10 Income-Generating Ideas to Grow Your Business When Times Are Tough

Every business goes through tough times when profits are down and the economy is suffering. But that doesn’t mean you as a business owner should just sit back and do nothing.

If you are seeking ways to help grow your business during rough economic slowdown periods, keep reading and learn how taking just a few simple steps can make a world of difference for your company.

In fact, it’s during the tough times that you are shown many opportunities to try new things and expand, providing your business with both short-term revenue as well as long-term growth.

To help make things easier to digest, I’ve broken this list of 10 tips on how to grow your business during challenging economic cycles into three different sections. 

Depending on the way your business is set up, you can try all 10 of these tips. Or maybe you can first start with just a section or two.

The point is, you should find at least one thing in this list of ideas you can do RIGHT NOW to help grow your business during obstacle-filled times.

• The first section of tips to grow your business during tough times involves reaching out to current and past clients as well as potential clients.
• The next section of tips to grow your business is about getting creative with your pricing. (Spoiler alert: it does not involve lowering your prices.)
• And lastly, I’ve included a few tips about your online marketing presence to help grow your business

Now let’s jump into the tips to help grow your business during feast-or-famine times…

Section 1: Five Business-Growth Tips Related to Current, Past, and Future Clients

 

1. Give more value to your current clients

According to business experts, it can cost as much as five times to attract a new customer than to retain a current one. 

In addition, a 5% increase in retaining customers can lead to an increase in profits by 25-95%. Plus, current customers are more likely to purchase from you by 60-70%, whereas the potential for a new customer to buy is just 5-20%.

Judging by the numbers, it makes a lot of sense when times are tough in business to begin focusing on doing more for the people who already know, like, and trust you from previous transactions than to start from square one with a stranger.

So how do you add more value to your current and previous clients? You can simply ASK. Reach out to them and ask what more or what else can you offer them? Inquire about their needs right now and how can you be of service to address those needs.

For example, let’s say you are run a High Intensity Training business. In the past, you might’ve helped a client to lose a significant amount of weight.

Now, through inquiring about their needs, you can develop further programs focused on new goals such as adding more muscle, or creating a meal plan, or offering advice on proper supplements. 

Keep in mind, you don’t need to develop a whole new system, product, or hire more staff.

Simply reaching out to a select handful of current and/or past clients and having one-on-one conversations about their situation and needs while offering ideas and solutions can pay off in droves through increased business and referrals. 

In fact, by engaging in this deep dive with current and past clients, you may uncover an opportunity to develop a new product or offering in the future that you never would have even considered had you not reached out in the first place.

2. Ask for referrals 

Referrals are one of the best ways to generate highly qualified leads that convert into customers and more referrals.

Afterall, many people are wary of salespeople, but they are likely to trust recommendations from their peers. That’s why it can be beneficial to request referrals for your business from everyone you know who might possibly know someone who’d be interested in what you offer.

This list should include both current and former clients, friends, and even strangers. Here are some methods for asking for referrals from these groups:

How to ask current and past clients for referrals

If someone is a current customer of yours, then chances are they are a fan of your work and appreciate your products and services. So why wouldn’t you ask them for a referral? 

Most people can understand that you are, in fact, a business. And what do businesses need to succeed? Profit from income generated by sales to customers.

So just ask these raving fans who are delighted with your services for a referral and they are highly likely to help. 

If you are looking for a script to phrase your referral request, perhaps you can say something like:

“Hey (their name), I’m wondering if you can help me out and do me a favor. I’d like to continue growing my business by helping more awesome customers like you. Who do you know that I could also help to (solve a specific problem they have) with (your business’s solution to that problem)?” 

 

By phrasing your referral request like this, you are helping make your current customer feel valued and appreciated. 

And by having your clients help you with referrals, then that helps get them involved in your future growth, resulting in their loyalty in the long-term. And that’s a good thing, right? 

How to ask friends and family for referrals

Chances are, your close friends and immediate family would like to see you be successful. And these people also have their own network and sphere of influence. Unless you specifically ask your friends and family for referrals, you might not necessarily get them. 

Another idea for getting referrals from friends and family is to offer some form of incentive that can actually work out to be a win-win. 

Perhaps offer to treat them to dinner or babysit their kids or help with projects around their home in exchange for introductions to people they know who might be interested in what your business provides. 

3. Get back in touch with leads and past clients

Every business has a significant number of leads who for whatever reason did not decide to become a customer.

From people who initially inquired about a price quote to folks who no-showed an appointment, chances are you have an untapped goldmine of potential business from people who said “Not now” in the past but may be singing a different tune today. 

Afterall, you already did enough work to get their attention and attract their interest in the past, plus you also have their contact info. Whatever happened on their end that stopped a transaction is beyond your control.

But what is in your control are the actions you take next to reawaken that conversation. 

Will every past lead or former client become a new customer? Of course not.

But what is certain is the fact that some of these people just might be open to taking another look. And then you reached out to them.

And since you are now top of mind with them (thanks to your followup efforts), the chances are increased that they will buy from you.

Plus, this might even open up the opportunity to reveal certain blind spots and barriers that prevented a deal from happening in the past that you can now address. 

How to followup with leads who didn’t buy and former clients

I’d recommend the double-touch method of reaching out to these folks, which can be in the form of a brief personalized email to check in on their situation as well as a phone call followup.

You can personalize your followup by mentioning something you learned about them from a past interaction, such as their work situation or a mutual friend you have.

You don’t want to immediately try to close them right from the get-go, but instead first open up a dialogue in a friendly and conversational manner. See what they have been up to since the last time your spoke with each other.

Depending on how that goes, you may be able to show them something they might consider doing or at the very least, they can send you some referrals. 

4. Handwrite a personal letter

Yes, we live in a digital online world. However, one should not be so quick to dismiss the power of a handwritten message to a current or past client for an added personal touch.

Plus, with overcrowded email inboxes, voicemails, and DMs, your handwritten letter has a higher chance of standing out from the crowd and putting your business right in front of your audience. 

There’s no need to write a lengthy diatribe, either. You can use a simple postcard and write a few sentences thanking your client for their business and then asking for a referral.

If you know someone’s birthday, you can send them well wishes to help stay in touch and build upon the relationship. Or you can handwrite a note encouraging people to visit your website and learn more about a new offering. You can also include things like a coupon or gift card to stir up interest and traffic your way.

If you don’t have someone’s physical address, you can reach out to them via phone or email and ask them for it, and mention you would like to drop something in the mail for them. 

5. Network locally in your community

Whether it’s meeting in person or online, as a business owner you should be reaching out to new potential audiences who may have an interest in your services while also paying attention to where your target demographic already hangs out. 

There are numerous ways to network within your area (and beyond) to try that can result in more business and referrals for you. Some examples are:

• Speaking at an event
• Becoming a member of your local Chamber of Commerce, trade association, or business networking group
• Volunteering in charitable groups
• Coaching youth sports
• Posting your business card and marketing materials in coffee shops, community boards, and other public area hot spots that promote local services
• Chatting with people you meet while out in public, waiting in line to check out, etc. Your next client could be standing right in front of you and you might not even know it.

 

Section 2: Pricing Strategies and Incentives to Try When Times are Tough

 

6. Raise your prices

Raising your prices when you are in a challenging business climate might sound counterintuitive. However, depending on your specific industry and situation, it could be the right move. 

Increasing your prices can help increase your product’s perceived value, which can attract clients who are seeking higher quality products and are willing to pay for them. This means you would need to generate less clients to generate either the same or even higher profits than you are currently making. 

It’s also important to note that your price can be considered part of your marketing. This means that any raise in price must be backed with solid reasoning behind the increased fee.

You can provide additional value to help justify the cost (more about this shortly), as well as offer to “grandfather” in your most loyal clients at the original price. 

To do this, you can simply reach out to these clients (maybe in the form of that handwritten letter we previously talked about) and mention something like this:

“I’m writing to let you know that I’ve recently added several new services to our clients and as a result will be increasing prices in the upcoming month. Since you have been a loyal longtime customer, I’m reaching out to see if you’d like to lock in your current rate before the prices go up. Please let me know if you have any questions…”

 

The point of this communication is to instill both a sense of exclusivity for your client while also adding a sense of urgency to take action. Plus it invites additional dialogue and opportunities for further conversation about products, referrals, etc. 

7. Offer an additional valuable incentive

When times are tough, it may be tempting to have a fire sale and slash prices just to make the cash register ring.

However, unless you are a big box department store, this method could backfire. Cutting prices may in fact devalue your products and brand in the eyes of the consumer, as well as reduce your margin and lose more potential customers. Not good. 

Instead, try adding special, limited-time offers to help spark interest and generate sales.

For example, if you are in the coaching business, you may offer a free initial consultation for clients. An added special offer may be to also include a free first session and guidebook.

This is just a way to add something a bit extra while providing more value and still keeping folks interested. You are also creating opportunities to grow your business for additional full price offerings in the future. 

Instead of coming from a place of low price desperation and fire sales, which will only equally attract more bargain seekers and low ballers, you are raising your energetic frequency and sending out your signal calling for abundance.

By having a mindset of abundance and offering more, you are aligning with and transmitting on the abundance frequency. This triggers and attracts more to come back to you.

As one of my favorite personal development and business experts Jim Rohn liked to say, “Giving starts the receiving process.”

 

Section 3: Online marketing strategies to help grow your business

 

8. Create landing pages that generate thousands of leads for your business on autopilot 24/7

Leads, or people who raise their hand (and give their contact info) to show interest in your company and what you offer, are the lifeblood for any business.

Of course, many leads won’t pull out their wallet and purchase from you immediately.

That’s not the idea behind setting up a landing page to build your lead list of potential future clients. But it is a start in generating a steady flow of future business that you won’t have to start from scratch in finding. 

What is a landing page and how can it help grow your business?

Simply put, a landing page is an online marketing site optimized with a single call to action, helping to build the conversion process for turning prospects into leads that ultimately purchase.

Most landing pages offer what’s called a “lead magnet” (such as a free PDF report or free consultation) in exchange for contact info, usually just an email address. 

This provides an opportunity for your business to continue reaching out to leads and providing further information and reasons to get in touch with you. 

A great tool and resource I personally have been using to create landing pages and build my list is with the Legendary Marketer 15-Day Online Business Builder Challenge program, which you can learn more about by clicking here.

 

With this incredible online marketing education system, you get all the tools, guidance, strategies, and tips you need to help you create effective landing pages that help generate a steady list of qualified leads for your business on autopilot, 24/7. 

9. Invest in online advertising that generates more online traffic to your landing pages and gets you more leads

After you have set up an effective landing page, the next logical step to take to grow your business is utilizing online advertising to help raise your brand awareness, generate interest in your products and services from the right demographic, and increase Web traffic to your landing page to grow your list of hot prospects and new clients. 

Some of the most popular online advertising methods include running pay-per-click ads on Google, as well as sponsoring posts on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. 

Of course, many business owners simply do not have the time or interest in coming up with the creative ad copy and split testing online ads. 

That’s why it makes sense to partner up with a digital marketing agency that specializes in creating online advertising to grow your business using proven methods that actually convert. 

You can learn more about my digital marketing agency, receive a free report detailing what your customers are finding online about your business, and get complimentary access to a suite of useful online marketing tools to grow your business by clicking here.

 

10. Create an online course

Rounding out this list of ideas to help grow your business when times are tough is a strategy that takes just a bit more of a time investment, but can ultimately be a tremendous business builder, marketing tool, and additional income source.

It’s no secret that the multi-billion dollar online education industry is hugely popular and will only continue to grow. 

By creating an online course in a subject related to your interest and relevant to your audience seeking knowledge, you can teach others about your industry and share your expertise to create more beneficial growth for more people worldwide. 

For example, if you work in the restaurant business, you may consider offering an online cooking course or teach people essential knife skills every home chef should know.

If you are a health coach, you can offer a meditation course.

The possibilities to share your knowledge online with others seeking to improve their lives, overcome challenges, and are willing to pay for it are virtually endless. 

Plus, since you create the course once and offer it online, you are not trading in your time and energy for income. People are free to enroll in your online course learn at their own pace on their own time.

At the same time, you are further adding to your own credibility and authority as a subject matter expert in your field. This can only strengthen your brand and put you head and shoulders above your competition and grow your business.

When leads are ready to buy (and make referrals), who do think they will turn to first?

Their online mentor and subject matter expert: YOU.

Conclusion

When it comes to growing your business during challenging economic climates, there is no magic overnight formula which can instantly help you turn things around immediately.

Instead, you have several different options to try and implement into your business which, over time with consistent effort, testing, evaluation, and refining can ultimately lead to better profitability and favorable outcomes.

Begin by trying out a few of these ideas for your own business for 30 days straight and see how things look in the end.

By moving forward in the direction you are seeking, you are generating better momentum and harnessing more power to grow your business in your favor, no matter what state the economy is in. 

And that’s what you really want, isn’t it?