There is always pressure for businesses to grow sales.
There are a lot of ways to grow sales for the long-term, but it’s more difficult to bring in short-term sales.
But it’s necessary to bring in short-term sales in order to meet payroll, pay bills and bring the month up to budget.
Here are some ways you can add more sales to your business this month. Hopefully it will help you meet your goal. A few of these can even bump things up for the long-term if you choose to continue them.
1. Email Existing Clients About Short-Term Opportunities
This is the easiest way to get some short-term sales. Sometimes you get so busy delivering your regular work to your existing clients that you forget that they may have other needs and goals.
Send out a few emails with each being specific to your customers. Ask them how they’re doing, what they’re working on and if they have any upcoming projects they need help on this month.
There is usually something you can help with this month that would help them out and bring a little money to your accounts.
2. Offer New Short-Term Services
Maybe there’s a new short-term service you can offer.
At GBW, we specifically do blog posts for our regular work. That’s 90% of our business. But on occasion I’ve taken on some side writing projects for websites. I’ve written some and the writers have written some. It might be website content. It might be a white paper. It could be anything.
Those items are short-term, but they can help the bottom line once in a while by adding a few sales.
Ask you clients again if they have need for your new types of services. I’ve asked a few clients if they have had a need for a white paper or a press release. It’s short-term, but it can help.
3. Respond To Freelance Work Ads
There are always freelance work ads available. There are a few for freelancing specifically. There are more specific ones depending on the industry you’re in.
Check these out and see if there is something you can do quickly with your ability and experience. You might have to do it for less money than you would for one of your regular projects, but if you’re doing it in little time and still making money you can make some extra cash to pay those bills this month.
4. Partner With A Business On A Short-Term Campaign
Partnering is another good way for you to get some business. Find a cohesion with another company where you can offer some valuable to their customers and they can do the same for yours.
Sometimes partnerships can take a few months to get working, but other times you can just plugin and get right to work. It can mean picking up a few new customers for the long-term.
Even if it’s just some short-term cash it can be something to help get you through a difficult month.
5. Ask For Referrals
Finally, ask your clients for referrals. You can combine some of the items above and ask your clients if they know anybody that needs some help this month working on something.
I’ve asked clients if they know anything that needs a couple posts this month or if they know anyone that needs a white paper written this month.
These might only be good for a month’s worth of work, but they can also turn into long-term projects if you find the right client.
Conclusion
These are five ways I’ve found that you can add some sales almost immediately to your business. Usually the new work will be short-term so you can’t depend on the new stream of income every month, but it adds a nice little cushion to get you through.
And some of these have led to long-term work for GBW. They can do the same for you as well.
Image: Bradley Gordon