Posts Tagged ‘money’

photo credit: Cosmic Kitty

Many marketers are not in favor of discounting, in fact many of them hate it and do not recommend it. If you still insist on discounting, they do have some ground rules for discounting properly that I have to agree with. Look below to see some basic rules for discounting recently posted on Business Week.

Discount for a short period of time. It is said to be almost like a drug, it gets addicting to not only the customers looking for the discounts but to those of you who are looking for the increase in people rolling through your door. So be careful not to discount for too long or too often.

Do some creative discounting. Rather than hanging a 40% off sign on your products, just mark the overall price down by 40%. Hanging those less than attractive signs off of your products can make them look sad and desperate to be sold. While just marking down the overall price of the product may decrease the long term equity on the brand, it will be less damaging than the 40% sign.

Discount credibly. Handled carefully, discounting can be used to achieve specific business objectives without compromising your brand’s overall value perception. The key is to make the rationale behind the discount credible (and obvious) to consumers, so they don’t perceive it as an act of desperation.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: luc legay

Many business owners are looking for ways to grow their profits every year. They keep hoping there will be easier ways to see their profits go up on their charts, but sadly many of them don’t know of any easy ways to help their profits grow. Below are some tips on growing your profits easily, located recently on Entrepreneur.com.

Your number of leads on customers you contact and those who contact you regarding your business are an important key factor in your profits. The amount of those people who actually make a purchase in your store are another important key factor. Figuring out your conversion rate is rather simple. Say 4 people out of 10 purchase something in your store that day, your conversion rate would be 4 out of 10 people or 40% for the day.

Average number of transactions: The number of purchases the average customer will make over the course of a year. Again, it can be an estimate. This number will probably be larger in a retail setting than in companies that operate in a professional services industry.

Increasing the profit margin for your store is another great way to grow your profits for the year. Your profit margin is simply the percentage of each transaction that is just profit. So if you sold a sweater for $100 and your profit from that sale was $25 dollars, then your profit margin would be 25%. Many get intimidated by handling all of these numbers but with a quick course in finances, profits, and sale margin’s you will better understand what you are looking at on a daily basis.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: danesparza

Now is the time to create a credit policy to keep your existing customers, get paid, and stay in business. This policy should include clearly outlined procedures and actions for when someone can’t pay so you can immediately take steps to help your customer and protect your business. Recently stated on Entrepreneur.com.

Begin starting your credit policy by looking at your reports. See who already owes money, how much, and how far past due on their bill they really are. Start making some phone calls, commit to say 5 phone calls per day or more if your prefer. This will begin the process of getting back the money that is owed to you. Meanwhile, don’t let anyone else charge until you check their credit. This ensures that you will know who will be able to make a later payment, who will not, and who is just attempting to get free items.

Put out a written or typed up statement in your store of what your credit policy is, how much they are allowed to charge, how long until their payment in full is due by, and so on. This lets them know as soon as they walk in the door where you stand on credit and what you will not let them get away with.

Once a customer becomes past due, this is the time to start getting on them. Start off by sending them a friendly reminder regarding their balance. Next, maybe give them a phone call when you know they will be home. If that doesn’t work you can always pay them a personal visit if need be. Or as the final result you could always notify them that they will be sent to a collection agency if the balance is not paid.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.