Improve your cash flow starting today, with these ideas

This is a little different from my usual stuff.

A local business association asked me to join their conference call yesterday, to advise them on how to improve their member’s cash flow.

Here are the bullet points I used for the call. I only had 15 minutes to put them together, but people on the call found them extremely useful. I hope you find them equally so.

Restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels, etc., can offer gift vouchers to their regular / loyal customers, which will be purchased today, for use when things return to normal.

Bookshops, specialist interest shops (board games, music, art / craft shops etc.), can also do the above. Additionally, depending on their situation, they can offer to home deliver items that are traditionally picked-up in the store.

Lawyers, advisers, accountants, coaches, tutors, consultants, planners, designers, etc., who are unable to currently visit clients, may want to work via video conference. Skype, Xoom, FaceTime, etc. This is how I have chosen to work every day for well over a decade, and it’s extremely effective.

Salons, tattoo studios, nail bars, beauty parlours, etc., could find themselves in high demand when they open again, if forced to close for a period of weeks or more. They might consider offering customers the option to book now, via a paid voucher, so they don’t have a super-long wait when the business reopens its doors.

You and your business

You need to get working on ideas today.

Your business will have specific needs, based on your industry, the restrictions on movement in your area, logistics and lots more. However, by widening out these ideas, there will be something here that most people reading this can adapt into their business.

The key points I focused on were:

• Sell gift vouchers today, for services you’ll be able to provide when things settle down again.
• Provide delivery of items, which customers would usually pick up or collect from you.
• Switch your service from face to face, to video / phone calls. This is huge, as it also allows you to attract clients from a massively wider area. My clients this week, for example, are based in the USA, France, Ireland and South Africa.
• Start offering vouchers if your work has to be face-to-face. This lets people pay now, so that they’ll be first when you’re able to start taking bookings again.

I hope you find this useful. If you do, please share it with your contacts.

We’re all in this together, my friend.