Grow Your Business

9 Things You Can Do to Be More Successful in Business

Capital Solutions Bancorp — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:07:32 -0500

Most of us hope for a happy New Year. But what does that mean when it comes to business? For most, it's a year without problems. We both know that isn't going to happen. Problems are part of business. The sooner we accept that, we faster we can focus on getting better at what we do.

The Best and Cheapest Way to Beat the Competition

Capital Solutions Bancorp — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:45:39 -0500

Four words: make your customers happy. That's it. Your customers already know you, which puts you ahead of everyone. However, they will leave if your customer service suffers, your prices fall out of alignment with the industry or your product / service fails to do what customers need.

You maximize the acquisition cost for your current customers by keeping clients for another month. The longer you keep customers past the break-even point of acquisition, the greater the profit.

Grow Your Business: Top 10 Posts of 2011

Capital Solutions Bancorp — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:19:47 -0500

How did your business do in 2011? Did you grow? Stay the same? Staying the same in 2011 is almost as good as growing in 2010. Based on conversations, many successful companies that grew every year reported seeing no growth this year.

Regardless of what happened in 2011, you have a clean slate and these top 10 posts will help you grow in 2012.

Start the New Year with a Clean Slate

Capital Solutions Bancorp — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:42:19 -0500

Many students leave college with a diploma in hand and big student loans waiting to be paid. Those loans are a big burden for students to bear in starting life after school. How do you think students who paid off their entire college education by graduation day feel compared to those with the big loans?

The same happens to companies starting the New Year with unused equipment, inefficient inventory and unpaid accounts receivables. No matter what kind of year your business had, you can get it in better shape for year ahead and be like the graduate free of loans.

Six Tips to Stop the Late Payment Pains

Capital Solutions Bancorp — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:15:15 -0500

Cash flow management relies heavily on timing whether or not your business is doing well. When a business owner pays suppliers late, those suppliers pay theirs late. It's a vicious cycle causing cash flow problems for small business owners down the line.

Four Must Dos to Buying a Company

Capital Solutions Bancorp — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:35:00 -0500

This insufferable economy has worn out many people especially owners who can no longer give their all to their business. Even so, many of these businesses hold a lot of potential and can thrive with the right owner. Now may be a good time to buy a company in order to grow your business, expand your offerings and get more customers.

How to Fire a Client with Tact

Capital Solutions Bancorp — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:19:27 -0500

Firing a client (yes, in today's climate) can tighten your business and sharpen its focus. Figuring out which client to let go is easy. Doing the actual letting go is hard, more so with the good clients.

Regardless how you feel about the client, remain professional while showing them the door. Or else, it could hurt you later.

Here are some scenarios in which you could cross paths with the client to justify the need for a tactful parting:

Should You Fire Clients?

Capital Solutions Bancorp — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:13:33 -0400

Yes, I'm really suggesting you consider firing clients. Yes, even in this economy. You company can benefit from firing both good and bad clients. As you grow your business, it often changes and strays from its original mission as you come up with better products or better services to adapt to current demand. Furthermore, letting go of the difficult or profit-killing clients allows your employees to breathe easier, feel happier and enjoy their jobs more.

Retain and Win Back Clients

Capital Solutions Bancorp — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:43:30 -0400

Keeping and selling to current clients is easier and cheaper than finding new ones. For those of you who like data to back that up, a survey from Sales & Marketing Magazine states that selling to new clients costs 133 percent than selling current clients.

Furthermore, authors Jill Griffin and Michael Lowenstein of Customer Winback write that selling to current customers has a success rate as high as 70 percent while selling new customers has a success rate as low as 5 percent.