How to make your business profitable

Starting your own small business allows you to be your own boss, but you’ll have to put in the work to make your business succeed. The startup costs for a small business can lead to debt, and many small businesses take a few years to become profitable. 

So, you may wonder how to make your business profitable. You’ll need to organise your operations, market yourself to grow an audience, and find a steady client base. This can help you pay off your startup costs and earn more than you spend. 

This guide covers how to make your business profitable, including: 

• How to organise your business for profit
• How to market your business to increase sales 
• How to track your business profits 

Knowing how to make your business profitable is key in succeeding with your small business. Your profits are the amount of money you keep from your business revenues. The best way to do this is through a strong business plan and organisation that will help you maintain and grow a net profit. 

A profitable business often has a clear business plan with long-term and short-term goals and objectives. These goals will help you focus on growing your business. The business plan will help you determine which startup costs and expenses are essential to your business. It will also help you focus on strengthening your business operations to draw a larger client base.

Keeping track of your business operations will help you stay on top of your expenses and earnings. This can lead to increased business awareness and help you focus on making more money for your business. 

Also, track your time so that you can determine how much time you spend on your business. This will help you target and get rid of any wasted time that doesn’t help your business.

To increase your profitability, consider how you can reduce your business expenses. For example, if you make payments towards a subscription or service that isn’t helping your business, you can cancel these services to reduce costs. 

You can also compare rates of necessary expenses. For example, you can examine insurance rates or rental fees for a shop if you have one. Making smart financial decisions can reduce your business spending and increase your profitability. 

Your profits depend on how much you choose to charge customers for your fees and services.  So, when you put together your price list, think about how much a product or service costs, and how much other businesses typically charge for something similar. This will help you determine how much to charge customers for the best profits. 

If your business products and services don’t make a substantial profit per sale, you may want to increase the price by a small percentage. If you maintain a reasonable price, this can make each sale more profitable for your business. 

Knowing how to make your business profitable also means you’ll need to know how to bring money into your business. This means marketing your business to increase your client base. 

Increasing your customers will help your business, but you’ll also need to focus on your existing customers. Pleased clients can lead to more sales and a strong reputation. 

The best way to market your small business is by creating a strong brand identity. This is a consistent design and tone that helps people recognise your business and increases awareness. Your brand can focus on your target audience and help your small business appear professional. 

You can use your business brand to create marketing materials such as business cards, social posts, and a business website. Platforms like Canva or Adobe can help you design your logo and materials to make your business memorable. 

Social media platforms are great places to market your small business. You can create profiles on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Consider which platforms will reach your target market best. 

Depending on your small business, you may also want to consider marketing your small business on YouTube or Pinterest. For example, if you have a hairdressing business, you could post tutorial videos or pictures on these platforms.  

Aside from marketing yourself on social media, you’ll also want to advertise your services. For example, if you offer freelance services, you can list yourself on freelance sites like Fiverr or Upwork. You can also create an advertising budget and list your small business in local newspapers or targeted online platforms. 

You can learn more about advertising small businesses here.  

Once you understand how to make your small business profitable, you’ll want to track your profits to improve them over time. You can do this through a strong business organisation. 

To organise your business operations, you can use a management platform like Google WorkSpace or Microsoft 365. This will allow you to keep your contacts, calendar, and documents in one place. Organising your business will help you appear professional and please clients, which can lead to business growth. 

Also, consider opening a business current account to organise your finances. This will help you separate your business finances from your personal ones. Organising your business finances means tracking your client base, income, and expenses to determine your cash flow. 

Creating a profitable business is easier when you keep track of your finances. But, financial management can be stressful and time-consuming when you’re self-employed. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Find out more here.