While many people dream of creating and owning their own business, true entrepreneurs know that doing so requires laser focus, flexibility, a true desire to succeed, and an endless number of skills that only evolve as their business grows. Over time, many entrepreneurs gain their stride and reach amazing success, but even the best of the best can unintentionally lose precious revenue when they least expect it.
With so much going on in your day-to-day lives, it can be easy to overlook a missed opportunity to make more money or lose what we have, and that is where we come in. Today, we will go over several changes that you can make to reach maximum profitability and avoid losing potential revenue.
1. Focus On Website Accessibility
These days, for a company to be truly successful, you must have an active online presence, and that includes a website where customers can easily come and purchase products without unneeded hassle or difficulty. Online competition is more fierce than ever, and if you don’t give customers a reason to buy from you, they will happily move on to your competitor, leaving you with lost revenue.
To retain customers and entice them to continue to buy from your website, you need to focus on accessibility. At its most basic sense, that means having clear web pages with navigation that is obvious and easy to use and a cart system that doesn’t leave customers confused. A customer should be able to find what they need within three clicks or less. Customers can be impatient, and if finding what they need takes any longer, you may lose them for good.
2. Keep Your Customers And Your Revenue Safe
When discussing your e-commerce efforts, it is important to consider cybersecurity and ensure that your data security protections are strong and stable. If a hacker can infiltrate your website and steal the data of your customers, not only will you have the immediate sting of having to pay to rebuild your cybersecurity protocols, but you will also have to deal with the loss of customer trust. If your customers lose faith in your ability to protect their data, they will likely stop buying from you and the negative reputation will follow you around for years to come.
It is essential to be proactive and stop a data breach from occurring in the first place. You can do so by having backup servers in place and by running virus scans at least once per week to catch potential threats. On top of that, you must require all employees to use detailed passwords that include upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters.
3. Stop Wasting Resources
Once your business grows and you begin to branch out, it can be difficult to watch every facet of your business like you once did, and because there is so much going on, your business can start to waste valuable resources that can lead to loss or lost revenue. For instance, you can easily overspend by over-packaging items and sending excess paperwork with every shipment. Instead, use recyclable materials and print less or print double-sided if paperwork within your boxes is absolutely necessary.
If it seems that you are spending more to replace equipment or materials, then it may be time to re-train your employees on proper usage and best practices to avoid waste. You can use the money that you save from cutting down on unnecessary expenses and invest those funds into new ideas and product lines.
4. Keep Up On Owed Invoices
If your company provides services for the outside world, and you are not being properly paid for your efforts, then you are not helping yourself when it comes to ceasing avoidable revenue loss. Many businesses can end the year with thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices, and if you are in that same boat, then you are doing yourself and your employees a great disservice.
As a new entrepreneur, it can feel awkward to reach out and ask for unpaid funds, but doing so is essential if you want to keep your revenue and your respect intact. If this situation arises, the first step is to send out a past due invoice letter that explains the services you completed and the money owed. If you have the capacity, consider allowing a payment plan and have the details put in writing. If there is still no response, you may have to contact a collections agency to take it from there.
5. Sell Quality Products
You may have all the faith in the world as to the quality and usefulness of your products, but if you do not have a strong quality assurance process in place to check every item that goes out the door, then you are setting yourself up for potential revenue loss. When you send out faulty products, you are not only creating the potential for a product return and zero profit, but your reputation can also take a big hit. When a customer has a bad experience, word can spread quickly and you could lose more than just that one sale.
This is why you need to have a quality assurance team that can inspect the products to ensure that they are up to code and will not be returned due to being faulty. Your QA team should also randomly review your other employees, especially those who work on your customer service teams. If they are being rude or unhelpful to the customers, you are wasting more revenue as your potential customers go elsewhere for better service.
As you can see, there are many potential holes that you can plug to avoid revenue loss. However, don’t think of it as a negative thing but instead a way that you can make more money to help your business thrive. Be proactive about fixing these issues now and the sky’s the limit to where your business can go.
