With the majority of small business software being done as cloud based SaaS, we pay monthly for our software. It’s less cost upfront, but significantly more over the lifetime of your business. Those 9.99 a month services add up. If you aren’t using it regularly, eliminate it. If you are using the service, but not taking full advantage, consider downgrading to a smaller package. Keep an eye on these services because they can add up fast!

3. Review your profit margins. We should all be watching our profit and loss statement monthly. I also have a simple weekly expense and income report that helps me see if I made or lost money the previous week. And in addition, bi-annually we also review profitability for each of our product lines. It helps us to identify underperforming products and either make changes to that product in order to increase profitability, or just discontinue selling it all together.

4. Increase efficiency. Is your team working at premium efficiency? If not, you are losing money. Why pay for a job to be done in 3 hours when it can be done in 1.5 hours? To increase efficiency in your team, you’ll need to set standards, track efficiency, praise and incentivize being above the productivity markers, and address and work with those that are underperforming.

5. Increase sales. As a sales strategist and trainer, this one is my favorite. I love increasing sales! However, I have been in business long enough to know that increasing sales without paying attention to these other 6 strategies will not increase overall profits. Click here to read my blog post about how to give your company a quick increase in sales.

6. Review your Tax Strategy. Taxes are our biggest expense as a business owner. So having the appropriate tax strategy is one of your most critical money savers. And for this one, my best advice is find a great accountant!

7. Redistribute workload to save on payroll. This one can be a big money saver for small business owners with teams. Lets say you have employee A that earns $25 an hour. Employee B that earns $16 an hour. And a paid intern earning $10 an hour. Employee A should not be doing anything below their paygrade. Every possible $10 job should be done by the intern. Everything that the $16 an hour person can do that isn’t an intern responsibility and then they $25 an hour employee should specialize in their specific skill set that made them worth 25 an hour to start with. This allows you to get the bulk of your work done for lower rates and decrease the need for multiple high paid employees.

Now it’s time to go find some money! Have fun and keep us updated on what you are finding!