Earning a profit while in a business can sometimes be like riding a roller coaster, experiencing both ups and downs, especially during these tough economic times.  It is important to try to keep the downs to a minimum and ride out the tough times. The following are some simple things you can do to help increase business and improve profits.

Create Your Own House List Of Customers

Using a spreadsheet or database program, make a list of people who have bought from you in the past. Break down the list into last week, last month, six months ago, and the past year. Be sure to include all relative information on the list such as dollars spent, items purchased, location, etc.

While this house list can be done on paper, doing it on your computer will give you much more flexibility. The idea here is to develop different useful lists of past customers to which you can send just the right offer to interest and motivate them to make a purchase.

Create Your Own House List Of Prospects

Using the same method as above, make a list of people who may be interested in making a purchase. This can be friends, people who have made an inquiry in the past, special interest groups, etc. Include any item that may be relative to a potential sale. Break the list down into three groups: high, middle, and low. With high being those who will most like make a purchase and low being those who will most likely not make a purchase.

Use Postcards Instead Of Letters In Mailings

There are two major advantages in using post cards. First, postcards are much cheaper than letters to send out. Second, postcards do not require the customer to open an envelope which greatly increases the odds that they will look at it rather than just throw it in the trash can. Be sure to include all relative contact information on the card and an enticement to follow through with an order or to seek further information. For example, you can include a discount or a free gift if they respond by a certain date.

Use E-mail

There is nothing quite like a solid E-mail list built from your own customers and/or prospects. And unlike a postcard that has information constraints due to its size, an E-mail messages can contain as much information as you like.

Consider Re-vamping The Way You Do Things

Re-vamping is the process of streamlining personnel, resources, processes, and other overhead while continuing to focus on quality service. This is often driven by management, with the solutions ranging from fundamental work flow process improvements to high-tech image and information support.

Analyzing and solving paperwork problems is especially a good place to begin re-vamping. Studies have shown that the cost of generating, moving, and tracking great volumes of paperwork can easily account for more than 25 cents of every overhead dollar spent in business.

Consider Total Quality Management (TQM)

In TQM, management works closely with the workers to resolve problems and make things run smoother. Setup an employee suggestion box and meetings to get ideas from your employees. They are the ones doing a lot of the work and can give some valuable input and feedback. The employees will also feel that they are part of the team.

The key to TQM working is to set the rules at the start. Let the employees know if they have a complaint or feel something needs to be improved, they need to counter it with a sensible solution. Otherwise, TQM will do no more than encourage discontent rather than improve things.