Well folks, another year is quickly approaching us. Have you thought about your plans to grow your business? Here are five tips to help you expand significantly.

1. Save Money: In this economy, cash is king, and with credit being hard to come by these days, make sure your business has ample cash. This should be your top priority, which is why I have listed this at #1. I heard a line the other day: “raise your own round.” All companies can do this simply by leaving no stone unturned. I got sick for nine days in September and it was the best nine days I have ever spent at home sick. It gave me a chance to clear my mind and pour over our financials. I was not distributed by phone calls and the day-to-day tasks of running the business. Maybe getting sick isn’t ideal, but think about getting away for a couple of days and focusing solely on saving money. I put a plan into action during that time that ultimately led me to save mobileStorm close to $40,000 a month. I looked any possible redundancies, I looked at vendors we were spending too much on and asked them for discounts, and we got rid of services we didn’t really use or even realize we weren’t using. The most important thing you can do right now is get profitable. Read my previous post on tips for saving money.

2. Conserve cash flow: Make sure you have ample cash flow by following these simple rules.

• Delay vendor payments: Don’t pay that net 30 in 15 days. Pay your vendors at the last possible due date. And/or…
• Ask for early payment discounts: Talk with your vendors and see if they will provide you with a discount to pay when they need the money.
• Lease stuff: Instead of buying that next server, look into a leasing program. Yes, you end up paying more in the long run, but at least you will have more cash now, which is definitely worth the fees.
• Get aggressive credit: Having a line with the bank certainly helps cash flow. It’s tough right now to get any credit, but banks cannot stop lending; this is their core business model. There are banks out there that are willing to help you–you just need to seek them out.

3. Outline your goals: How much do you want to gross in 2009? How much do you want to net? What products do you plan on launching? Who do you want to hire? What do you need to fix? Even though these things might be in your head, write them down and even put target dates next to everything. Challenge yourself to meet these goals and have your board or advisors beat you over the head and hold you to them.

4. Learn something new: Take an online course in something at which you need to be more proficient. If you lack organization or project management skills, become better at it by either reading a great book like “Getting Things Done” and sticking to the principles or take an online course. As a business owner, you don’t have the luxury of always having the right talent around to learn from. You should always be growing and learning new things personally. A lot of business owners are not great at understanding financial information such as balance sheets or cash flow reports. Challenge yourself to become an expert in an area so crucial to your business. But remember, as the CEO, you don’t need to know it all, just learn enough so you can understand and ask the right questions. Then when you can afford it, hire some bad ass.

5. Sell: Never forget the best sales person at your company is you. Do not make the mistake I did and have your pipeline disappear because you get too involved in something else. You should have a goal to make a certain number of phone calls/emails per day. I always spend the first hour I get in going through my inbox; then I spend the rest of the day (until about 3pm) on the phone closing. Only after that do I work on product development or marketing initiatives. ABC–always be closing!

I hope everyone kills it next year. Except my competitors, I hope you lose lots of business to us.

Love,

Jared Reitzin
Small Business Help