10 Ways to Make More Money in Your First Year of Business
So you’ve decided to become an entrepreneur! Amazing! Hats off to you! You love what you do. You decide your own schedule. You’re even get more sunlight. Woo Hoo! But there’s one itty, bitty sneaky problem: you have to make money. Why do small businesses fail? A lack of money. And to make money you have to ask for it, look at it, track it, and do a bunch of other stuff that you were never taught in school and that you don’t really like.
Well, there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that I’m about to give you 10 ways to make money.
The bad news is that most of these ways do require a learning process. So be patient with yourself on the growth curve.
1. Ask For Money.
Money enters your bank account by asking for it. And asking for money is called selling. So if you don’t ask for money all week, chances are that your bank account won’t change. The most important activity you can be doing is having sales conversations – at least 3 a week.
I know it can be so tempting to organize your business cards, to enter everything into the system, to create your offerings, to just get everything set up. And it is that path that causes so many business owners to go broke – they are so busy getting ready to sell, that they never sell at all. And by the time they get to the selling piece – they are desperate and anxious. Not very client attractive.
So the first thing you should make time for is sales conversations. Because the only way money comes in is for you to ask for it.
2. Use Your Friends and Family.
There’s something called the Know, Like and Trust factor. The longer someone has known you, the more likely they are to buy. My first client was the yoga teacher whose class I took. My second client was one of my sister’s best friends. The third was the guy who lived across the hall from me.
The important thing to note is that these weren’t people I had super close relationships with. They just knew who I was. I mean who would you rather buy insurance from, someone your sister knows or a complete stranger?
So be sure to let your friends and family know about your business. Send them a letter in the mail (the real mail). Send them an email. Pick up the phone and talk to them. Ask them to connect you to people who might use your services or buy your products.
3. Find Ambassadors.
When I did my first group program, I was having trouble filling it. I didn’t have a huge online list, and I didn’t know tons of people. So I reached out to one of my best friends and his wife from business school and I offered the program to them for free if they were willing to talk about it everywhere – FB, email, phone chats. I even had them sign an agreement to do so.
And chat they did – 3 more couples signed up because of them. You could use this strategy as well – find an ambassador or two. But just be sure that the ambassador you choose actually has a large network – otherwise the whole strategy will not work (and you’ll end up just giving programs away).
4. Send Out a Fun Mailer.
Remember how I said your friends and family can be a great source of referrals? Well of the 10 ways to make money – this one could be the most fun! Postcards are the cheapest way to send direct mail. Pick a large postcard format. Then pick a picture that will draw attention and still connect with your brand. Add a caption.
For example, we sent one out one year with a photo of a dog sleeping. The caption said, “Are You Exhausted?”
Then on the back of the postcard, write about the problems your clients could be having and invite them to a solution of either setting up a conversation with you or coming to a webinar.
Once the cards are sent out then follow up with phone calls to check in and schedule more appointments.
5. Create partnerships.
There are other service professionals that are working with your ideal clients. For example, if you are a nutritionist or health coach, great referral partners would be personal trainers, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists and other types of healers. When you go to networking events, look for your ideal referral partners and set up phone meetings with them (note: please do not schlep all around town doing meetings with everyone – it’s a waste of time).
6. Go To Classes and Do a 5-Minute Talk.
When I started my first company I was training for triathlons. I swam with a Masters swim group. And I took spinning classes at the gym. So I asked my swim coach and biking instructor if I could spend 5 minutes talking about my health business and inviting people to set up conversations with me. They immediately agreed. I ended up getting 1 client from each little talk.
Even if you aren’t doing classes now. Or your business isn’t related to the classes you are doing, I want you to think about how you could be creative with any of the group activities you are involved in. Could you speak to your book club? Or talk to the parents that hang out at your daughter’s gymnastics class? Get creative about the people that already exist in your world.
7. Find a Leader.
Sometimes what you need the most is just one person who is willing to tell everyone else about you. Someone who has a huge network or a huge impact. Essentially, this is about finding a leader in your community and giving them a discount or a free product or service. Just give them a taste of something – not a whole 3 months worth. Then ask if they would be willing to talk about you and share their experience with their communities. This could be someone like your church pastor or a school principal, or that friend that has 20,000 FB fans.
8. Go Where Your Clients Are.
Think about where your clients are hanging out. Where do they dine? Where do they shop? Vacation? Work? Then go to those places and set up a table, or host an event, or at the least leave fliers. For example, I noticed that my clients liked to shop at design stores. So I went to a little furniture shop that had just opened in my neighborhood. They wanted to do events that supported the community. So we created a little event together and invited both of our lists. Twenty people came and I booked quite a few conversations with people.
9. Use Social Media.
Post an invite to a conversation with you on Facebook. Be sure to put a description on what the conversation would entail and what results they might get out of it. You may even want to put in a success story from a previous client.
10. Watch the Clock.
The number one area that most people struggle in their businesses especially in year one is around time management. The day just gets away from you. One new habit that will increase your productivity immediately is clockwatching.
Clockwatching means that every time you start something in your business you look at the clock and set an intention for how long you are going to work on that task. Then when you are finished with that task you look at the clock and see what time it is. You note whether your were under or over your intention. Over time you’ll get better and better at estimating how long you are going to spend on something.
This helps you to stop wasting time on things that don’t matter and start focusing on those activities that help you generate more money!
So there you go – 10 ways to make more money!
Now you might have noticed a few things. First there wasn’t a lot of technology here – no webinars or linked-in tactics. That’s because I was keeping it simple for anyone to do even if you don’t have that much technology set up yet.
Second, everything is based on you knowing who your target market is. That requires clarity around who you are working with! If you are still stuck in that area – then please email us to speak to one of our coaches to help you get that organized.
Now go get clients and make lots and lots of money, and make this world a better place.
