Don’t Sacrifice Profit for Value: Innovate and Automate your Business
Don’t Sacrifice Profit for Value: Innovate and Automate your Business
Do you want to grow your business this year? Of course, you do. But before you launch your next marketing blitz, ensure that your business can manage an increased portfolio. Adding on new clients is not always easy. In fact, in some cases it can put your company’s profitability at risk.
Growing a successful business is a balancing act, with time and resources on one side and profit on the other. Ideally, the scale should tip in your favor. But what happens, when expansion ends up costing you money? This is a common occurrence when businesses don’t take the time to answer one crucial question: What is their cost to deliver good value?
For example, when businesses work with smaller clients, they are faced with two scenarios:
- Offer fewer services (providing a portion of your true value)
- Deliver the same services for less money, only to lose profits by delivering more than the client has paid for.
Is there a way to provide those lesser paying clients an equally valuable experience without sacrificing your profit margin? Absolutely. By finding ways to automate and innovate your business offerings, your company’s value proposition will stay in tact while your business will remain profitable. Here are four ways how:
Embrace Automation
What are you doing today, that could be automated tomorrow?
Take a few moments to evaluate your current processes and systems. Start with the simplest tasks first and see what tools you can use or create to reduce your workload. There are tools to automate and simplify almost everything from managing your social media campaigns, tracking invoices to task management. Simply streamlining and automating your business processes will allow you to focus your talents where they are most needed, developing a successful business.
[Tweet “What are you doing in your #business today, that could be automated tomorrow?”]Free up Time by Going Online
It’s 2015 and it’s time to stop being a broken record and get your common messages online.
Are there key items of your business that all of your clients should know? Today’s technological world is the perfect platform for delivering key information. Save yourself some time and money by creating online tools, tutorials or videos for your most commonly asked questions. This will free up your company to work on the pieces that are unique for your client. If several of your clients are confronted with a common dilemma, create a webinar. Webinars are a great format as they reach several individuals simultaneously, build your client network and increase your overall efficiency. The advantages don’t stop here. By going online your market expands exponentially, transforming your company from local to global.
Let Go of the Fishing Rod
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Take a few moments to look at what your current business offerings include. Are there any areas that your clients could take on? Blog writing, daily monitoring and content development are a few examples. By investing a few more minutes to teach your clients how to be self-sufficient, you will save both time and money. It’s a win/win. Your client completes the simpler tasks allowing you to provide that value added service that they paid for.
Tailor Your Offerings
In the world of business, there is no one size fits all solution. Each client will have his or her own specific needs and area of expertise. How can you streamline your business offerings accordingly? To provide optimal value for your client base, develop a flexible program. Take the time to unveil your client’s more urgent needs and provide the services that will garner the most benefit.
Before saying no to smaller clients or projects take a look at your current business offering and see if there is a way to streamline, innovate or automate what you do today. Successful entrepreneurs know that you should never compromise on value and by innovating and automating your business, you won’t have to ever again.
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