Public speaking is one of the most effective and least expensive marketing tools available. If you have more time than money right now to grow your business, think about doing some public speaking.

As the person in the front of the room sharing information, you’re the de facto authority on your topic. You’re the expert. This positioning can help raise your visibility and credibility as a businessperson.

That’s true whether you’re speaking to a high school classroom, where students may go home and tell their parents about you; to undergrad or graduate students; to members of a civic organization like Rotary or Kiwanis; to employees of a corporation or nonprofit; to colleagues and peers in an industry organization; or to attendees at a trade show.

The more you speak to groups, the faster your name and brand will spread, through word-of-mouth. Even if they don’t know exactly what you do, people will begin to recognize your name, or the type of business you run. You may start to receive referrals or recommendations from people who have sat in your audiences.

By speaking to multiple people at once, public speaking is also a very efficient marketing method. Instead of meeting one-on-one with prospects, you can educate and inform an audience of many, without having to convince them of your knowledge and expertise. After all, an organization asked you to speak to their employees, members, students, or industry professionals. That means, you probably know more than everyone else in the room.

Learning the Art of Public Speaking

If you like the idea of being perceived as an expert, but aren’t thrilled about the prospect of standing up to speak to a group, there are ways to learn the art of public speaking and get chances to practice.

Toastmasters is a terrific resource for people who want to get better at any kind of public speaking. The organization’s mission is to build public speaking and leadership skills. There are local Toastmasters groups that meet regularly, to help their members get practice and receive regular feedback to help them improve.

Dale Carnegie and other training organizations offer public speaking classes, where you can learn basic do’s and don’ts and have the chance to practice in front of people. Your local community center or community college may also offer public speaking courses. The more you can get in front of people and get feedback on your performance, the faster you’ll improve and get comfortable with your role as a speaker.

LinkedIn has an online course (which is free), to help develop public speaking skills, as do paid platforms like Udemy and MasterClass.

If you’re already confident of your speaking skills and are ready to explore where you might get in front of an audience, here are some strategies for connecting with people in a position to ask you to speak.

Craft a List of Potential Talk Topics

Once you’re confident in your ability to entertain and educate an audience, you’ll want to prepare a speaker one sheet, or speaker sheet, which contains information about you, your qualifications and experience, and the topics you’re qualified to speak on.

That’s your speaker marketing tool, so you’ll want to put some time into polishing it.

Thinking about topics you could speak on that would also position you as an expert and help promote your company is an important step in this process. Sure, you might be able to talk for an hour about quilting or ADHD or extreme couponing, but if your business provides personal training services, you’re not helping to promote your company if you talk about those other interests. Your target audience is likely more interested in learning from you about good stretching exercises, the best in-home gym equipment to buy, or training for a 5k run in 30 days.

Brainstorm topics that will present your business in a positive light, give you a chance to demonstrate your expertise, and be of interest to your target customer.

Finding Speaking Opportunities

Before you start looking for opportunities to speak, which can quickly eat up a lot of your time, get clear about your target client or customer. Who is it you want to connect with? 

For example, if you’re a retailer, it might be worth your while to make local residents know more about your store. Speaking to local groups would be a good start. If you’re a pet groomer, finding organizations and groups in your region dedicated to pets and pet owners would be smart. If you manufacture a product, connecting with potential wholesalers or retailers might be your approach. And if you’re a management consultant or coach, finding groups that bring together professionals potentially in need of your services would be your best bet.

Think about who is most likely to buy from you or hire you, and then look for events, groups, and conferences where you can get in front of them.

Add a speaker/speaking tab to your company website. When you decide that you want to pursue speaking opportunities, let people who visit your website know that you offer speaking services. That’s as easy as converting your speaker sheet into a page on your business site. That way, your name is more likely to come up when event organizers go looking for likely speakers.

Blog regularly. Another way to attract attention to yourself, which can result in speaking offers, blog at least weekly on topics of interest to your customer base. Not only will this improve your Google rank in search, but it will support your new position as industry expert.

Join LinkedIn and Facebook groups for speakers. Get your name out there among people who speak regularly, or hire speakers as part of their jobs. There are many online groups that bring such people together.

Reach out to conference organizers. Conferences that bring together industry participants are always in need of speakers, though sometimes they turn to their membership for candidates first. Or you may need to be an exhibitor to qualify. Find out what the requirements are for being considered at various conferences your target customer might attend, and then submit some proposed topics from your one-sheet.

Register on SpeakerHub. Creating a free speaker profile and receiving “a few free” speaking opportunities in the SpeakerHub Marketplace can quickly elevate your game. However, to be able to scour the free and paid speaking opportunities and be positioned as an expert on the site, you may want to consider paying the annual $260 fee. Whether that makes sense depends on how serious you want to be about public speaking, really.

Join the National Speakers Association. If you decide that you want to make speaking an income stream for your business, look into joining the National Speakers Association, which is the organization for professional speakers.

Because a large percentage of the population view public speaking as scarier than dying, you have an advantage if you’re willing to take the stage, or even just stand at the front of the room. But develop your speaking skills before taking that step, to be sure you’re presenting yourself and your business in the best possible light.

Although we’ve been hearing a lot about video and image-based social media platforms, like TikTok and Snapchat and Instagram, LinkedIn is where you can make valuable business connections. 

Becoming active on LinkedIn can connect you to people who may want to do business with you, as well as with potential new hires, with potential joint venture partners, mentors, and colleagues. Yet many entrepreneurs overlook this decidedly less flashy platform. 

If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re not on LinkedIn, it’s likely you’re missing out on making new business connections that can help your company.

Here are some basic tips for tapping into LinkedIn’s powerful network:

Make your profile stand out

Whether you’re setting up a new profile or you’re updating one you’ve had for a while, take a close look at your headline, which is the two lines right underneath your name.

Think about the keywords someone would use if they were looking for your products or service and try to use those to describe who you are and what you do. Can someone read your headline and understand what you sell, or what your skills are?

Just listing your job title as “CEO” or “Founder” or “President” tells an outsider nothing about what you could potentially do for them or their business.

Instead, could you say that you’re an “Award-Winning L.A. Dog Groomer,” “Certified SEO Expert Specializing in the Telecom Industry,” or “Personal Trainer for Busy New Moms in Boston?” 

Combining keywords and your location (if that matters) will attract notice from people in your local area and industry.

Then spend a little time filling in the other sections of your profile, including past jobs, education, and any interests you have, such as hobbies or other LinkedIn organizations you like or admire. This helps others get to know a little about you before they connect.

Expand your network

After you’ve tweaked your profile to make it immediately clear what you offer, it’s time to add new connections. You’ll get noticed faster, the more people you’re connected to.

Doing that is as easy as searching for people or companies you want to network with, or by searching for specific titles, such as “CMO” or “CFO,” if those are your target clients, for example.

You can also go to the profiles of people you admire, or even your competition, and see who they are connected to, and then ask to connect with important people in their network.

If you spend a few minutes each week asking to connect with more people, you’ll see your network size expand almost exponentially.

Ask for recommendations

Near the bottom of your profile, you’ll see a section for recommendations, which are words of praise and compliments written by people you’ve worked with, current or past clients, or people who know you through volunteer activities or school.

Ask people who you know would say nice things about you to write recommendations. And then return the favor by writing one for them.

Create content

With your profile looking more robust and your network growing, it’s time to start making some waves. By that I mean, creating and sharing content with your network.

Under the Activity heading in your profile, you can write articles right on the platform, or you can share posts others have written.

Both are smart to do, but you’ll likely attract more eyeballs if you write an original article related to your business and post it with an image right on LinkedIn (rather than sharing from your blog, for example). The topic should be something that your target audience would be interested in, and maybe has been asking about.

For example, if you run a temporary staffing company, you could pen an article on why temp work is a smart choice right now, as workers decide where they want to work next. Or if you’re trying to attract more corporate clients, you could write something about how retaining a temporary staffing firm as a partner can help avoid any staffing shortages.

Or if you run a retail store, how about an article featuring a company that you carry, to talk about how their products are among the best. You could do profiles of your different product lines, to encourage your shoppers to consider buying them. Doing that also encourages your wholesales to potentially share your article with their network, which then expands your reach considerably.

Create a company page

Since business gets done on LinkedIn, setting up a LinkedIn company page is a good idea, too, in addition to your personal profile. 

It’s a separate account on LinkedIn, which you can use to promote your business. HootSuite has great step-by-step instructions on how to set it up.

There are so many social media platforms today that it’s hard to know if being active on them will be worth your time. LinkedIn is one where you will likely see a payoff if your goal is to connect with fellow business people.

When faced with a choice between hiring an inexperienced employee and an award-winning superstar, most organizations would prefer to hire the superstar. The hitch is that the superstar’s compensation expectations may exceed what a smaller company can afford.

It may be possible to rationalize bringing them on board and cutting budgets in other areas to afford their high pay rate. Some companies have done this in order to tap into the skills and network of top salespeople, for example. The expectation there is that the employee will more than cover their elevated salary with all the new business they bring in. And in many cases, that is the case. The new hire effectively self-funds their compensation package.

However, with non-sales roles, it may not be possible to tie the employee’s pay to immediate revenue increases. In fact, their job may not be impacting revenue directly at all, if they are in an administrative or research position, for example. 

So, what can you do to attract and retain such high performers when your bottom line can’t afford a big payday right now?

While the annual report, “The 2021 Voice of the Blue-Collar Worker,” conducted by EmployBridge, did confirm that pay is the number one factor hourly workers consider when accepting a job—32% claimed it was their top priority—there are a number of other considerations that impact that decision, and may prove equally important in recruiting and retaining workers:

Job security

Twelve percent of workers surveyed indicated that job security was important to them. So how can you convey that the company and their position, in particular, will be around long-term? Can you offer a year-long renewable contract? Can you share financial results company-wide so that all employees can see how the company is doing and what they can do to continue to fuel its success?

Schedule

Another 12% of respondents reported that their schedule was a big deciding factor. For some workers, that might mean that they want flexibility. During the pandemic, being able to work from home became essential for many employees with children who were being schooled remotely. Many want to continue to have that option. Can you provide it? Other workers may prefer certain shifts, whether that’s overnight or day. Can you offer any flexibility in choosing the timing of shifts?

Advancement opportunities

Some employees—6% in this study—indicated that opportunities to be promoted would impact their employment choice. So, can you design a clear career path or path to promotion for your employees? Your business may have ongoing advancement opportunities, but do your employees understand how to find out about them and be considered? Do you have any kind of mentoring program to help high potential employees get noticed?

Education and skill-building

Five percent of those surveyed reported that the opportunity to receive training, to add or enhance skills, was desirable in an employer. What kind of training can you offer? Can you provide each employee with an annual professional development budget to use for skill-building? Can you partner with a local community college to design a program or series of courses for your employees? Do you offer education reimbursement for employees who want to earn a degree? All of these offerings could tip the scales in your favor.

Other offerings that might also prove desirable could include:

Paid time off

What is your policy regarding vacation time or sick days? Are you liberal with days off? Adding personal days or extra vacation time to a new hire’s compensation package is the equivalent of giving them extra compensation, except that you didn’t need to write an additional check. Some companies even offer unlimited vacation, as long as the work gets done. 

Long-term incentives

Even if your business can’t afford to pay top dollar right now, how about identifying larger goals that could trigger a payout to employees. Sometimes referred to as “long-term incentive plans (LTIP),” these programs can be a way to retain skilled workers, with the promise of a big bonus when a milestone is reached. That milestone could be a sales target, a productivity goal, a corporate buyout, or something else. Make sure you’re prepared to write those checks, however, when the target is hit.

A voice in company decision-making

The more employees feel that they’re part of a company, or have a say in how it is run, the more likely they are to stay. So how about creating departmental advisory boards, to get employees involved in policy-setting? Or hold regular town hall meetings, where employees present recent successes, to raise the profile of your hard workers. Find ways to involve top performers in the company’s operations—it could be a useful way of identifying potential successors to current business leaders.

Social activities

Another big reason that employees stick around is that they like their boss and/or their coworkers. So, what can you do to foster bonding within your company? Even if you can’t afford a big off-site gathering in Europe, how about monthly fun events? Depending on where your company is based, you could have an evening of snow skiing or a day at a local amusement park. Or, even simpler, you could have a Friday night potluck dinner, or a chili or barbeque cook-off. Creating opportunities for employees to get to know each other as people, rather than colleagues, can pay off in terms of retention and loyalty.

If your goal is to attract top performers, brainstorm how to craft a compensation package that you can afford and that will give candidates what they value, even if it isn’t quite as much money as they had hoped for.

It’s customary in many industries for companies to give their customers gifts of some kind during the holiday season. For example, beauty salons often give clients small samples of beauty products in appreciation for their business. Accounting firms sometimes mail out annual calendars for the coming year. Salespeople have been known to hand out jars full of candy, which they commit to refilling during the next year. And many firms mail out holiday greetings to let their best customers know their business is appreciated.

These are all great ideas and customers certainly appreciate signs that they are valued, but don’t feel that you need to spend lots of money to express your gratitude. Especially in business-to-business (B2B) relationships, there are many ways you can show appreciation today that won’t cost a dime, but that can reap rewards for your client that can be worth more than a gift basket or nice bottle of wine.

Leave a 5-star review

Leaving a 5-star review on Yelp, Google, Amazon, or wherever your client or supplier is visible can provide a boost to their business. Since many potential customers turn to online reviews for a sense of whether a company is reputable, the addition of a 5-star review may ultimately help sway a potential customer their way. 

For example, adding a 5-star review to a book on Amazon can help the author attract more attention and potentially sell more copies. The same with the caterer whose website you just redesigned, or the payroll provider your company uses. They would love to see a positive review on Yelp or Google. 

Not only does a positive review like that help with Google search rankings, it also adds credibility and legitimacy to a business. Positive reviews are like gold, and they cost you nothing to provide.

Give them a shout-out on social media

Another way to show appreciation is to share a post on social media dedicated to saying nice things about a client or supplier. 

You could take a photo of a product or memorable experience you had or witnessed, for example. Post it to Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn, and/or Twitter, to spread the word that you were completely delighted with what your client provided in the way of goods or services.

Or create a post and mention how great the business is, and that you’re a fan. It can be as easy as that.

Refer them business

Of course, nothing beats sending other businesses new clients.

Whenever you spot an opportunity to refer clients to other clients, you demonstrate the value of doing business with you and your company. Some companies go so far as to create a list of recommended partners. For example, real estate agents keep lists of their go-to home stagers, gardeners, electricians, and inspectors, which they routinely share with potential clients. Commercial printers have lists of designers, copywriters, illustrators, and photographers they like working with.

Create your own list of preferred partners.

Enter an awards program

Ask for your client’s permission to enter your work together into an awards program or competition. Not only does this demonstrate how happy you are with the end result, but it creates an opportunity for the client to be recognized as well.

A graphic designer, for example, could enter a logo or brochure design into a marketing communications awards program. A public relations (PR) firm could enter a publicity campaign into a PR competition. And a painting or landscape contractor could enter photos of client buildings or grounds into programs that recognize top work in their industry.

Whether you win or not isn’t as important as demonstrating to your clients that you’re proud of the work you did, and signaling that they should be, too.

Send a personal note

Our heavy reliance on electronic communications means that snail mail is unexpected. Take a minute to handwrite a personal note of thanks, mentioning specific details of your work together with your client that you enjoyed or appreciated.

For example, if you’re a career coach, you could thank a client for the opportunity to assist them in finding a new career opportunity and for the chance to be part of their journey. If you’re a retailer, you could thank your clients for continuing to patronize your company during a pandemic year. Tell them you’re looking forward to serving them in the New Year as well.

The note doesn’t have to be more than a few sentences, but because no one else is sending out handwritten notes, yours will be noticed and appreciated. And all it costs is a first-class stamp.

Provide a complimentary service

If your business provides a range of products or services, consider giving away something small as a token of appreciation.

Although products cost cash, services will generally only cost your time, depending on what you provide. For example, photographers could send out a free print of a shot the client didn’t select as part of their photography package, as a holiday thank-you. Housecleaning services could clean an extra room in the house, or do a deep clean of the refrigerator at no extra charge during the holidays. And auto mechanics could top off all the fluids and check and fill the air in all the tires on client cars.

These extra steps don’t have to take a lot of time or cost much money, but going beyond what’s expected to express appreciation to your clients will be memorable.

While your business may serve a national or even global customer base, your local news and broadcast outlets are likely to be the most interested in learning about your company. Since their purpose is reporting on local people, organizations, and events, news about you and your business fits right into what many area media outlets want to report on.

And the publicity that can result is one of the best and cheapest ways to promote your business. 

That’s because not only is the media coverage free (versus advertising or some other kind of promotion), but with each quote or mention comes the implied third-party endorsement of the media outlet. Assuming the article topic is positive, your company’s reputation can only be enhanced when readers see you’ve been interviewed in the local business magazine or in the daily newspaper. The natural assumption is that you’re successful, and that’s why the reporter interviewed you.

Local publicity can also be leveraged to pursue national or industry attention.

Believe it or not, catching the attention of local news and broadcast reporters isn’t as difficult as you might expect.

The key is coming up with article ideas that are related to your company, but that go beyond simply profiling you. Profiles are fantastic, but it’s typically harder to convince a reporter to write a piece only about your business. Better to come up with topics that also quote you, rather than being the sole focus.

Proposing Potential Articles

What you need to do is suggest article topics, also known as “pitching.” 

Pitching article ideas is a 4-step process that begins with studying the newspaper, magazine, or website you want to be featured in.

1. Do your research. That means looking at the different sections of, say, the paper, to identify the type of news each section covers. Make a list of what you see as the different departments.

That might include business, sports, personal finance, home and real estate, national news, and/or other subjects. 

Then, read each section to identify the types of articles that are written. Are they profiles of a single person or organization? Are they how-to pieces? Do they tie local happenings to national trends? Do they quote experts or local residents?

2. Brainstorm article ideas. Now that you’re more familiar with each section of your local paper (or magazine or website), it’s time to think up different topics that could fit within those sections.

Daily newspapers want topics that are timely, meaning happening now or in the next week. The same is generally true of websites, since they can update their content quickly. 

Magazines want pitches for topics relevant two to three months in advance; printing and distribution takes that long, so don’t bother pitching a magazine an idea for next month. You’re too late at that point.

Using what you observed from your read of your newspaper, magazine, or website, think about what articles might be of interest to your local community that have to do with your business—not just a write-up describing your company, but having to do with what you sell, how you sell, and who you sell to.

For example, let’s say you run a gift shop and you’re having a special artist demonstration next month. Given the timeframe, you know this is only appropriate for newspapers and websites. Some of the possible articles you could pitch around this one event include:

• A piece about the event itself, offering to connect the arts reporter with the artist who will be in town, for an interview.
• A calendar listing inviting members of the public to attend the demonstration.
• A trends piece about the type of art being demonstrated and why it has caught on recently; why it has become increasingly popular in the last few months.
• A round-up article about women artists, including the one coming in to provide the demonstration.
• A business article about how effective in-store demonstrations are in generating sales.
• A piece offering tips to other gift shops for scheduling effective demonstrations or events

These are just ideas to get you started, but think about your business and all the different angles that might be of interest to a reporter.

3. Find your contact. Once you have a specific idea for an article you want to pitch, you need to track down the name and contact information for the editor who is responsible for that particular department. If you’re reading a print newspaper or magazine, there is usually a masthead—often a page or section of a page near the front—that lists all of the reporters and editors. 

If you can’t find that list in print, use Google to identify who the appropriate person is to connect with.

4. Send a summary of your pitch. When you have an idea and you know who is most likely to be responsible for writing it, send an email summarizing your idea. In the subject line of your email, you could write “Article idea,” to make it clear why you’re getting in touch.

This should be a 3- to 4-paragraph summary of who you are, what your suggestion is for an article, with details regarding why that reporter would be interested (because it’s a local event, represents a local trend, or ties into a national news piece, for example), and an offer to share more information if they’re interested.

Keep in mind that you’re not offering to write the article, nor are you sending a draft of what you’d like to see in print. You’re sending an idea that would include quoting you as a resource.

Another Approach: Write a Press Release

Now, if you want to have a little more control over what is written, you could instead draft a press release and send it out to multiple media outlets at once in the hopes that they use will that information in an upcoming story. 

Press releases are designed to make announcements, primarily, so you could prepare one if you want to share information about:

• An upcoming event
• An honor or award your business received
• A new location
• A new product or service
• A new partnership or joint venture
• A new employee
• An employee who was promoted

Press releases are not appropriate to pitch individual articles, however.

Hubspot has a useful article on how to format a press release, along with some free templates, if you decide you’d rather send something out en masse.

Pursuing media coverage in local newspapers, magazines, bulletins, and community gazettes is a great first step to landing national publicity, and a smart way to raise awareness of your company’s existence within your local community.

Although many business owners focus on sales as the most important metric of success, profitability, or how much you have left after you pay all your bills, is actually a much better measure of how well you’re doing. Profits are what allow you to grow and expand. They also determine whether you can afford to stay in business. 

So, what, exactly, can you do to increase profitability in your business?

There are really two basic ways to boost profits: 1) Increase sales while holding costs steady or 2) Reduce costs associated with those sales. 

Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take on either front to increase your profits.

Increase sales

Driving up the amount of top line revenue your company generates is one approach to increasing profitability. Some ways to do this include:

Increase the value of each sale. It’s always easier to sell more to your existing customers than to go out and find new customers. So, one way to boost profits is to get your current customer base to buy more from you. That could be by raising your prices, for example, or by giving them reason to buy a wider variety of products and services. If you own a beauty salon, for example, you might persuade your customers to buy their hair products from you, on top of the cut and style they normally pay you for. The goal is to increase the average amount each customer spends with you. 

Increase the volume of sales. Another approach is to get your customers to buy more frequently from you. The average sale remains the same, but you receive more payments than you usually do. You could do that by giving them an incentive to come in more often. Such as if you run a restaurant, you might give diners a reason to come back more than the typical once a month they usually do. Or if you run a doggy daycare, you might offer a temporary discount for bringing dogs in more than, say, once a week—to get clients in the habit of dropping their dogs off more frequently.

Increase your service area. Even without increasing costs or selling more to your existing clients, you can increase your potential market by expanding your geographic service area. That might entail announcing that you deliver to new zip codes, or by advertising in media that serve a broader market. The key is spreading the word that customers outside your current territory can now easily buy from you. One step you can take is creating a website to serve customers nationwide, or even globally. Furniture retailer IKEA used to only sell through its retail stores, making it difficult for customers who weren’t local to buy from the company. Creating a website and accepting online orders has greatly expanded its customer base. You can do the same.

Create new products or services. Another way to convince customers to spend their money with you is to give them other products and services to acquire. You may have customers who rely on you for one or two types of services, but who would gladly buy more if you offered it. For example, a restaurant could add more dessert offerings, a consultant could add an annual evaluation or assessment to track progress, and a personal trainer could begin to sell apparel or vitamins alongside their weekly workout sessions. Keep in mind that the products or services you add to your offerings don’t have to be things you personally create; you could explore affiliate relationships, where you sell products others have created in exchange for a small commission.

Reduce costs

The converse of increasing the topline revenue is looking at how to reduce cash outflow. Some tactics toward that end are to:

Negotiate with suppliers. Reducing the cost of your products and services begins with looking at what you’re paying your suppliers. Can you find a way to reduce your cost of goods sold by buying in larger quantities, for example? Can you negotiate for your supplier to pay freight costs? Or can you find a supplier who is closer to your operations or less expensive? Explore with your suppliers what kind of discounts they might offer you, or strategies they might recommend to drive down your costs.

Delegate to lower-cost suppliers. Sometimes it’s possible to find suppliers to take on the responsibility for managing parts of your business and that cost less than an employee’s salary. For example, using an outside bookkeeper might be less expensive than adding a full-time staffer. Or retaining a social media manager, content creator, or prototype designer on a contract basis, per project, might turn out to be less expensive than the ongoing expense of an employee, especially if there isn’t 40 hours of work to be done each and every week. 

Reduce direct costs. Sometimes the problem with expenses has to do with basic overhead, such as what you’re paying for office or warehouse space, what you’re spending on utilities, or on employee salaries. Could you save money by moving? By reducing the hours you’re open (without significantly impacting sales)? By installing solar panels to generate electricity? Reducing what you must pay each month, separate from anything related to production, can dramatically impact your profitability.

Improve productivity. Helping your employees do more in less time is another way to reduce indirect costs associated with serving customers. Offering training, for example, is a great way to help staff members learn how to complete tasks in less time, or with fewer errors, which can also drive up costs. In some cases, you may need to invest in tools and technology to enable productivity improvements, so confirm that the long-term benefit will more than pay for what you’re spending. Automating some tasks, for example, is another strategy for productivity improvements.

Look at both sides of the balance sheet—meaning cash coming in and going out—for clues to how you can increase your company’s profitability.

One big lesson that has come out of the pandemic is the value of customer loyalty. Loyal customers not only spend more, but they also serve as business ambassadors, attracting new customers to their favorite small businesses. 

An often-cited statistic for spending, which originated with Bain & Company in 1991, is that loyal customers spend 67% more than new ones. Not only that, but 56% of customers will spend more at a business they are loyal to, even when there are cheaper priced options elsewhere (that they likely know about), Yotpo reported. That percentage is up significantly from 2019, when only 34.5% were willing to spend more.

Loyal customers are also more profitable customers, according to a Harvard Business Review report that found increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits anywhere from 25% to 95%. That statistic is in line with the Pareto principle, which says that 20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your profits. 

In the simplest terms, holding on to customers you already have will help you build your customer base faster, increase sales, and increase profits faster than trying to attract new customers.

So how can you foster loyalty? Creating a program that rewards shoppers is one easy way. Bond Brand Loyalty found that 80% of buyers say loyalty programs both make them more likely to keep buying from the company or brand, and 68% buy more to maximize their loyalty benefits.

Loyalty programs can drive sales and, fortunately, starting one doesn’t have to be complicated.

Encouraging Customer Behavior

The first step in creating a loyalty program is deciding what you want to encourage customers to do. For example:

• Do you want them to come in more frequently? 
• Do you want them to spend more on each visit? 
• Do you want their help in attracting more customers? 
• Do you want them to help promote certain products or brands?

Once you’re clear on what you want them to do, you can start to think about what you can offer that will entice them to take the action you want.

Choosing a Reward

There are probably hundreds of ways you could reward customers, but it’s important to think about what they want.

You could offer a gift certificate after customers spend a certain amount. Kohl’s does this with its Kohl’s Cash, which customers earn after spending in $50 increments. However, shoppers have to come back during the redemption period, which is typically a week or so after the cash is earned, rather than being able to spend it immediately. This boosts spending and return visits.

You could offer a discount on-the-spot for checking in on social media. Or a special prize for sharing a photo of a product purchase. This may be useful if your goal is to increase social media engagement or followers.

Many small service businesses offer cards cards that track each visit and reward the customer with a free product or a discount once the card has been filled in. That encourages repeat visits, without having to track dollar amounts spent.

You could offer free products for purchases made during a certain timeframe, like Clinique does with its bonuses. A pioneer of the free sample gift-with-purchase, cosmetic brand Clinique offers a special pack of several mini products when customers spend over a certain amount. Not only does this entice customers to spend the minimum amount to qualify, but they receive samples of other Clinique products to try that they may opt to buy next time.

Some loyalty programs offer regular benefits to regular customers, such as a percentage rebate on each purchase.

Others allow their loyalty program participants early access to sales or events, like American Express does when it offers cardholders early access to concerts and live event ticket sales.

Be sure to keep in mind that the reward needs to be something customers want in order to have any impact on your bottom line. Offering a 1% discount after spending $100, for example, is unlikely to make a difference (or the tiny amount may actually irritate customers).

Picking a Platform

When it comes to managing your rewards program, it’s best to keep it as simple as possible. Don’t invest in expensive tracking programs until you’re sure it will be worth it.

A physical punch card is a simple option that requires no tracking on your part. Design, print, and copy it yourself or use a service like Vistaprint to create something.

A software program tied to your cash register is an option for tracking amounts spent, or specific products purchased.

Sign up with an easy-to-use text-based loyalty program, such as Social Spiral, which has customers enter their cell phone number to participate. There’s no app to download and they can check their rewards via text. 

Or if you want an app, try CandyBar, which is a digital loyalty program that helps businesses track customer purchases and reward them.

With both software programs, businesses can also communicate with loyalty program members, sending them special alerts about sales or limited time offers.

Since retail loyalty program members generate between 12% and 18% more revenue for retailers than customers who aren’t program members, according to Accenture, investing a little time and money to create your own could result in a big boost to your sales.

Many entrepreneurs are disappointed to find that banks generally won’t lend money to startups and early-stage ventures unless the business owner already has funds available, collateral, a solid business plan, and a solid credit rating. When you’re just starting out, there aren’t many women business owners who can check all the boxes that banks frequently require.

For many women, that can mean the end of trying to start or grow a business.

However, there are several options—some appropriate for startups and others for existing businesses—that don’t involve banks or credit unions and that may be able to provide business financing.

Startups

True startups are in the first year of operation, or are in the process of opening their doors. That means the company doesn’t have much of a track record of sales or a solid client base yet, in most cases, at least. But there are a couple of potential sources of capital.

Grants. In addition to the Amber Grant, there are other companies, government agencies, and nonprofit foundations that have grants that can be used to start and run a business. A few are specifically focused on helping small businesses recover from the impact of the pandemic.

Microloans. The US Small Business Administration has a program that guarantees loans of up to $50,000 to companies (meaning the bank lends the money but the SBA assumes the risk of repayment. The SBA backing makes banks more likely to lend.). These smaller loans are termed microloans and are typically easier to qualify for than traditional business loans.

Existing Businesses

If you have a business history, meaning you’ve been up-and-running for a while, you have a few more options for securing funding. These can include:

Factoring. If you have unpaid invoices that are squeezing your cash flow, factoring, or invoice financing, is one option. Granted, it’s expensive, because you essentially sell your unpaid invoices to a lender, which gives you a percentage of what you’re owed in cash today. As clients pay, the lender gets to keep most or all of it. It’s a solid option if you need money now, however.

Merchant cash advance.

If you accept credit cards from customers, who pay through a merchant services service you use, you may be able to get a cash advance based on your customers’ buying habits. For example, if you borrow $10,000, a portion of that debt is paid off daily based on your credit card sales. The amount you pay back each day is based on a percentage of your daily sales, so when things are slow your merchant provider takes a small percentage, and on busy days, it takes a larger chunk. Businesses with customers that typically pay via credit card, like restaurants, may find this is a convenient solution.

PayPal Working Capital loan.

Businesses that rely on PayPal for online payment processing may qualify for a working capital loan, which PayPal makes based on the amount of business you do on its platform. Like a merchant cash advance, PayPal makes loans based on the amount of business that is processed on the platform and structures repayment with that in mind as well.

Line of credit. Much like a credit card, which allows you to charge up to a certain amount and then pay it back over time, a line of credit provides the same flexibility. You have a maximum amount you need to stay below, but you can pay for things you need using your line of credit, paying it down as you’re paid.

Private investors. Also known as “hard money lenders,” these investors are willing to provide loans that are backed by hard assets, such as real estate, equipment, vehicles, etc. The expected payback is quick, however, and typically ranges from 18 to 24 months. This should not be a long-term strategy simply because it’s very expensive.

Leases. When you don’t have the cash or credit to purchase something you need outright, consider applying for a lease, which will allow you to effectively rent it. However, rather than having to come up with a large lump sum, you’ll pay a fixed monthly fee in order to use it. When the lease is up, you can renew for a set period of time, opt to lease something else, or put the money down and buy it outright.

It can be very discouraging to be told “no” by potential lenders or investors, but if you can find out what’s holding them back from giving you what you need, you can put together a game plan to improve your odds next time. For example, it it’s your credit score that’s knocking you out of qualifying, spend a few months getting that score up. Or if it’s your business revenue, put together a plan to dramatically increase your sales over the next 90 days, and then try again.

Outside financing can be a turbo boost to business growth, but it is certainly very possible to continue to grow your business on your own, with the resources you have now. Don’t get discouraged. Just keep trying.

As we slide into the fall season, many entrepreneurs may be wondering what happened to summer. When was that break we were supposed to take?

The reality is that after too many months of an ongoing pandemic, we all need a break. Even a day. Just some time for self-care and relaxation, when we stop doing work.

For some women entrepreneurs, this concept of a day without work may be almost inconceivable, which is a sure sign that you’re in need of one. No business can function well forever with an owner who is obsessing 24/7 about it. It’s just not sustainable, and it sure isn’t healthy.

So what, exactly, can you do to take a day off from work? Several entrepreneurs shared their strategies for taking some time away.

Understand your business cycles. Before choosing when to take a day to yourself, look at when your business is typically quieter. That way, your being away will be less disruptive, says Jennifer LaPointe, founder of Traverse Bay Farms. “ LaPointe explains that their business is in a tourist town and “most of the tourists leave to go back home on Sunday and, looking at our numbers from previous years indicates, Mondays and Tuesdays are consistently slower days,” so she decided to close the company’s retail stores on those days to get a break.

Explain the “why” to employees. To feel confident that your company can survive without you, even for a little while, you need to feel secure that your employees will make decisions the way you would. The only way for that to happen is for you to share how and why you do things the way you do. “Talk with employees frequently about the ‘why’ behind doing things and making decisions, so they feel more empowered to respond to situations when you, the primary decision-maker are not in the office, versus requiring that they always get direction from you,” recommends Cylient CEO Dianna Anderson, MCC. Sharing the “why” will also help reduce their reliance on you even when you’re at work.

Plan ahead. Jordan Bishop, founder and CEO of Yore Oyster, says the first step is planning days off. “It’s important to recognize that a business owner shouldn’t plan these days when they’re already feeling burned out, but, rather, when they think they’ll start feeling that way in the future.” For example, if you know you always feel overwhelmed around Labor Day, or really need a break once the days get shorter, look ahead on your calendar and choose a day in September and/or October when you’re not going to work.

Delegate. Next, says Bishop, “after the date has been set, it’s important to let employees know and delegate all tasks needed. If, for example, you have a business partner or manager, that person should be in charge while you’re away. “If all employees know when the business owner will be away, and they know what to do, then that business is set not to be disrupted during that time off.” Of course, you can set up a way to reach you in an emergency, but it’s important to make it clear that that’s the only situation when you should be texted, emailed, or called

Put someone in charge. Says Renee Fry, CEO of Gentreo, “It is often hard to choose one person to put in charge, but you need to pick one person who you trust who can make decisions. If no one is in charge, or no one has the authority to make decisions, decisions will not get made,” she cautions.

Block off time. Another approach is to build in slower days to your schedule. Stephanie Desaulniers, business strategist and course creator with Business by Dezign, has one day a week that is a client-free day, she says. “This day is blocked off so that no one can schedule calls or appointments with me. While I typically use this day to catch up on administrative tasks, occasionally I use it for a self-care day.”

Enforce boundaries. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to getting that day off is setting and enforcing boundaries. Alexis Haselberger, a time management and productivity consultant, says, “I set boundaries around work. I don’t work evenings and weekends, and if I’m taking a day off, I plan not to do any work at all. I set an out-of-office reply that lets my clients know where I am and when I’ll reply.”

Send a reminder. After you’ve decided when you’re taking a day off, you’ve prepped your team, and you’ve alerted your clients, it’s still a good idea to remind everyone. Rym Benchaar, a business coach and marketing strategist, says, “When I take a day off, I also ensure to set expectations with my clients, to avoid any bad surprises. Something as simple as a heads up through an email will do the trick.”

Entrepreneurs who overwork themselves are more prone to burnout, which is bad for business and can damage your company’s overall productivity. So, instead, carve out time for yourself, starting with a day off.

Ask entrepreneurs what the life blood of their business is and many would probably say sales.

And they’re not wrong.

Sales, or paying customers, are essential for a company to stay in business. Without sales revenue, the business closes its doors.

But the truth is that cash flow, which is the speed with which cash flows into and out of the company, is even more important. That is, it doesn’t matter how high your sales are if your expenses are even higher. It also doesn’t matter how high your sales are if your customers are super slow to pay.

To be successful, your business needs to consistently have more money coming in, through revenue, than is have going out, to pay expenses like salaries, rent, utilities, and cost of goods sold. 

There are a number of ways to improve your cash flow and your financial position. One is to get money from customers faster and the other is to slow and/or minimize the exodus of cash from your business bank account.

Require prepayment. Stacy Caprio, founder of Her.ceo, recommends requiring payment before you ever start work. She requires at least 50 percent payment up front for phone consultations, or she uses Clarity.fm so payment is required. “Think about how you can structure your offers and payment plans so the majority or full payment is required up front to reduce cash flow issues, or having to chase down payments after the fact.”

Incentivize quicker payment. One way you can often persuade customers to pay quickly, or in advance, is with either a discount or “gifting any item or service your customer would value,” says Stephanie Ng, CPA, author of How to Pass the CPA Exam, “especially if the cost to you is very low.”

Bill faster. If you can’t get payment in advance, invoice immediately on delivery of services. (With products, you should expect to get paid on delivery.) 

“When you want people to pay you faster, the key is to make the payment process as frictionless as possible,” says Zach Reece, owner and chief operating officer of Colony Roofers LLC. “That means having as few barriers as possible between the person and the final payment.” To do that, Reece recommends using online billing systems. He cites Freshbooks, which reports that electronic payments are made eight days faster than offline payment methods, and Intuit, which found that businesses using its platform were typically paid within 10 days of sending an invoice. “All other methods took and average of 27 days,” he says.

Follow your customers’ payment instructions. In many cases, especially when billing larger organizations, there are established processes in place that vendors need to follow in order to be paid promptly. “The number one mistake that causes invoices to age out is companies not following their customer’s invoicing process/instructions. You must know and follow your customer’s exact requirements for invoicing, as businesses have varied procedures that must be followed in order for them to timely process your invoice,” explains Farrah Vargas, CAEF, senior vice president of business development for Allied Affiliate Funding, a division of Axiom Bank, N.A.

“Ensure that you invoice your customer exactly how they have instructed, know who approves your invoice, and know who the person is in accounts payable (A/P) that handles the processing and payment of your invoice,” Vargas says. “If A/P doesn’t have your invoice for processing, it will not be paid.”

Offer a payment plan to create recurring revenue. Although payment plans introduce the risk of not being paid in full, an air-tight contract often addresses that issue. And stretching payment over several months is one way to generate recurring revenue, explains business coach Danielle Hu, founder of The Wanderlover. “Instead of having all clients pay up front, monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is your friend, so you are always starting the month with cash coming in,” Hu says. “MRR is another way you can earn money, work alongside your clients in a friendly setting, and improve cash flow!”

Set up a line of credit. Before you find yourself strapped for cash, apply for access to a line of credit, says Jennifer Harder, founder and CEO of Jennifer Harder Mortgage Brokers. A line of credit can be “a backup plan,” she says, though she strongly advises applying for the line of credit before you “are in desperate need,” because you’re less likely to be approved at that point. “It’s preferable to set up the line of credit when you have good cash flow and your company is performing well, rather than attempting to solve the issue at the last minute.”

Use accounts receivable financing. “This can be done with your bank if your credit is good and you have a strong relationship,” says Katharine Earhart, partner and co-founder of Fairlight Advisors. Accounts receivable financing involves getting a loan using your payments owed as collateral. Your bank “may do a short-term loan for a percentage of the A/R—70% to 80% of the value,” says Earhart. Although you’re taking on a debt, this type of financing is generally less expensive than factoring.

Turn to factoring. Similar to A/R financing, factoring “is the sale of your company’s receivables to generate cash for your business quickly, while you wait for the customer to pay the invoice (typically 30-60-day terms),” Earhart explains. Although factoring is one way to get cash fast, it can cost anywhere from 5% to 10% per month, she says, so “think carefully and strategically before pursuing this route.”

Maximize time to pay your bills. Says Ng, “if you have a large accounts payable balance, be sure you aren’t paying bills ahead of time. It’s not uncommon for a large vendor to offer terms that will provide a 3 percent discount if you pay by a specific date, so prioritize paying that vendor early and find comfort in paying other vendors by their due date,” she says. You can also reach out to vendors and request longer payment terms, too.

Lease, don’t buy. If you anticipate a cash shortage in the coming months, don’t spend all of your available cash on equipment if you can, instead lease it. The total cost will be higher over the term of the lease, yes, but by spreading payments out over multiple years, you may also avoid the need to rely on expensive accounts receivable financing tools. Leasing also gives you the flexibility to regularly update your equipment or technology at the end of your lease term, without having to sell what you currently have.

Liquidate old inventory. Product-based businesses frequently find themselves with inventory that just isn’t selling and is sitting around taking up shelf space. One way to convert that inventory into cash is to liquidate it, either through a big sale with deep discounts, to move it all out, or through the use of a liquidation firm that will buy it all for pennies on the dollar. Granted, taking a loss on your inventory may not be appealing, however, holding onto products that are declining in value is really only tying up cash you could be using for other purposes.

Successful cash flow management requires paying close attention to where your money is coming from, and where it’s going. Keeping money in your account as long as possible, with a steady stream of deposits, helps to avoid cash shortfalls.