While some businesses have re-imagined their revenue models due to shelter-in-place orders and unpredictable reopening rules, other businesses are joining forces to revamp their revenue streams by pursuing partnerships.

Sometimes, the boost your business needs is right in your backyard. It just takes some creative thinking to identify, explore, and establish partnerships that can benefit both sides of the relationship.

Opening a Window

Filip Duz’s company, Giraffe Window Cleaners, services roughly 1900 square miles in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. When mandatory closures and COVID-related business restrictions set in, he knew he’d have to find revenue sources beyond his regular income stream. 

Instead of working directly with homeowners as he typically has, Duz formed an alliance with several real estate agents.

“From my past dealings with real estate agents and home stagers, I knew that real estate agents place a big focus on making a home look great before selling,” he says. “Naturally, clean windows are a part of making a home look presentable for selling, so a partnership made sense to me.”

To get his partnerships started, Duz located a list of the top 1000 realtors in his metro area. From there, he sent text messages and made cold calls, introducing himself, and asking if the agents needed help cleaning the windows on homes their brokerages had listed for sale. 

The plan worked gangbusters for Duz and his partner agents. 

“When a realtor needs to prepare a home for a showing, they reach out to us to schedule a window cleaning,” he says. “This benefits us because it provides a steady flow of work for our crews. The real estate agency benefits from having a reliable partner that provides consistent, high-quality window cleaning at a moment’s notice.”

Doubling Down on a One-Stop-Shop

As a gutter and window cleaning service in Austin, Texas, Full Color Cleaners owner Benjamin Nguyen knew his team always had an eye for identifying their customers’ needs.

“When we perform any one of our exterior cleaning services, we’d usually discover things that are broken or damaged and needs a specialist to come fix it,” says Nguyen. “We’d only ever pointed it out to the customer, and they would go out and search for a specialist themselves unless we had family or friends specializing in those services.”

But this year was unexpected with the pandemic and many businesses in the Austin area struggling. Instead of just pointing out things that might need to be fixed, Nguyen and his team started to call service providers they had relationships with to help their clients fix what needed fixing.

Nguyen started his outreach for potential partners with business owners he’d networked with in the past. Knowing they needed to add multiple services to their partnerships, Nguyen reached out to fellow local Austin-area businesses, including those offering roofing, pest control, landscaping, and plumbing.

“The outreach process is quite fun because small business owners are always thrilled and happy to talk about their business,” he says. “That really helped us build a good relationship with them from the start.”

Now, Nguyen’s business – and those he partners with – all get a referral fee when they refer customers. His customers get the satisfaction of knowing Nguyen’s team is bringing solutions to their problems. Full Color Cleaners has built up a robust set of local business alliances that will continue to power a new revenue stream even through reopening and beyond.

“It comes full circle, everyone helping out each other,” says Nguyen.

Planting Seeds for Growth

Farmers have been hit particularly hard, first during the trade war of 2019, and now the pandemic of 2020. Farm Lease Pro, an online marketplace where farmers and landowners connect to lease farmland, recognized the need their customers had to find ways to bring in revenue when COVID caused slowdowns in the supply chain. 

“Each day, many older farmers are retiring, and trying to figure out how to monetize the equity they have built up in their land over decades,” says Madison Woodward, founder of Farm Lease Pro. “The property taxes are high, and the maintenance bills keep coming while income is down.”

Woodward was actively looking for ways Farm Lease Pro could add value to their cash-strapped clients during these difficult times. He reached out to a similar marketplace, HLRBO (Hunting Lease Rental By Owner), to explore a partnership idea. Both farm and hunting leases are an avenue for landowners to generate income off their land while providing hunters and farmers the ability to use land that they might not be able to purchase outright.

“Farm Lease Pro has a large user base of landowners making money off of farm leases, while HLRBO has many landowners who are earning revenue from hunting leases,” says Woodward. “We joined together to provide landowners with another opportunity to monetize their land without selling it, while also helping farmers and hunters find the land they are looking for.”

Now, both Farm Lease Pro and HLRBO have an uptick in business, and both farmers and landowners are enjoying revenue from previously untapped revenue streams.

Whatever your line of work, there’s always a creative partnership waiting to help you and a potential partner grow your business. It doesn’t take a challenging economy to see that a strategic plan for businesses joining together can help every member of an alliance reap new rewards.

COVID-19, so far, has had far-reaching impacts on global trade. Your business could be one of the many curious about protecting cash flow during the current COVID-19 market disruption.

U.S.-based small and mid-sized businesses import one-third of all U.S. imports according to census data from 2016. Since exports from areas impacted by the coronavirus are already happening, businesses face a variety of challenges. Lower stock levels, missing components, and top-selling products could be in dwindling supply – all of which decrease cash flow.

If your business stands to endure a slowdown on account of COVID-19, you can still keep operations above water while trade turmoil settles down. Below you’ll find multiple strategies for protecting cash flow, taking an inside-out approach starting with business operations.

Analyze AP/AR

While it’s likely already part of your periodic financial review strategy, now’s the time to take a deep dive into accounting as the first strategy for protecting cash flow. Both accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) might be due for a strategy shift. Both can also help bring much-needed cash in-house or keep cash-on-hand for a bit longer than usual.

• AP: Look for subscription-based vendors and consider suspending service on non-essential office supplies and services. Reach out to vendors and leverage your good payment history to negotiate early pay discounts or extended due dates for a defined period of time.
• AR: Extend early pay discounts to customers with timely payment histories. For past due receivables, consider establishing payment plans or discounting invoices to bring that cash on board.

Keep in mind that your customers and vendors might also be experiencing effects from the COVID-19 market disruptions. The strategies above can help keep cash flow steady and prevent the need to reduce headcount. You might also find that you build new goodwill with those on the other end of your AP/AR efforts, as they’re likely looking for cost-saving and improved cash flow measures right now as well.

Explore Bridge Funding

While COVID-19 won’t be around forever, just how long it will be around for remains unknown. That’s why today is an ideal time to explore bridge funding options as a strategy for protecting cash flow.

On-demand funding tools like a business line of credit can help you tap funds as needed and fill in cash flow gaps. You can also explore purchase order financing if you need to switch-up suppliers during lean cash flow times.

More conventional bridge funding solutions like business loans can help fund operations for the long-haul. Many loans offer flexible terms where payment frequency adjusts to meet your cash flow, which could be advantageous in the COVID-19 business environment.

Invite Solutions to Protect Your Cash Flow

Transparency is key during turbulent business times. That’s why it’s critical to bring your entire team up to speed on how it’s anticipated that COVID-19 will impact the business. Once your team is up to speed, invite them to contribute to conversations surrounding protecting cash flow.

For many small and mid-sized businesses, departments/employees can get unintentionally siloed. There’s reduced visibility to how other departments/employees manage day-to-day operations. Management might also have reduced visibility to how each department/employee could help keep operations going during periods of reduced sales or diminished supply.

Create a call for ideas. Encourage employees to cross-collaborate on solutions. Explore ways to dig deeper into your existing customer base versus a focus on new customer acquisition.

A commitment to transparency and collaboration can help surface efforts that could incrementally improve your cash flow. You also might discover a greater sense of team ownership in the company’s day-to-day operations and new initiatives that will boost business well beyond the days of COVID-19.

You now have three strategies for protecting cash flow during the COVID-19 market disruption, all originating from inside your company. The best part about all of these strategies is that they’re not just for times where a health concern is complicating your supply chain. Rather, they’re enduring strategies that all businesses can use year-round to keep operations lean. You could maintain a well-cultivated talent roster and deepen employee participation in the company’s short- and long-term goals.

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In today’s digital landscape, a small business website is one of the most important tools any business owner can have. It’s a place where your audience learns about who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. But what are the essential areas all small business websites should focus on when creating or updating their sites? We asked Katie O’Brien, a website designer and brand strategist, what small business owners should focus on. Here’s what she had to say.

1. A Simple Home Page

You don’t need to do all of the things on your website’s homepage. Focus instead on being clear and concise. O’Brien says, “Visitors should immediately — without scrolling — know exactly what you offer and if it’s for them. This makes the difference between someone landing on your page and immediately clicking the back button to go back to their search results…or sticking around and taking action on your website.”

2. Hours of Operation

When are you open for business? While you might think this is common knowledge, new-to-you customers might not have any clue when you do business. If you own a traditional storefront, this is especially important, but it’s important for remote workers or digital storefronts as well.

3. Testimonials

If you haven’t collected praise from your previous clients or customers, now’s the time. Your prospects want to read recommendations from people who have worked with you.

“The testimonials not only validate your products and services,” says O’Brien, “but they allow potential clients to imagine what it would be like working with you or purchasing from you.”

So, where should you place this praise? O’Brien suggests using them in two different ways. She says, “Testimonials should be strategically placed throughout your website to support the individual goals of each page on your website. You should also have a dedicated place on your website to list out all testimonials.”

4. A Clear List of Services

“Clarity is key with your services page,” says O’Brien. But what does that mean? If you have multiple offers or products, you may have a lot to say. However, there is a way to keep the main page structured. O’Brien says, “If you have multiple offerings consider having a simpler overview on your services page and an individual page for each service.”

“You’ll want to get clear on the action you want your potential clients to take. Should they book a call? Purchase a product? Once the call to action is identified everything should be built out around that.”

5. An About Page About the Both of You

Don’t think that the about page should be about only you and your business. Since this is one of the most viewed pages on any small business website, use it to remind your audience what problem (of theirs) you can solve. For example, a nutritionist might talk about how diet culture creates self-esteem issues, and then go on to talk about how her mission is to teach people to eat healthy in a way that makes them feel good about themselves.

6. Social Media and Contact Information

You want to keep people on your website until they’re ready to follow your calls-to-action, such as booking a call. However, not everyone who visits your small business website is primed to buy — though they may want to keep following you and reach out when they are ready. Here’s where directing them to your social media accounts and having a clear contact page come in handy.

But, O’Brien says, “Social media information and your contact information serve two completely different purposes. Most of the time if someone wants to contact you they have a very specific reason – for instance, a question before they buy. Those who are connecting with you on various social media outlets just want updates from you… some of the time.”

To help those clients wanting to buy, make your contact page easy to navigate to at all times, and keep the copy simple. As for social media, O’Brien suggests placing them in the footer of the small business website.

The key is keeping viewers on your site, until they’re ready to take the steps to move into the direction you’re leading them via your copy and design, not lose them to social media.

This may seem like a lot to do on one small business website, but don’t stress. O’Brien says, “I think a lot of people feel websites are this super complicated formula, but they’re a lot simpler than most think. Clearly state what it is you do or provide and how they can move forward. That should be the primary focus of every website.”

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