6 Innovative Strategies to Boost Small Business Revenue
Unlock new revenue streams for your small business with these six inventive strategies. From embracing nontraditional revenue to starting a workshop series and exploring coworking, these tips will help you think outside the box and strengthen your bottom line.
1. First off, think beyond daily survival
Small business owners are often rooted into the daily details of everyday existence. Making sure the whole operation runs smoothly certainly counts, but at the same time, you have to rise above the mundane and look towards the future. If you’ve lost focus on what your larger objectives could be, you’ve lost focus in general.
Every month, zoom out. Change perspective. Shift your gears. If you need to venture away from the shop or take an afternoon off to decompress, do it. When your head is back on straight again and you’re able to analyze creative ways to move forward, gather the most talented thinkers you employ and start brainstorming. Explore ways to move towards your main goals and overall motivations with vigor.
2. Value outsider opinions
Similar to tip #1, when you’re too close to your own business, you may not see the whole picture. When asking for the opinion and feedback from your trusted counterparts, do your best to hear their inventive ideas. If certain ideas resonate that could make a financial difference, take that spark and begin implementing it right away.
3. Explore creative and nontraditional revenue (This could look different in every industry)
Nontraditional revenue, when applied to your own small business, can ramp up profits in a big way. We offer a rundown of ideas below, but start thinking outside of the box and see what you can come up with.
4. Start a workshop series
Whether you know it or not, owning and running a small business means you are an expert. When people choose your small business, they’re choosing to shop or dine or buy from you because they trust you.
Whether you’re serving savory pies at lunchtime, handcrafting letterpressed stationery, offering oil changes, or cooking up fusion cuisine in an international kitchen, you’re the one who knows what goes into making your small business special and, ultimately, successful. What you do is a big deal. Don’t forget that.
Offering customers and clients a chance to see what goes on “behind the scenes” can become an income source. How could you involve customers in your business and charge them for that experience?
Could you put on a pie baking series once your lunchtime rush is over? What about demonstrating letterpress techniques so clients could try their hand and ultimately “make and take” their own greeting card? Might you offer a basic car maintenance class that comes with free oil change coupons? A chance for teens to cook in your industrial kitchen? Get creative. Explore possibilites for the days your store is “closed” or when you’re not in peak hours of business. How could you capitalize on this “down” time?
Link up with other small businesses to increase the potential and supplement the experience. Let your customers feel like “insiders.” Allure and exclusivity will always be an appeal.
Plus, individuals aren’t always in the market to buy something—they’re really craving an experience.
Remember that age-old wisdom?
“Give the customer what they want.”
That’s exactly it .
5. Entertain the idea of coworking
In big cities, coworking is already a big deal. The latest statistics show there are more than 70,000 coworking spaces globally.
The rise of self-employment means remote workers are making their own hours and choosing their own schedule. This freedom and flexibility means setting up shop in a coffee shop can only work for so long until they want a desk and a community of others to call their own.
Sublease space in your own brick and mortar building. Support these entrepreneurs. Offer a flexible place they can call their own. Inspiration, cross-cultural engagement, and increased foot traffic ensures this scenario is a win-win for each of you.
6. Follow what New Yorkers are doing
The ingenuity of New Yorkers means these city-dwellers set the standard. In the months and years that follow, these New York-based trends, if successful in nature, will spread throughout the country.
Especially since rent in New York City is sky-high, commercial businesses have to get creative. Let’s explore how New Yorkers create new revenue streams.
Restaurants in the Big Apple are using apps to generate pay-for services like charging people to use the restroom, storing luggage for travelers, and renting office space to freelancers and entrepreneurs (a more flexible system than contracted coworking). To explore the way technology supports business, explore the apps Rockaloo , Bagbnb, and KettleSpace.
Once you implement these strategies to create new revenue streams for your small business, report back. Here at Fluid Capital, we always love hearing how your own small business finds success.