Work Instiute Business Magazine: February 2017

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Signs Your Business Is Ready To Expand

Starting a business might be more difficult than you first imagined but it might also become more successful than you thought. With the right mix of planning, skill, and hard work, you could find that you need to expand your business in order to maximize its potential. Here are some signs that growth is the next step for your company.

The business runs itself

Have you noticed yourself stressing out less about the fate of your company? When consulting with your manager or other employees, does it seem like they have everything under control? These are signs that you’ve done an excellent job starting and running your company and suggest that you’re ready for a bigger challenge, i.e., expansion. Could you handle running two or three locations as opposed to one? Perhaps you’re ready to take on more accounts (keeping in mind that each of these endeavors might require adding new staff.) If you feel ready for the challenge, it might be time to take the leap.

The competition has already done it

By expanding or encroaching on your customer base, your business competitors sometimes force your hand. Their success or failure could provide insight into what expansion might look like for your company. Use social media reviews and other types of research to determine how they have fared since opening up new locations. If you find mostly glowing reviews or positive comments it could mean you’ve been beaten to the punch. Rather than conceding defeat and regretting the missed opportunity, look for key takeaways that you can use when planning and executing your own expansion perhaps into a different region.

You have more tricks up your sleeve

Sometimes, growth means diversifying rather than duplicating your original model. For example, restaurateurs with popular desserts could consider opening a location where only desserts are served.To this point, your brand is more than the products and services you offer, so if you do choose to expand, you have a core group of customers to steer toward your next venture. This gives you a tremendous advantage and puts you in a great position compared to companies just starting out. Succeeding in business means using your leverage and having a loyal group of clients proves invaluable because you don’t need to sell them on your company; you only need to sell them on something new from a company they already love.

Picking the right time to expand can be tricky and it’s important to have access to all of the business services you need to make it happen, including financing, online marketing, and human resources. Once you’re ready, grow your business the right way.

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4 Tips for Improving Business Cash Flow

Invoice Factoring -When it comes to business costs, one of the main things that you will have to determine is whether or not a certain type of cost is actually worth paying. Invoice factoring, also known as invoice financing, is definitely a cost that’s worth adding to your outgoings as it can have a great effect on your company’s cash flow and enable your business to stay afloat and even develop and grow despite clients and customers who don’t always pay their invoices when you need them to. Invoice factoring works like this – if you have a client who still hasn’t paid what they owe, you can ‘sell’ their debt to the factoring company, who will then pay you a large percentage of the total amount, keeping a percentage back for security. Once your client makes their payment, the factoring company will give you the rest of the money, minus a small fee for their services which many business owners will agree is worth it.
Ask Nicely - If you’ve noticed that your clients seem to be struggling paying their invoices on time, it could well be the way that you’ve worded the request for payment that’s to blame. It may seem small and insignificant, but research has shown over and over again that simply asking nicely – i.e., putting ‘please’, ‘thank you’, and ‘have a nice day!’ etc. on your invoices can actually prompt your clients to pay faster, simply by being friendly and polite to them. So, next time you’re writing out an invoice, don’t forget to politely thank your client for choosing your services – and of course, for their prompt payment!
Offer Incentives - Making payments is something that none of us like to do, and your clients probably feel the same way about this. Even people who’ve managed to amass a lot of wealth don’t often like parting with their money, so it’s a good idea to keep this in mind when designing your invoices and determine how you can encourage your clients to part with their money in a manner that’s a little more speedy. For example, cash incentives, such as offering them a discount for paying before a certain date or even offering them a free gift in their next order, can definitely turn up the heat and get your clients opening their wallet.
Use Online Invoices - Not only are online invoices much easier to keep track of for your own accounting and tax purposes, they can also have a huge effect on how quickly you get paid. If you send a paper invoice, you’re already losing time as you’ll need to wait for it to arrive in the post and be opened before the client then has to take the money to the bank and transfer it or make the payment in the way you have instructed them to on their invoice. On the other hand, using online invoicing services can make things much easier for everybody, as this will not only allow your client to receive the invoice in mere seconds of your sending it to them, they’ll also be able to easily pay you online, meaning that you could receive the money within a matter of minutes if they are at their desk. And, thanks to mobile technology, they may not even have to be at their desk at all to make the payment there and then.