How is your business going for you? Are you making enough money? Just getting by? Suffering?
I hear ya.
When we get into business, I think we generally have an idea of how much money we want or need to make. At least, I hope we do! I know I did.
I knew how much money I had to bring it to my household, and I worked very hard to make sure I did just that.
But after a while if you really look at it, do you think you could be making more money? I bet you could.
Once your business settles into itself, and you begin working with clients, the day to day ‘stuff’ can take over – and you can sometimes just stay with the status quo, not really looking to build anymore.
There are three simple things you can look at to see if you can make more, now:
1. Billable Time – how are you billing your clients now? By the hour? Project? Retainer? Look at your billing procedure to make sure that you are getting enough money out of each client. For instance, if you are working by the hour – are you meticulously tracking your time so you don’t ‘miss’ any at billing time? Keep a really good record every day and see! There could be missed time if you allow distractions to run your day. I talk to lots of VAs about their billable time, and almost all of them have agreed that if they don’t pay close attention to their billables, their invoices at month’s end are not as high as they had hoped. Find a system that works for you, and use it!
2. New Tasks for Existing Clients – If you bill by project or retainer, have a look and think of new tasks you can do for your client that fit with the ones you are already doing. By keeping on top of trends in your clients’ industry, you can often find new and interesting things to do for them that can help them get more value, and can help you to increase their billing. For instance, if you provide a newsletter service, can you add in things like cleaning the email list of bounced email addresses, or new analytics for opens and clicks? Getting more money out of existing clients is easy when you can offer them more services that suit their business.
3. Expense Review – Here is something that often creeps up on people. What types of things are you paying for in your business – shopping cart, email program, task management software? Have a really good look at all of your expenses to make sure you are using the things you are paying for. And if you are using them, are you generating revenue with them also? (ie are they paying for themselves in any way? If your expenses are not directly related to revenue, see if you can find more reasonable/cheaper solutions (it’s not always possible, but it’s worth a look!). Expenses are the things that can chip away at our profit in our businesses. It’s really essential to keep on top of them.
Making money in your business does not always just rely on revenue.
While that’s the piece that is MOST important, there are lots of other things that can silently take your profit.
Check out these three things to see if you can increase your bottom line!
To help you build a more solid foundation, check out my Getting Started as a VA self study program here.