How To Make Your Business Profitable From Day One
The worst part about Entrepreneurship is the idea of having to wait before you become profitable.
It just feels bad putting in the work and not seeing the results up-front, and the uncertainty can be crippling.
But don’t worry! Business isn’t as intimidating and scary as it may seem, and it’s definitely possible to be profitable right out of the gate.
So what’s the big secret?
How do you make your business profitable from day one?
It’s really pretty simple… Here are some things you can do to get results quickly and relieve some of the pressure associated with getting started.
Tips For Making A Business Profitable Right Away
- Choose your business type wisely
The type of business you choose to run can dictate when you start seeing positive cashflow. For example: Some Service-based businesses can be profitable from day 1 because you’re selling your expertise to help a Client build THEIR product, compared to a Manufacturer, or a similar business, where you would have to use your expertise to build your own product and then figure out how to sell that product.
There may not seem like there’s a huge difference between the two situations, but there is! One can be profitable very quickly and shouldn’t have fulfilment issues (the service-based business), and another takes a lot of time, energy, planning, and capital to even become operational (a Manufacturer).
- Research your competitors
You don’t have to hire a team to investigate every detail of a company to learn something valuable. Checking out who else is providing the same services as you can provide you with a ton of insight about pricing, strategy, and what to expect from your future Clients.
For example: If you start a freelance blog content writing service, it would make sense to know how much other writers are charging, if they’re offering revisions, how many days it takes them to complete their work, etc…
- Check in with yourself regularly
Ok… so… you’re going to have to do some things you don’t want to do. There’s no way around that.
HOWEVER, a LOT of people get stuck in this mode where they think their obligation as an Entrepreneur is to do a bunch of tedious and annoying work that they hate in order to “build their business”.
That’s ridiculous. If you’re okay with that kind of life, you’d be better off working for someone else and just collecting a steady paycheck with less stress.
It’s OK to decide you don’t want to spend your time doing sales.
It’s OK to not like using Social Media.You DON’T HAVE TO DO IT. There’s a LOT of flexibility for Entrepreneurs to do things their own way. There are other people you can pay to handle all of your Social Media, and they can probably do a better job for a lower cost than you can. Doing a bunch of stuff you hate makes it hard to make money. It’s hard to follow through with the work, it’s hard to do a good job, it’s hard to improve at your work… Why not just have someone else do it, and you just focus on doing the things that actually work for you? If you try something and hate it, move on and do something else. In the current gig-economy, getting into a new profession is almost as simple as updating a profile and talking to people.
- Focus on getting an income source
You don’t have to obsess about sales like most Entrepreneurs do, but it’s vital to get a paying Client right away. Even though one Client won’t be enough to make you rich, the cash flow will allow you to invest into growing your business, and the experience will provide you proof of concept. Once you know that at least one person is willing to buy your service, you can start working on ways to improve the service and improve your profit.
How To Start A Small Service Business Now
Everyone talks about these things like you’re going to just hop online, click a few times, and receive six figures instantly from the international, award-winning, digital marketing agency you’ve just created.
Unfortunately, that’s not how it works… it can take a lot of time to get everything sorted out and to learn all of the little skills required of an Entrepreneur.
Luckily, we can help speed things up.
The process is really simple, it’s just frustrating, and people give up too quickly.
We can break the process down into a few steps:
- Make profiles on freelancing and business sites like Guru, Fiverr, Linkedin, and Upwork
- Take tests to prove your competencies
- Add pictures of previous work (if possible)
- Check prices and quality of your competitors
- Bid jobs
- Get a Client
- Impress your Client
- Get ratings
- Raise Prices
- Repeat Steps 3-8
I know it can feel like “Yea SURE… of course it SOUNDS easy to ‘Find a Client’, but it’s way harder than it seems!”.
Yup… it’s true. Finding Clients is terrible. It takes time, effort, and money, but it’s something you HAVE to do, UNLESS you have someone else do it.
In order to be profitable from day one, you’ll have to really hit it hard, and plan things out.
Honestly, you won’t be able to just create a Gig on Fiverr and instantly get Clients. You have to go out and get them, but they ARE out there… people need work done constantly, and businesses often would prefer to outsource projects rather than too many full-time employees.
If you’ve tried to do freelance work before and got discouraged… don’t worry… it has happened to us too, it happens to mostly everyone.
The more you stick with it, the better you get at it.
The more Clients you’ve impressed, the easier it will be to find new Clients.
If you are struggling to get your first Client, the more you get out there… the quicker you’ll get your first Client.
Once you’ve found a paying Client… you can start to build out websites and huge marketing funnels to scale your business, but you need to get money coming in first.
Getting Help As A New Entrepreneur
One of the biggest problems new Entrepreneurs face is finding the right help.
Being great at hiring is hard for ANY company, but when you can’t afford help, don’t know a lot of people, and you’re busy trying to figure out how to get a business off the ground… it can be challenging.
Hiring isn’t the only way to get things done, but taking the risk can enable you to do more than you could if you were to try to do everything yourself.
Luckily, the issues you’re having are the same issues that allow you to find Clients as a freelancer in the first place!
Other business owners can’t afford to hire a full-time employee every time they need something done either… That’s the whole purpose of freelancers.
If you price your work appropriately, and put effort into finding the right people, you can get paid up-front for work and use the money to pay someone else to do the actual work, without the need for employing anyone long-term.
Essentially, you’re just earning a commission by connecting people who need work done and people who are willing to do the work.
Paying freelancers will be hardest at first, because you won’t have a lot of money, and you’ll be scared of not being able to pay them in the future, but don’t worry! Things WILL get better.
Once you start getting a little money coming in from your first Client, a lot of those kinds of pressures will be relieved and you can start thinking of ways to grow and improve your service.
Options start to open up once you have some cash flow coming in. You’ll be able to afford to pay for content to get made, you’ll be able to afford to have Keap automate your business workflow, and you’ll be able to afford to get your name out there with paid ads, or whatever else you need.
Unfortunately, even though it sounds easy… it can feel frustrating and impossible when you’re first starting out.
Especially if you end up failing to bring in money on the first day. Realistically, most ideas take longer than you’d think to get them off the ground, but that’s mostly because it takes time for you to develop all of the little skills you need to run a business.
It’s very easy to get excited, put in a day or two of hard work doing things that make no difference, make no money, and then decide to quit.
Most of the time, the things you’re doing to be “productive” aren’t what you need to be doing.
What Should I Do To Be Productive?
It may seem logical to spend a lot of time refining your product and service because “no one will want to buy it if it isn’t perfect”, BUT that kind of mindset will get you into trouble.
Most people don’t need something that’s perfect, they just need some work done. You NEED to have money coming in… so you can grow.
Instead, you NEED to have a product or service that merely meets your Client’s needs. You can improve things as you go, but you need to be able to get some money coming in and spend most of your time seeking out paying Clients.
A common mistake new Entrepreneurs make is they spend massive amounts of time building out a product or a service, which still isn’t perfect, and they never actually get a sale, so they get stuck.
Just build a Minimum Viable Product and spend your time finding buyers. It’s critical to get a paying Client onboard for proof of concept, and to fund future growth.