By Henry Brown
It’s a cause for celebration when your small business finally starts making a profit, but despite having a healthier cash flow, you must still be careful with your spending. You don’t want to waste the money you have earned, after all.
Our first piece of advice is this: put a portion of your profits into your savings. You never know when you might need that extra money.
Then look for sensible ways to spend your profits. As examples, you might consider the following.
#1: Spend your profits on your business premises
If the interior and exterior of your business are in need of a makeover, consider what needs to be done to make it more aesthetically pleasing. A fresh lick of paint and more colorful signage on the outside, as well as a brighter redesign on the inside, could attract more customers and clients to your business, and improve the morale of your employees working within. You might also want to weatherproof your business with the services of commercial roofing contractors, and take steps to make your building more secure from outside intruders, with door and window renovations and an installed security system.
#2: Spend your profits on your employees
Make their day by giving them a bonus as a thank you for their hard work. Invest in training, with everything from IT to customer service training to improve their capabilities at work. Replace older technology to make their jobs easier. Make changes to their break room, with added equipment and more comfortable seating to maximize their downtime. And consider upping their salary if you have a healthy financial projection. By investing some of your money on your employees, you will both improve their morale and their productivity. So, not only will they benefit from your spending, but consequently, so will your business.
#3: Spend your profits on your marketing
Your business might be doing well, but rather than rest on your laurels and reduce your marketing attempts, spend more money on this one aspect of your business to further raise your profits. So, you might pay a marketing firm to boost your business, take out radio and television ads to increase brand awareness, upgrade your branding to attract more attention, and attend more conferences and trade shows, perhaps spending some of your profits on a trade booth to push your business to attendees. The more you market your business, the greater your long-term profits, and that will help you to grow and improve your business further.
#4: Spend your profits on yourself
As a business owner and leader, you might want to find ways to improve your expertise, perhaps with leadership and project management training. You might want to improve your office space, with better tech and improved decor. Some of your profits could go towards giving yourself a pay rise, so long as your employees have also received the same benefits. You don’t want to spend your profits on yourself in a way that will have little marked difference to your business, but there is no harm in spending money on things that will improve your morale and productivity.
Finally
Don’t go overboard with your spending. Rather, budget the money you have, and then work out what you can comfortably afford to spend. By making sensible choices, you can then put any money available towards those things that will benefit your business in both the short and the long-term.
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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.
