Increasing Your Income

Practical Financial Planning Advice

You've got to make money before you spend money. If you think of the kind of financial advice you usually get from financial advisors, you'll probably find that it's pretty much entirely focused on the second half of that sentence: saving and investing money.

That's certainly a legitimate approach, but it's severely limiting. How much can you really save and invest when you're dealing with a limited amount of income? Read on to find out about another approach.

A company's financial situation has two aspects: what comes in and what goes out. Obviously, it's important to keep track of what goes out and make sure you get a fair return on your investment.

But no matter how much you scrimp on expenses, you can only save so much.

So why not look at the other side of the equation--how much comes in? Why not focus on increasing your income? After all, there is really no limit to how much income you could make.

Not that it's necessarily easy, but it's much easier than saving more when there's nothing left to save. That's why I focus on helping my business-owner clients increase their company's income. By increasing the business revenue, more money flows to the household and the net worth increases.
And increasing the business income isn't really rocket science either: think about your own business. Increasing income really comes down to four main functions which are closely connected:
1. Create demand for your productsr
Improve your marketing functions – get bright ideas on how to create more demand for your services or products. Improve your internet presence, your brochures and company image. Open new lines of communication with your public, such as surveying them to find out what is desired.

2. Promote yourselfr
Get out there to let people know who you are. Make phone calls, send letters, join referral groups, be active in the community, and get your face known. For the best effects, make sure you're dressing well and smiling. If you do that, people will think, "Hey, I like that person." And we all like doing business with people we like.

3. Sell your productsr
How well do you close the people who responded to your marketing? You can market all you want, but if you don't close, you aren't going to get paid. Look for ways to improve your sales process: take a course in sales techniques, attend seminars, standardize and drill your sales process with friends to get their feedback.

4. Improve the quality and delivery of your productr
You also need to make sure that your products live up to people's expectations. If you don't have good product, you won't survive very long. Look for ways to improve the quality of your product and how efficiently you deliver it to your customers.

All of this may seem outside of what you'd expect from a financial advisor, but if you think about it, it shouldn't be. People come to get advice on how to improve their financial condition, and increasing their income is the most important thing they can do. And if an advisor can help them look at their business and make it grow, that will help them achieve their goals all the more quickly.