Revenue Growth To Fund Your Business
We can argue the status of the economic recovery; We can read the statistics in the media speaking of a turnaround but no one that I am talking to feels an increasing level of optimism or security around their financial forecasts.
As the Board Member of multiple companies and CEO of a food company with nearly 100 locations nationwide, the access to capital requires an innovative approach. As we have talked to Banks about Lines of Credit, SBA funding, and general access to financing, all conversations follow the same path. They are enthusiastic to do business with us. Soon however, they then recognize that these businesses may not be perfect in every way. This revelation is then followed by a sincere apology centering on how they look forward to helping in the future. With OneAccord Partners currently engaged in over 30 companies, the Partners are finding themselves in similar situations. That is when we begin to understand this isn’t just our companies and clients - it is commonplace in today’s business climate.
Banks will tell you that they have money to lend and they do. What you don’t hear is that those funds are available only to organizations that are secure. Those are the ones that can access those funds to recapitalize their debt with exceptional terms. To use an analogy to bring the point across, the Doctors are only seeing the healthy people. If you are sick, they can’t help.
Regulatory pressures from the Government are handcuffing banks from taking on any loans that negatively impact their ratios. There are great people in the banking industry that are hamstrung. Sadly, there is no brighter horizon to look forward to in regards to the rules changing anytime soon.
So as a CEO, Entrepreneur or Business Owner, what do you do? Change your revenue paradigm. A different way to look at the problem is to recognize “the cheapest source of capital is revenue” and while interest rates are at all-time lows, the rates attached to revenue are even lower.
If you have survived the past four years, you have done so by running a lean operation with strong stewardship over your cash. Now is the time to focus on your revenue generation strategies and access capital through internal growth, not external means. If you haven’t done so already...
- Redirect your 2012 business plan to a heavy Sales and Marketing focus.
- Become active in the leadership of your Sales team.
- Bring a simple focus to measuring Activity and Results, then hold them accountable for both.
Remember, hope is not a strategy, increasing revenue is!
How do you see these three strategies helping you turn your business around?