What Options Do You Have When It Comes to Profits?

It may take a while before your SME turns a healthy profit but, when it does, you need to know how to make the most of your company’s money. Once you have calculated your profit, after salary payments, expenses and cost forecasts have been made, you will be left with a variety of options on what to do with your surplus funds.

The best businesses survive by making smart choices. This means making the right decisions that allow business to thrive.

A common pattern with most failed businesses is that they needlessly spent money on the wrong things. Profits should be used to invest in your business. This means that there should be a return on the money used.

This can come from a range of methods, ranging from hiring more staff, upgrading equipment or software, expanding skills through training, or even driving sales through increased advertising.

These are all great ways to reinvest in your small business. We’ll take a look at the best methods in more detail below.

Identify what could be better

A bad worker will blame their tools, but what happens when a good worker is legitimately being held back by the equipment at their disposal? This is disastrous for productivity, which in turn can damage profits.

Take a long, measured look at the infrastructure of your business. Consider the equipment, tools, software and hardware that you rely on every single day. If these could be made more efficient, then it’s definitely worth doing.

The best entrepreneurs are always looking for better ways to work on the same idea. This means streamlining and updating existing processes. The business model or idea doesn’t change, just its execution.

Spend on training

Training is a good way of investing in your business by investing in the people that allow it to operate.

By spending on training, either for yourself or your employees, you are diversifying and expanding upon the skills of the workforce, meaning a potential increase in productivity, and even the possibility of securing new business thanks to a new set of skills.

The time is ripe to sign up for training, even if you can’t afford it solely out of your profits, thanks to a steep increase in May 2015 in the rate that banks are lending to UK businesses.

This is a fantastic opportunity and a great chance to take action that could lead to your business increasing its profits in the long run.

Consider more lucrative options outside of your own business

If your business is doing really well and is financially rock solid, investing in other businesses is a great idea and could turn you a handsome sum in return.

Angel investment is booming in the UK and is a driving force behind the most in demand startups. Crowdsourcing and angel investment is a key funding tactic, especially with emerging digital and technology-based entrepreneurs and SMEs.

Finding a great emerging business can give a great return, but it’s risky. If the business fails, you’ll lose your investment.

The more traditional route for the financially adventurous would be to invest in stocks and shares, however, this can prove difficult if you are not used to reading markets.

If this type of financial play appeals to you, and you have the finances to afford it, spread betting could give a good return. If you are unsure of how it works, you can learn spread betting with Tradefair.

Profits should drive further growth

There’s a key theme across all of these points. That is that whatever you choose to spend your profits on, the end result should always be further revenue or growth for your business.

Yes, some of the options are more risky than others, and it would only be sensible to pursue these once more concrete options (such as investing in equipment) have been exhausted.

There will always be an element of risk involved in business spending and investment. The trick is to know what’s right and what’s wrong to spend your money on. When that fails, you better have razor sharp instincts to follow.

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How to Make a Business out of Selling Liquidated Merchandise

The commercial landscape seems to be making changes all the time. One business opens its doors while another turns out the lights for good. As businesses come and go, have you ever wondered what happens to all that excess inventory? Instead of wondering where it is being shipped off to and stored, it would sure be nice to know how to get your hands on it. With between 10,000 to 50,000-dollars sitting in the bank, you will potentially have all the capital you need to get into the game of acquiring and reselling liquidated merchandise.

What this essentially means is that you would not be left wondering where all that excess inventory ends up anymore, mostly because it could happen to make its way into your company warehouse. You could be fast on the track to starting and running your own merchandise liquidation business. According to SBA.gov, individuals looking to close shop should inventory, assess, and prepare merchandise for a liquidation process. This means that a savvy reseller could really find huge stores of products inexpensively.

Selling Liquidated Merchandise

If you are interested in selling liquidated merchandise, then you should be aware of a couple of angles to this lucrative business model. The first idea is to actively purchase and resell merchandise that failing businesses are trying to get rid of as quickly as possible. This means you have to do the leg work to figure out who is in the process of liquidating their store and then how to unload the product once you have purchased it. This is not difficult to do if you already have buyers lined up. This means you will want to spend a considerable amount of time developing business-to-business relationships to be able to unload product as quickly as it comes in to your warehouse.

Alternatively, once you have gotten to know other people in this industry doing the same thing, you could forge relationships with other purchasers. In this business approach your goal is to convince these individuals to allow you to resell their stock for them. In this situation, you end up with a constant supply of merchandise. All you have to do is be excellent at reselling the product and collecting a commission for getting the job done. Again, forging relationships with other retailers ready to buy at wholesale prices will help to keep the merchandise moving along.

Offering Drop Shipping Options

Another way to generate orders for merchandise you are attempting to resell is to offer buyers the option to have product drop shipped to their customers. In this scenario, other people are moving your product for you and you do not have to pay any hefty marketing costs. With enough people placing regular orders, you will be able to generate excellent resale rates with minimum advertising efforts on your part. There are numerous online sellers who would rather not have to reship product; consequently, if you take care of all the shipping for them, this makes their life easier. This type of symbiotic relationship is really a win-win for everyone involved.

What Type of Merchandise Should I Purchase

When it comes to purchasing large lots of liquidated merchandise from a commercial source, it is important to steer clear of perishable items. Sometimes merchandise does not resell as quickly as you might hope; consequently, perishables are a huge liability in the merchandise resell industry. Items, such as power tools, appliances, mobile devices from Directliquidation.com, and other consumer electronics and collectible toys are prime items that you will undoubtedly be able to get top dollar for from eager buyers.

It is important to consider that items that are trendy today may not be all that trendy in a few months or longer. When it comes to trendy items, it is important to have sound judgment. You have to know that you can move these products in a reasonable amount of time to justify the purchase of such items. This can make clothing items, for example, a difficult prospect. That is to say, unless you truly are quite a fashion buff. In such a case, experience will be a priceless commodity.

Selling Your Inventory Direct Online

One of the ways to move product quickly is through a merchandise liquidation website. Direct sales to customers online will provide you with a much larger customer base. In addition, you can break up stock orders into more manageable sizes and charge a bit extra on the shipping for each lot of product being resold.

This can add up and allow you to accumulate substantial profits in a short amount of time. It is important to not overprice entire lots of product, making it accessible to be purchased by other buyers at a perceived discount. Remember, when it comes to liquidating merchandise, it is best to find the price that moves the product fast while still realizing a significant profit. Product that sits on your shelves for too long of a time is generally costing you money as it is taking up valuable warehouse space.

Liquidated assets from commercial businesses are turned out on the open market every day. Those who take the time to identify commercial interests unloading their merchandise stand to have access to product at below wholesale prices. While there are an endless number of buyers ready to acquire this product at or slightly below retail value, this business is intended for the few who take the time to understand how to take advantage of the vast stores of product that are being offered to the highest bidder.

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