5 Easy Ways To Improve Your Small Business Cash Flow Now

By on December 3, 2012 in 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business, Cash Flow & Finance, Guest Articles

Whether the economy stinks or not, there will always be small businesses that are struggling along chasing the ever elusive cash flow. It’s a universal problem that gets aggravated with the cycles of the economy. Some small businesses can survive a downturn in cash flow, but many will wither and die because they wait too long to take action. It’s time to take charge of your cash flow and make it work for your business. Here are five easy ways to do just that.

1. Stop Being a Bank For Your Customers – If you get paid as soon as you sell something, this tip won’t help you much. But for the thousands of you who sell on credit (yes, credit) by performing a service, invoicing and then getting paid after the work is complete, this tip will help you a bunch.  Most small business owners set due dates as “Net 30.” Who invented that rule? I’m here to tell you that you can make your invoice due date anything you want. And for the health of your business, make it short! How does “Due on Receipt” or “Net 5” sound to you? Change your due date now.

2. Get Those Bills Out The Door Pronto – Have you ever heard of a customer paying a bill they didn’t get? Me neither. Way too often I hear small business owners (and many solopreneurs) say, “Oops, I forgot to get my invoices out this month.” That is not a quick road to healthy cash flow. Get that invoice out the door as soon as the work is completed. You don’t have to wait until the first of the month or a set amount of days to bill. This is under your control. Do it the day the work is completed and you’ll have your payment in hand sooner.

3. Set Up A Chunky Payment System – You run a big risk if you do work and then wait to get paid for it. A better way is to set up your client agreement using milestones and then get paid on an incremental basis. There are no rules that say you must do the work and then get paid. Remember, you are not a bank (see Tip #1). When you negotiate your next contract, set it up so you receive a portion of the payment when you begin, another portion when you are half done and the rest when the project is complete. Split your project up into logical delivery points and bill at each one of those points.

4. Package Your Cash In Bundles – Package your products or services to deliver on a regular basis and take advantage of recurring billing. Set up an “of the month club” or an exclusive membership that your customers can subscribe to and pay you a standard fee every single month. This can work well whether you sell products or services. Make sure you bill at the beginning of the month for the recurring payment, not at the end.

5. Quit Wondering Where Your Cash Is – Just because you get your invoices out the door, doesn’t mean you will get paid. You absolutely must stay on top of your outstanding invoices. To get your cash quicker, offer a discount for early payment. I’ve never met a person who doesn’t like to save money. Offer a small discount — two to five percent — to your customers for paying earlier than your “standard” time frame. Make sure you have this built into your pricing so you don’t lose money on the deal.

So there you go. Take at least one of these tips and put it into action in your business today. And your business will soon be one that not only survives, but thrives.

DeniseOBerry 300x224 5 Easy Ways To Improve Your Small Business Cash Flow NowSmall Business Expert Denise O’Berry is the author of Small Business Cash Flow: Strategies for Making Your Business a Financial Success and the host of the Little Big Show where you’ll find lots more helpful tips for your business.

Day3 5 Easy Ways To Improve Your Small Business Cash Flow Now

 

This article is from the SmallBizLady special blog series: 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business in 2013. #Boost2013

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How to Refresh Your Small Business Brand in 2013

By on December 2, 2012 in 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business, Branding & Marketing, Guest Articles

I love this time of year.  An ending giving way to a beginning. A new chance to be everything you wanted to be. A clean slate. An opportunity to start over.

However, you approach the New Year personally, when you have a business, more often than not, you’ve got your mind on the bottom line. You’re wondering how you can make that line bigger next year. What will you be known for next year? How will you increase your influence, expand your reach and make more of an impact?

Reflect  Some people spend too much time looking forward, forgetting to look back. I have been guilty of this. Sometimes I think so much about what’s around the next corner that I fail to adequately reflect on all of the amazing things that have happened. That whole concept of being in the present? I’m terrible at that. But I have found that I have to take or make the time to reflect on the past, because that helps me decide what things I want to keep doing, or, stop doing.The year’s end is the perfect time to devise an action plan to refresh your business brand for the coming year. Here are three ways to make that process easy.

So what happened to you this year? What were your major accomplishments? What were your mistakes? Did you launch a new product or service for your business? How did it go? Did you reach out to the media more, or try to land more speaking opportunities to get your name out there? Were you pleased with the results?

Reflect on everything – the good and especially the bad.  Remember those good things that made you feel like your business was truly achieving its mission? Do more of those. Do them in a bigger way. And the bad things – the products that flopped, the concepts that didn’t take off? Either refine them or chalk them up as a loss and move on. Don’t beat yourself up for trying something new.

Aspire  I’ve recently started reading Grant Cardone’s book The 10x Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure. He advises that business owners stretch themselves and expand their thinking for what is possible in business. Instead of setting smaller goals so that you will be to attain them, he says you should set unrealistic goals, you should be unreasonable and you should ultimately push yourself past points you thought were imaginable. Because there’s something pretty amazing about the human spirit, we often can do exponentially more than we give ourselves credit for.

So what is it that you’ve dared to dream of for your business? Are you ready to cross that 6 or 7 figure mark? Go for it! Why not set that as a goal for 2013. Because once you start thinking big, you’ll automatically have to start ACTING big to catch up with your thoughts. As entrepreneurial mind Dan Sullivan has said, once you master 10x thinking, you’ll begin seeing opportunities all around you – opportunities that you never even noticed before because your thinking wasn’t big enough to compute how massive growth opportunities could factor into your success.

Create  At the end of the day, if you want to refresh your business brand in 2013 and hit the market in a way that will make your customers take notice, you have to get to work. You have to go into your creative zone, your lab, your atelier or what have you – and create something new. You may come up with a new way of doing something, a new way of communicating yourself, or a new way of packaging your products. Creating may mean devising a new event, creating a complementary industry organization, finally starting your blog, or hiring a new team member that can help you offer your clients more. But whatever it means to you, get ready to roll up your sleeves and work. Make your list of what you want to accomplish, but don’t forget to implement.

To recap, reflect on your past year, stretch yourself with massive goals, and roll up your sleeves to create something brand new. Your brand will receive the ultimate refresh and your customers – whether they love or hate the changes you’ve made – will be forced to take notice.

Amanda Littlejohn How to Refresh Your Small Business Brand in 2013Amanda Miller Littlejohn is a former journalist turned business coach, blogger, idea oven and award-winning PR practitioner at  Mopwater PR. She helps entrepreneurs brainstorm new business models and fresh approaches to personal branding through her signature Brand Brainstorm Sessions. Amanda blogs at Mopwater PR + Media Notes and tweets from @amandamogul.

Day2 How to Refresh Your Small Business Brand in 2013This article is from the SmallBizLady special blog series: 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business in 2013. #Boost2013

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10 Things to Do Before 2013

By on December 1, 2012 in 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business

2013 is the year of the entrepreneur. If you have an idea to start a business or have been in business for a while, there are now more resources, marketing outlets and technology to help you run your business than ever before.  After Thanksgiving, most people start winding down and taking time off. But as small business owners, many of us do not have that luxury, especially if you are a retailer. This holiday season, I wanted to inspire you to renew your business in every way. I have assembled an all-star lineup of small business experts to bring you critical information and advice on management, finance, marketing, technology, and social media to hit the ground running in the new year. We’re calling it 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business in 2013, and we’ll be sharing the content using the hashtag #Boost2013 across social media. Please help us share this valuable content to grow small business everywhere.

Now for the first post in the series I give you 10 Things to Do Before 2013.

It’s time to get your business organized for the New Year. As small business owners, we do 10 jobs at one time and the administrative details are often what get pushed aside. Do not start the year with a messy desk, things to file, resume to review, or without taking stock of your accomplishments this year. Set yourself up for success, by taking time to mange your annual tasks.

To get the New Year started off right, here are a few tasks that you’ll be glad you did at the start of January. Here are 10 Things To Do Before 2013:

1. Update Your Bio and Resume. Take the time to review your accomplishments before you forget them. Have you achieved any milestones, joined any boards, or won any awards? Got some media coverage? Landed any marquee clients this year? All of these accomplishments should be reflected in your complete bio, resume and your social media profiles, especially on LinkedIn. Be sure to develop a short 100 word bio, too.

2. Create 2013 Folders. Create new files in your cloud computer storage for all of the key folders that you use on a regular basis i.e.: contracts 2013, team folder 2013, client projects 2013, artwork 2013, blog content 2013, etc. If you do not already do so, start using dropbox.com to back up all of the files and manage version control with your team.

3. Update Your Keywords. You need to know the top 5 keywords or word combinations people use to search for your product or service online. Use your keywords throughout the static web pages and in all blog content on your website. Keywords can change over time. My favorite keyword research tools are wordtrakker.com, keyworddiscovery.com, or the google adwords keyword tool.

4. Update Your Website. Give your website or blog a facelift for the New Year. Changes mean growth. Even adding a new header graphic can make a significant difference. It might be time to update your theme on your WordPress blog. Create new content such as an ebook, audio download, or product sample to engage your website visitors. Make sure that you have at least 3 ways to get your visitors’ contact information to build your email marketing list.

5. Backup Your Contact Lists and Mobile Devices. Your contact lists are the most valuable asset in your small business. Make sure your contacts are backed-up. Export your contacts from your email such as gmail into a spreadsheet. Be sure to export your LinkedIn, Facebook contacts into your CRM system. Don’t forget about your smartphone, too. If you are an android user download free app called Titanium Backup. It saves all of your apps, settings and data, contacts, bookmarks, games and most system settings to the phone’s SD memory card, so all you have to do move it to the new phone. For iPhone users, iCloud and iTunes can back up most data on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch devices.

6. Clean Out Your Inbox. File it or delete it. If you haven’t read the emails by now, they are just not that important. And if you subscribed to anything you do not read, it’s time to unsubscribe. Start 2013 with no old emails.

7. Invest in a New Headshot. If your professional headshot is more than two years old, it’s time to get a new one. If you have changed your appearance in anyway, you need a new headshot. Hire a professional; please do not take the photo yourself from your cellphone. Be sure to smile and look friendly. Ladies, hire a professional makeup artist too, to make sure you look your best.

8. Update Your IRS Forms. Make sure you get up-to-date W-9 forms and/or W-4 on all freelance and full-time employees.  The IRS requires that W-2 and 1099 forms be mailed by Jan 31, 2013 to all workers paid over $600 this calendar year.

9. Develop a 2013 Target Customer List. You should have a target list of clients you plan to prospect for the New Year. Challenge yourself by putting some big fish on the list. It’s a great way to keep your sales activities focused on specific targets. You will also be able to network more effectively with this list.

10. Develop More Content.  If you are using social media to build your brand in 2013, you need to spend time to develop great content. People learn from reading, watching and listening to helpful information. If you’ve been blogging the last two years, start a podcast or video series in the New Year. If you have been posting content twice a week, take it up to three times a week. Consider starting a group on LinkedIn or conducting live interviews on Google+ Hangouts. Developing signature content is the best way to firmly establish yourself as a key influencer in your industry.

Do you have any more tips for tasks before 2013 for small business owners?

Are you ready to learn how to be a Social Media Ninja? 
@SmallBizLady’s new ebook is LIVE!  Order now: http://bit.ly/sm-ninja

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

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