4 Ways to Increase Your Bottom Line

Are you happy with the amount of money your business is bringing in each month? Most people would answer ‘no’ … we all want to make more money, don’t we?

It’s important to look at your business regularly to find opportunities to increase the amount of money on your bottom line.

Here are four that are easy to implement, and easy to maintain:

1. Dump useless expenses – are you really using all the services you are paying for? Make a list (if you don’t already have one) of all of the things you pay for each month in your business. You can go as far as doing a Return on Investment analysis for each expense, but for the most part you can probably just look it over and realize what you could potentially save money with.

For example, if you are paying for a project management software or a shopping cart or something else that you really aren’t taking full advantage of, consider other alternatives. Sometimes people get into the mindset of ‘I will need this down the road.’ and begin paying for it and not actually using it. Dump it until you need it.

2. Get help – The old saying ‘You have to spend money to make money’ is very true. If you can get help with a few things that are taking your time away from generating revenue in your business, you have to consider those. So if you are doing your own bookkeeping and it’s taking you a half hour (or more) every day … consider how your time would be better spent doing revenue generating activities like working with clients or at least networking with them. Don’t get help if you don’t really need it, but if you do find that you are filling in your time with things that are not billable and not generating revenue in your business, then you should be getting help (there are loads of ways to automate things!).

3. Increase your billable time – Part of working with your clients is being able to let them know how you can help them. If you keep on top of their work, suggest other ways that you can be offering them support each month, and therefore increase your billable time with them. If you add just 1 hour of support (or 1 project, if you do package or project billing) for each client, you can increase your bottom line easily without going out to find new clients.

4. Raise your rates – Yes, I said it. If you are working to capacity each month, then maybe it’s time to raise your rates. Rates should be based on your level of expertise. Think about the last time you raised your rates. If it was more than 6 months ago, you are due to raise yours. If you have gotten specialized in one area or another, and you are providing that service to clients, you may need to raise your rates.

Maximizing their bottom line is something that every business owner should be considering each month. By keeping an eye of these 4 things regularly, you can be sure that you are working for your business, and you will see more success as a result of that.