Close to the Money
We all experience a bad month or know a rough start. If your business is ever struggling, whether it’s general profitability or a short-term cash-flow issue, you’ll need to understand the term “close to the money” or “near the money“. The term is borrowed from options trading, but the concept rings true here: When you are struggling, turn your focus to activities that bring in money now, not money later.
Overcome the short term
When cash is needed, now is NOT the time to work on efficiency, future improvements, and documentation. Sure, those are all important things. Still, they are less urgent when you are worried about your next payroll or bill to pay. In such cases, shift your focus on overcoming the short term. When you are focusing on being close to the money. here are some ideas:
Go after collections/accounts receivable.
Sell prepaid agreements.
Spend a few minutes cost-cutting (be wary of investing hours to save $10/mo on your cell phone bill)
What sales lead with established relationships need following up.
Upsell to existing clients (easier wins!)
A word of caution: if you find you are in this space ALL the time, that’s a different problem. Then you’ll need to focus on what changes you can make to your habits to get out of this rat race.
Our strategy consultants can help your business. Book a call to see what steps you can take in your company today.
Stop strategizing
If you have already dried these up or are completely out of other ideas, then pick up the phone and start cold calling. Don’t hide behind strategy and scripts, right now you need to be close to the money. If you call enough people, someone WILL take steps with you. Although in a bind, you can offer services and products posthaste which may offer additional value to your prospect.
Temporary solutions
While this wasn’t my favorite article to write, as it’s not very forward-thinking and distracts from grander goals, I’ve personally had to use some of these tactics during the early days of my MSP. Even once during a bad alignment of cash needs at Eureka Process, I had to improvise and stay close to the money. As a matter of fact, I still have a few clients and relationships to this day from the cold calls I made during those lean times.
As long as it’s rare or a temporary measure, these methods can net you results and keep you afloat while you solve the bigger issues. You got this! Speaking of which, what other ideas do you have for actions that are close to the money? I’d love to grow this list.
