Do you ever stop as a business owner and look to see where your company might have some leaks taking place?
No, not the kinds of leaks that typically goes on in Washington, D.C. and other political settings.
The leaks here are those where money is being lost, specifically your money.
With that in mind, what steps can you take in order to keep your business from ultimately going down the drain?
Check to See Why You’re Losing Money
In the event your small business is leaking money more times than not, will you not only recognize where the problems are, but also do something about them?
With the answers hopefully being yes, here are a few ideas to keep in mind:
- Customer payment issues
One of the most well-known (yet devastating) problems is when customers ultimately decide not to pay for the goods and/or services they purchase from you. For those not aware, these are called chargebacks.
While a number of chargebacks occur when a customer has changed his or her mind in terms of actually wanting what they initially purchased, others revolve around fraud.
Yes, some customers will buy something and charge it to their credit card, only to then decide they don’t want to pay for it. In the end, you the business owner are left with the payment issue square in your lap.
So that you can do a better job of fighting chargebacks and recovering profits, work with a company that will assist you in the fight.
For instance a company that offers a chargeback recovery revenue service can get you the assistance your business needs, thereby preventing you from losing countless dollars over and over again.
Best of all, using such a service will help you when it comes to better identifying issues to begin with, permitting you to have more sound chargeback prevention measures in place.
Lastly, be sure you make it as easy as possible for customers to pay in the first place.
For example, if you offer an online store, make sure the process is simple all the way through, a process that goes from a customer starting to place an order, and running all the way through checkout.
2. Missed marketing opportunities
Another gaping financial hole can likely be closed when you spend the right amount of time and effort with marketing and social media initiatives.
For your marketing efforts, you should be marketing each and every time you get the chance.
For too many small business owners, they go light on the marketing efforts, figuring such activities will cost them too much money. If you’re one of these people, fall back on the old adage of having to spend money to make money.
Not only should you be marketing offline (newspaper ads, some television and/or radio, networking conferences, and community events), but also online. Those online efforts should include email marketing, mobile marketing etc.
When it comes to social media, this is about as free a marketing opportunity as you can get.
Use social media to push your blog content, engage with consumers, see what the competition is up to and much more.
While some small business owners might claim that they can’t see much return on investment (ROI) when it comes to social media, don’t believe them.
Make sure you do your own social media outreach, seeing if it truly can prove effective for your bran
3. What you pay for office supplies
Last but not least, are you overpaying for office supplies?
Sure, you might think that an extra roll of copy paper or a few more ink cartridges for the printer do not add up over time, but the reality is that they do.
You will be best-served when you shop around for the best vendor deals out there, saving money whenever and wherever you can. By doing so, this will be one less area that you have to plug in terms of potentially losing money.
If money for office supplies is rather tight, you might even think about some trading options, options where you get a discount on some supplies in return for promoting the vendor or vendors supplying you.
Although you hopefully never get to the point where you have to close your small business due to financial issues, knowing where and when the leaks may come is something you want to be aware of.
Photo credit: Pixabay
About the Author: Dave Thomas writes about money and business topics on the web.
