There isn’t a business on earth that doesn’t want to expand. Sadly, through all the financial hardships that businesses go through and all of the growing expenses, it’s hard to find enough capital to actually grow your business instead of just existing. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to improve your profits without having to resort to underhanded methods, and we’re going to be teaching you a couple of ways in this article.
Introduce different payment methods to give your customers more choice
One of the first ways to entice more customers into paying for your services or products is to introduce new payment methods. It sounds obvious, but this shouldn’t just be limited to things like PayPal or your credit and debit cards. The more payment methods you support, the more customers you’ll attract. Try not to limit your payment methods to your region or country and accept global payment methods in order to complete more sales.
You’d be surprised at how many businesses fail to make a sale because there aren’t enough varied payment methods. The more convenient it is for your customers to pay for your products, the easier it will be to finalize a sale. Take a look at this article from sitepoint.com/ to find a list of PayPal alternatives that will help you attract more customers. Setting up new payment methods usually doesn’t cost much capital or money which is why it’s such a great investment. You open up your business to more customers that would have otherwise been restricted by the payment methods you don’t support.
Reduce the fixed expenses that you pay for to run your business
Every business has a long list of fixed expenses that they need to account for at all times in their business operation. For instance, your rent is one example of a fixed cost that doesn’t change on a regular basis. Of course, it could be altered at the end of your contract period, but it’s generally considered a fixed expense that doesn’t change. Unfortunately, your rent isn’t usually something you can reduce unless you negotiate with the landlord, but there are other expenses that can be lowered.This informative article from morebusiness.com/ will teach you a few effective ways to help you control your fixed and variable costs. But to summarise it, you simply need to monitor the types of expenses you’re investing in and find ways to drastically reduce them so that you don’t end up wasting money. You need to cut out services that aren’t useful to your company and you should always look around for cheaper options if possible. Find out which of your fixed costs aren’t worth the money and challenge them to be cheaper. You can either negotiate or simply just move to another provider that will give you the same or better service at a reduced price.
Find ways to improve the productivity of your office
Productivity is a measure of how effective your employees are when they’re working. Low productivity often means that your employees aren’t focusing on their work. Instead, they’re busy browsing the internet, reading their social media feeds and generally not doing anything. This is a huge problem that has to be solved as soon as possible in your business. You can’t allow employees to be unproductive all the time and if they’re not actually motivated to work, then it could just be the way you treat them or the freedom you give them.
This helpful guide at inc.com/ will teach you a few strategies that can help you stay productive throughout the day. However, one major point that it doesn’t mention is micromanagement. If you find yourself micromanaging your employees then you might find yourself actually bottlenecking the workflow of your office. For instance, if employees are heavily reliant on your feedback before submitting work or making decisions, then the whole business is going to crawl to a halt when you’re absent or busy. Allow your employees to be self-reliant and teach them how to be more productive at work.
Look for ways to speed up and cheapen the production process
Another good place to look at when trying to improve your working capital is to speed up or cheapen the production process. This typically involves a lot of statistics and data that will then be used to examine just how your production process is working. With enough analysis, you and your team can locate flaws and bottlenecks in your manufacturing process that can be remedied to save a lot of money.
For example, you might be able to find other suppliers for vital components that you need. These suppliers might be able to offer you a better deal to beat their competitors, or they might offer better parts that will help you reduce the number of malfunctions. Check out this article from smallbusiness.chron.com/ to learn a couple more ideas on how you can reduce the cost of manufacturing your products. A lot of work goes into the production line so there will likely be dozens, if not hundreds of points in your manufacturing process that can be optimized.
Search for financing options to help pay for your growth
Growing your business is going to require money–this much is obvious. This is why it’s important to look for financing options to help you pay for your growth. For example, you could rely on unsecuredcapital.com.au/ to provide you with more working capital to grow your company. An unsecured loan means that you won’t need to put assets on the line as collateral, and the amount you can borrow is significant enough to make a huge difference. Another option you can rely on is crowdfunding. Many people feel like crowdfunding is perhaps the best way to grow your business because you’ll receive feedback on your ideas as well as capital from your audience in order to make it happen.
No business grows without money and you should never feel like taking a loan is a bad thing. Every business owes money at some point in their lifetime because it’s required to make money in the future. Investing is one of the most basic concepts of running a business so you should embrace the idea of borrowing money for the sake of growing your company.
Invest your own time, effort or money into your business
If you can’t stomach the idea of borrowing money or asking for money upfront through crowdfunding, then you may want to invest a bit of your own time, effort and money to increase your working capital. Many people end up putting their own savings back into the business they own because it’s an injection of cash that can go a long way. But how much do you actually invest and when you should draw the line? This article from xero.com/ should give you a good idea of how much money you should pay to assist your business.
The important thing here is to never undervalue yourself. Don’t assume that, because you’re the business owner, you aren’t entitled to things like holiday pay or your own salary. You should never give up too much of yourself just to run a business and this is true for the financial side as well. Yes, you can pour a lot of money into your business to raise your working capital, but you need to strike a balance or else you’ll become disillusioned. If you find yourself constantly bailing your business by investing your own money, then it’s a red flag that could mean your business isn’t sustainable and is only alive because of your personal funds.
Seek advice from professionals or a mentor
Lastly, make sure you seek advice from a mentor or someone that has been in the business longer than you. There are many secrets, tips and helpful tidbits of advice floating around the internet and social media circles, and hardened CEOs are treasure troves filled with unique ideas and helpful advice that you simply cannot ignore. Don’t neglect the idea of speaking to someone more experienced than you. Use this article from forbes.com/ to help yourself find a mentor that can offer you personalised advice on how you can increase your working capital and grow as a company. Advice from someone close to you is priceless and is worth more than any educational course, video or guide.
Conclusion
So to conclude, growing your working capital does take quite a lot of work. However, if you follow these tips, you’ll find that it can be relatively straightforward–it just requires some work. Whether you look for ways to optimize your workflow or simply take out a loan to raise your working capital, there are plenty of different methods. It all depends on what risks you’re willing to take, or if you’d much prefer to go the safer route and find your own working capital by improving your business first. It’s a problem with many open-ended solutions, so find what works best for you.