Ideas To Massively Grow Your Business Profit and Business Value

As a business owner you should always be looking for ways to grow your business.

Why? Without growth your business is at risk of being over taken by your competitors, your staff will start to run out of challenges to keep them motivated, your profits will decline as costs increase, your business will not grow in value and most importantly, you will not be achieving your business potential.

As a professional business coach I follow a 5 step system for achieving growth in the businesses of my clients:

Increase the number of customers that come into your business.

Increase the number of times each customer buys from you.

Increase the amount each customer spends each time they buy from you.

Increase the profit margins on the products and services your customers buy from you.

Build a high performance business model by increasing the effectiveness of every business process to reduce waste and reduce the need for you to be there 24/7.

I have found time and again that if you are able to make small improvements in each of these 5 profit drivers in your business, you will drive massive growth in your bottom line profit and in your business value.

In my business coaching module on this 5 step system I outline 25 ideas you can use today to grow your business:

Develop one or more unique core differentiators to make your business stand out from the crowd

Use the power of the telephone to maximize the value of every customer contact

Systemize your sales process to maximize conversion rates

Use market research to make sure you actually understand your market and your customers

Plan your promotion activities rather than leaving things to the last minute and wasting money

Classify your customers and tailor your sales and marketing strategies to each segment

Find ways to ask you customers to return - sounds easy doesn't it, but do you do it now?

Provide awesome service - always!

Finds ways to nurture your customers and make them feel special

Get customer feedback and use it to improve your service levels

Cross sell from your product range

Upsell products and services once your customer has committed to a purchase

Bundle products and services to create a higher perceived value

Use the smartest merchandising techniques you can find

Never, never, never discount your prices - did I make myself clear there?

Identify your low margin customers and send them packing - preferably send them to your competitors!

Constantly look for waste and inefficiency in your business and find ways to remove or reduce it

Develop a vision for your business and plan to achieve it

Understand the Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats in your business and use this knowledge to build a better business model

Find the time to work on your business rather than getting stuck inside the business every day

Systemize all of your business processes to drive efficiency and leverage your team

Build an effective team

Embrace change

Use the power of synergy to apply all of these business improvement ideas at the same time to turbo charge your business growth

Find a business coach or mentor to keep you committed to a business improvement plan

I hope you can look at this list of 25 ideas and see that none of them are impossible to apply in your business.

Recession Proof Business Ideas That Count

An economic recession can frighten the wits out of any business person. This is because the phenomenon can bring down a business so fast that there will be close to nothing left even before the entrepreneur has noticed it. With the scare that the recession has caused before, there is no denying that most business people have exerted their best efforts to minimize the risk posed against their companies.

But keeping a business is recession-proof should not be the concern only of the big brands. Small businesses are also affected by the recession. Therefore, everyone has to be vigilant in strengthening their businesses to ensure that they will not be gravely affected should an economic recession hit their industries.

Here are some steps you can follow to recession-proof your business:

1. Familiarize yourself with the business industry you are joining. As the experts agree, you should never venture out on a business that you know nothing about. Sure, there is a long and hard learning process in running a business. But at the very least, you should know what you need as well as where and how you can get them to keep your company afloat. You also should know how to compete against the other companies within your industry. Always find ways to learn how to improve your brand and operational systems.

2. Keep your customers interested. Businesses fail when they can no longer make profits. This can happen when no one is interested with the brand and the company anymore. You have to make sure that your clients do not feel that. Give them something to expect when doing business with you, whether in the form of a free item or a discounted transaction. Keep on innovating as well on the products and services that you offer your clients to encourage them to continue availing from you.

3. Make profits from sales your priority. A lot of business people have huge ideals on making their brand's reputation a priority. Others think it best to consider the company's employees' welfare a priority. But what you have to remember is that in the truest form of intents, sales and profits should dominate your priorities as a business person. Your business can only stay for a few more time if it stops selling. Therefore, make sales a priority and work everything out around it.

4. Manage your finances well. Money is an important asset in running a business and in making it recession-proof. You have to make quite sure that when the going gets tough in the financial scheme of things, your business still has its reservoir of funds to stay on top. This is something you can do if you maintain a strict and disciplined spending at the office. Never buy things you do not need, as always, and purchase the best quality items at a good price instead of spending on affordable but definitely meager materials.

5. Recruit affiliates to broaden your marketing strategy. Marketing your brand and product can be more engaging for clients if you have third parties speaking on your behalf. Affiliates can help your brand become more reputable. What is more, in affiliate marketing, you can work on a commission-based system to ensure that you get the best possible financial returns through referrals and subscriptions.

6. Consider partnership and franchising. A business can definitely be run by one person only. But if you want a recession-proof business, you might want to consider getting partners or allowing people to buy a franchise from you. It helps in funds circulation as well as in reaching a wider market. Franchises can also help in building a business with stronger foundations-one that would have several walls to keep in upright even if outside forces try to crush it.

7. Go online. Probably one of the most affordable but definitely most effective ways of marketing and strengthening a business is through the Internet. You can set up an online counterpart of your business and make clients from users all over the world. Being online also helps in lowering down your marketing and operational cost because you need not maintain a traditional shop. In this case, you become more financially equipped in handling a business amidst a recession.

8. Strengthen your network. Make good friends and stakeholders off the government, the people, and the employees that your business works with. Never run away from them because eventually, they will help your business system flow more smoothly and securely. You can also add in third parties to help out in your operational and financial stance.

9. Review your manpower needs. Do you already have the necessary people to help you operate your business? Do you need more or do you think you actually have more than what you should have? Realizing the answers to these questions would help you determine whether or not you are spending just right over salaries. Yes, you need people to help you out. But when you want a recession-proof business, you might also like to consider not having so many people needing to be compensated out of your own finances.

10. Set a vision. This tops most recession proof business ideas. Work with a set goal and vision in mind. How do you see your business faring in the future? This is important because it helps you work hard enough to ensure that you get your business to the state that you want it in. Share your vision with your partners, affiliates, clients, and employees to encourage them to help you in keeping the business strong and moving.

Five Things to Think About Before Starting a Photography Business

If you're reading this article, odds are someone has told you that you take really great pictures and you should start up your own business. It's exciting to think about turning your passion into your full time job, but before you jump head first into this endeavor here are a few things you should think about.

1. Picture yourself as a business owner

It's thrilling to think about being a photographer, but have you thought about being a business owner. What most people don't know is that only about 10%-20% of your time is actually spent taking photographs. That other 80% or more is spent actually working on your business. Whether it's dealing with paperwork, doing the accounting, creating marketing pieces, dealing with disgruntled customers, or updating your website, these are not the tasks most aspiring photographers dream of doing, but they are a crucial part of staying in business.

If you haven't thought about this yet, take a few minutes to do so. Would you be happy keeping track of your sales and taxes? Would you have fun working on marketing pieces for your business? How much would you enjoy dealing with customer queries - even unpleasant ones? All of these things are part of owning a business and part of a photographer's everyday job.

2. Think about what kind of photography business you want to have

If you are contemplating starting a photography business, I'm sure you love taking pictures, but have you thought about what you really love taking pictures of? There are so many different specialties you can focus on in this world. There's wedding photography, senior photography, newborn photography, family photography, sports photography, and a slew of other focuses as well.

It is often encouraged that you select a specialty or one area that you focus on. The benefit of doing this is that it makes it far easier for you to find your target market to advertise and promote yourself. But determining what your favorite thing to shoot is can be difficult. So take some time to think about what you really enjoy documenting.

3. Think about time and money

This is another side to the business that is easy to not even think about. Take some time to write down all the business expenses you think you'll have starting out. This would include things like: camera equipment, website domain, website hosting, website design, logo design, filing with the state, sample products, software... As you can see this list can become quite extensive and the numbers can add up very quickly. But it's much better to go into starting a business having an idea in mind of what it's going to cost you.

Equally important is considering how much time you will spend working in and on your new business. Starting a business can be incredibly time consuming. If you already have a full time job and plan to start your photography business on the side. It's good to set boundaries for how much time you will spend working. It's far too easy to get caught up in this exciting new adventure and let time with your family and loved ones fall by the wayside. So be sure you are ready to invest more hours than you expect into this business.

4. Talk to other business owners about their lives

If you want to gain a real perspective on what owning a business is like talk to a small business owner in your area. It doesn't necessarily have to be a photographer, though their insights would be most relevant, any business owner can give you a perspective on what it's like. Take them out to lunch and pick their brains. Ask them what their average day is like as a business owner. What their favorite and least favorite things about owning a business are. What they would do differently if they could start all over again. All of their thoughts and opinions can help give you a better idea of whether or not this is the right choice for you.

5. Come up with a Business Plan

You've thought about it all, the time and money you'll have to invest, the struggles you may encounter and the type of photography you'd like to shoot and you are ready to start moving forward with your new business. The last step of thinking about it and the first steps towards building your company are to create a business plan. It is the one step that is so often overlooked but the one that makes the biggest difference in developing and growing your business.

A business plan is basically a formal statement of business goals, the reasons they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It often also contains background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals. For example, my business plan is "Green Tree Media Photography helps our preserve memories and captures the soul and essence of our families, seniors, newborns, and couples. We thrive on repeat business by developing relationships with our clients and providing exceptional care and unique and beautiful art pieces for their walls and home, while maintaining a strong and healthy relationship with our family and loved ones."

As you can see - I've outlined what I like to photograph, the type of service I plan to provide, how I plan to do it and because my husband and family are important to me I've included them in my business plan as well. This serves as a constant reminder to me of where I'm heading, what I need to do and what's most important. Your business plan, of course, evolves with your business, but it can be incredibly beneficial to head into the game with a business plan in mind.