Business owners, small or big, know how challenging it is to run a successful business. While revenue and profit do hold significant importance as the success rate of a business, the fluidity of cash is what decides it’s sustainability.

Cash flow is the lifeblood of every business, especially small businesses. A robust cash flow ensures secure payments and investments, allowing you to focus on growth, and it’s absence can result in otherwise.

In this blog we will discuss 4 essential tips to improve cash flow for you small business.

1. Optimize invoice and payment terms

Ensuring timely invoices and clearing payment terms is the most effective way of improving cash flow. Automated invoicing tools can streamline the invoicing process, reducing errors and speeding up the payment process

Some common payment terms include Net 30 or 15 where the client has to pay full invoice amount within 30 or 15 days of the invoice date, respectively.

By setting clear and concise payment terms you can expedite the payment process while reducing jargons.

2. Control and Manage Expenses Carefully

The second way you can improve your cashflow is to carefully monitor and control your operational expenses.

Effective expense management allows you to improve profitability by reducing unnecessary costs. It helps you enhance cashfow and make informed, data driven decisions.

Many softwares provide features that help manage and track potential cutdowns.

3. Increase Sales Without Raising Costs

This is the most strategic and effective way to improve your cashflow and it comes with benefits.

Let me tell you how.

You can suggest your existing customers to purchase another product that compliments their first purchase or is the improved version, or you can offer discounts on referrals.

All this can be done efficiently and at no cost done through email marketing and social media. Among tons of other benefits, one of them is it would build trust in your customer and eventually turn your business into a brand.

4. Maintain a Cash Reserve

A cash reserve is like a safety net for your business. A cash reserve will help you tackle unexpected challenges like economic downturns, supply chain disruption, or sudden drop in sales.

A cash reserve won’t just protect you from a sudden storm but also give you the opportunity to expand your business reducing the stress of risking a huge amount of money.

While the sky is the limit when it comes to improving cash flow, the above 4 mentioned hold the foundation that is needed.

Let’s go through the marketing funnel that converts, in 4 sentences:

First, make your target audience aware of your brand or product with compelling ads.

Once interested, guide them to your landing page where you provide them with something valuable in exchange for their email.

Here through email sequence, you build relations with your target and then market them your product.

After the purchase, you follow up with thoughtful emails and strengthen the relationship.

The shortest blog written.

There is a reason why some businesses become beloved brands while others remain just another name. It has nothing to do with their products, big marketing budgets, or smart strategies.

It’s all in their message that connects with people.

Big businesses spend millions on copywriting agencies to craft the best marketing message but forget to create connections.

Great marketing messages do indeed help a business grow but a message that’s not only about selling but rather creating connection strengthens that business.

A famous example is Apple when they introduced their iPod. Instead of writing “5GB storage in a tiny device” they said “1000 songs in your pocket” which made people realize how the brand made it easy for them to enjoy their favorite music without carrying a big phone.

In this blog, I am going to talk about 5 secrets every copywriter masters that every business owner should know about.

1. Copywriting turns a Business into a Brand

A business creates a product or service and puts it out for consumers. Consumers look at the product and check the features. 30% of them buy while 70% move on.

Copywriting tells the consumer how this business’s product or service will benefit you and why you should get it. When people find out the benefits they will receive, 68% will not even look at the reason to buy it and BUY IT.

As a business owner you should know that your product is not exactly what the customers want, it’s the solution that they want. Copywriting will help you convince them that your product does solve their problem.

And when you solve their problem they remember your name (brand name).

1. Words will either build you or break you

It’s important to know how your words are structured and what words are used. Many people forget how impactful a few letters can be on the entire message.

Your words will either build relationships, loyalty, and trust or completely wreck your opportunity.

For example, I am not going to go in-depth about where this example is from but an article was published back in time. Its headline was originally “War on Terrorism” but no one wanted to support it because of the strong and displeasing image it created in minds. So it was changed to “Promotion of Peace” and people started to take an interest.

That’s how impactful words are.

1. A/B testing filters your customers for you

This one is self-explanatory but I will add it anyway.

A/B testing is the most important when it comes to crafting personalized copy. Sending out different versions allows us to analyze the most effective piece and help us create more of that.It reduces bounce rates and increases conversions along with user engagement.

With A/B testing, your work is incomplete.

1. Benefits over features

As I wrote in the beginning how Apple introduced its iPod by describing its benefits over features is the perfect example of how copywriting should be approached.

You don’t have to describe what features your product comes with instead tell them how it will benefit them.

1. Storytelling

The last and most important copywriting secret is storytelling. Stories have proven to be the most effective method when it comes to creating an engaging copy where the reader feels certain emotions that prompt them to take action.

One of the greatest examples of storytelling is the Wall Street Journal’s sales letter where Martin Conroy used the story of two men and how they were identical but one was in a higher position than the other. He used this to sell the subscription which brought in $2 Billion.

Conclusion:

What I shared are only 5 secrets and honestly, these are not secrets, they are facts that every business owner should know and there are many more of them. In marketing the message takes up 50% of space and copywriters spend days and hours crafting a message that resonates with the reader. So make sure before you hire a copywriter or decide to do it on your own, you know who are you writing for, what are you writing and how are you writing.

We’ve all seen the crazy chiropractic treatment videos on Instagram and TikTok.

The ones where the chiropractor twists an arm 360 degrees…

And separates the head from the body…

And God knows what…

But did you know chiropractic treatments were next to being considered illegal and threatening to life?

Daniel David Palmer, the man who gave birth to chiropractic, was himself jailed for it.

I will tell you why in a moment.

In 2008, Simon Singh, a theoretical and practical physicist…

…called out chiropractic a “bogus treatment” in a column in The Guardian, a British daily newspaper.

This triggered the British Chiropractic Association and…

Singh was sued for libel.

Two years later,

Singh won the case against BCA and they officially withdrew the lawsuit, ending the case.

The researchers revealed…

Chiropractic practices under BCA were abusive and fraudulent,

And many of them were performed by unlicensed chiropractors.

Keeping this in mind…

Is it true that this treatment is actually “bogus” and only a “bogus” person would go for one?

Well no.(period)

Palmer believed that if a man’s organ is suffering from an illness…

It’s because of not receiving the normal “nerve supply.”

He called it “spinal misalignment” and saw chiropractic as a form of realigning to re-establish that supply.

It’s only dangerous in people’s misconception…

When they think it is the cure for every illness.

Although yes…

It is crucial for the professionals performing this treatment to be licensed.

This is the reason why D.D. Palmer, the father of chiropractic, was jailed because he wasn’t a licensed professional.

But personally,

Chiropractic treatments should only be considered when prescribed by a doctor.

Because it’s not always the stronger version of practice that people need.

In 1975, a newspaper, founded by a company in New York, held a significant position in the market. It provided business-focused information that covered finance, politics, technology, and lifestyle.

These newspapers were sent out to hundreds and thousands of business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs who preferred staying updated on the current economy and wanted to improve their business and daily lives.

After being in the business for over 85 years this company decided to run a campaign to introduce their newspapers to more groups of people by directly mailing out a subscription letter.

It was mailed for the next three decades and generated over $2 Billion.

This was the only company that set the bar so high, it sparked curiosity among its competitors.

What made this campaign so successful..?

This $2 billion success was researched and studied by many entrepreneurs and marketing strategists. Here is what the research concluded with:

• A massive audience base
• An enormous marketing budget
• Partnerships with famous brands
• Targeting only the wealthiest areas of America

Apart from this, there were also whispers of fraudulent activity behind it.

All of these made sense to some extent, including the fraudulent activity, but they just couldn’t be more far from reality.

In fact…

They were left baseless as every other newspaper company back then majorly used direct mail for their marketing campaigns. They just never hit $2 Billion.

The founders of this company were open to the public about their strategies. They even shared the exact letter they had sent — which you’ll see in a moment. It was just a simple promotion.

Then what was this $2 Billion secret?

The Secret To $2 Billion

It was only when the writers and editors in marketing took the wheel into their own hands and uncovered the secret hidden in plain sight.

They read the letter and found out that it wasn’t just any promotional letter.

It was a two pages long sales letter written by a copywriter that sparked curiosity and desire in its readers to take action.

This company Dow Jones & Company hired a copywriter Martin Conroy to write a direct-mail sales letter for their Wall Street Journal newspapers.

(You can read the full letter here)

This letter was not a typical promotional letter. It took an interesting approach toward its readers that grabbed their attention and will grab yours too.

It starts with painting a beautiful picture in the reader’s mind:

It goes on to describe how similar they both were while working for the same company, but the only difference was that one was the manager of a small department and the other was the president of that company.

Conroy then softly transitions to inform the reader how important it is to have knowledge that benefits, and presents the Wall Street Journal newspaper as the reason behind the second person’s success.

This sparked curiosity in its readers and their desire to receive valuable information to become the better version of themselves made them buy the Wall Street Journal’s subscription.

You see, businesses back then never realized how important it was to deliver messages the right way. They would write their ads and sales letters themselves without any research and put it out.

Which kept them from hitting big in sales…

The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, leveled up its game when it hired Martin Conroy and let him write their sales letter.

He wrote the letter so well that it was sent for the next 28 years and still to this day no one has topped it. Even now, knowing that it’s a clear marketing letter, when you read it you too will be convinced to get the Wall Street Journal subscription.

This single letter was the secret that made $2 billion. It spoke with the brand’s voice to the person reading as if it’s a human speaking directly

Today the world of business is far more competitive and saturated than it was in 1975. With a new groundbreaking technology launching every day, it can be challenging and energy-draining to focus on one side.

The Wall Street Journal’s historic success teaches us a lot about how the big mind of the business can focus on growing while the copywriter can connect the business to its consumers.

Understanding your message will make a difference in your messaging because if you try to sell to everyone, you’ll end up selling to no one.

So for your next big project, spend some time to research on how you’re gonna deliver your message so people buy it, or hire a copywriter to do that for you.

Maybe you’ll get your hand on another billion-dollar secret.

Hello everyone.

I hope you all are doing great because I know I am not.

And it all starts with my morning.

Have you ever noticed how the slightest thing or act in the morning can affect the rest of your day? Absurd isn’t it?

Well, I have so much to yap about.

But before I do let me go over WHY mornings affect the rest of the day.

Mornings- WHY do they affect the rest of the day?

I read a blog today by Anthony Sanni, the author of The Law Of The Vital Few, where he speaks about how morning drives the rest of the day.

He mentioned it as The Law of the Morning.

Sanni wrote that morning is when our hormones are optimal for maximum physical and mental productivity.

When we wake up in the morning our minds are clean — free of all emotions, positive or negative. Most of the time we stare at our ceiling blankly. That is when we get to decide how our day will be.

Our first act at that moment is what our brain captures and builds up according to it for the rest of the day.

Sanni speaks truly when he writes that the morning provides an unequalled sense of calm and poise. I agree with it. I have spent mornings admiring how quiet they are, the serenity it has, and the breeze of freshness it brings.

Now coming to the point, WHY does it affect the rest of the day?

The WHY:

I mentioned above that our first act in the morning is what our brain captures and builds according to.

It’s because that’s when our brain is in restore mode. It’s empty like ChatGPT or any other Large Language Model. The first prompt you give is how it responds to the entire chat.

We must ensure that our first prompt — act in the morning — is how we want the rest of the day to be.

If we plan our day to be productive we must do the thing that requires most energy, first. Have to write a proposal? Do it in the morning. Clean the garden? Grab the tools in the morning.

That first utilization of the energy will last throughout that day.

I am not saying that you will be extremely energetic the rest of the day. In most cases, it might be the opposite — extremely exhausted. But when you set yourself to the next task on your to-do list, it won’t feel like you have to invest a lot.

Ok enough with me being a Ph.D holder on the study of morning. Let’s talk about how I ruined my morning and how it affected my day.

My Ruined Morning:

Before I went to bed I planned to spend the next day — today — being productive. But I didn’t.

I woke up and instead of getting up making my bed and sitting to the most energy-consuming task, I lay there planning what I’d do today.

For about 15 min I was in the exact position before I fell asleep again and woke up in the afternoon.

I was pissed for sleeping again but I tried to be positive and do the work that I had but I just couldn’t.

My energy was not built to more than just planning. Meaning, when I spent my morning planning, my brain optimized my hormones to only imagine what I’d do rather than making me do.

The entire day I sat in front of my computer thinking what I’d do.

It’s only now, at 1:08 am that I forced myself to write this blog.

Long story short I wasted my day because I wasted my morning.

Key Takeaway:

Protect your morning at all costs. I am not saying what happened to me was bad, some people need that morning sleep and it’s OK.

It’s just for me and people like me out there who plan on being productive in the morning, this is unadmirable.

The first 15–20 min of your morning decides the rest of your day. If you don’t have any tough work to get over in the morning, you can simply just meditate, go for a walk, or have a slow morning preparing breakfast for yourself.

That will keep you calm and relaxed throughout the day which is as important as being productive.

And since I don’t have any energy left, I have nothing more to yap about.

Thank you for reading.

I wish you all many happy and healthy mornings to come.

See you in the next blog.

Love,

xoxo

Growing up as a Navy officer’s son, I was expected to follow the same path. But I knew there was much more in life than just following some set of strict disciplines.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the military. Not because it serves the country but how much it had an impact on my life.

I had the best childhood.

I spent my days like a royalty. Living in a high-class like-minded neighborhood, studying in private schools, and attending many official parties. Plus my father would return from military trips with tons of chocolates… so yeah.

Anyways, he was the only member in our family who was successful in being recruited. His 5 brothers weren’t.

My youngest uncle never applied but the rest 4 had some weakness. The first one was afraid of heights, the second was too funny, the third was too aggressive in his patriotism and the fourth had poor eyesight.

My father is the oldest.

The entire family tree was busy predicting the future, how I would be the next Navy Officer but little did they know I had plans to be a disappointment.

Lolzzzz…..!!

My not being interested in what my father is or does makes people think that I am nothing like him, but I am in some ways.

Here’s what I inherited from my Navy Officer father:

His Strength and that’s the only thing:

I know you might think my father is some big bulky military hunk in a uniform and I must also be huge but we aren’t.

Sad.

Of course, he is my handsome and strong Papa but he isn’t big.

What I mean by strength is that he was in the Special Service Group where they do all sorts of aggressive training and what I’d call “torture”, so he built up. It happened to have been passed down to me.

I have always loved outdoor activities. Be it hiking, rock climbing, gymnastics, football, etc.

And I have been good at it. Well, I AM good at it.

I will tell you how I found out.

In 2018, I went on a solo trip to the capital city. I was 16 and that was my first time alone on a plane. OMG, I should write about that.

Anyway, there I went up to the northern mountains with my cousins.

Oh, I still remember the mountains standing tall and bold, touching the clouds. It was surreal.

There we just started climbing a small mountain cuz we saw the mirror before we left and none of them could find a professional mountain climber in the reflection.

Everyone had their shoes on except for me. I was in sandals. Never knew we’d end up climbing a mountain.

My cousins started climbing and I was thinking about whether I should in these sandals.

Couldn’t hold my excitement for long, so I jumped in.

Surprisingly, I was on top 5 min before everyone else could make it. I just enjoyed hopping from one rock to another. Was a bit tired but not as much as others were.

And here’s the best part, my sandals were more delicate than my cousins’ shoes, yet they got their soles torn and I didn’t. I just knew to put my feet on.

This was one time I thought about my energy and figured out it came from my father.

The second time was when I played football and badminton.

It was in 9th grade and we had our P.T. periods.

I was on defense in our football team. All the other students took their ID cards, ties, and shoes off, some even changed into T-shirts and folded their trousers to their knees.

Making themselves easy to maneuver.

I on the other hand had everything on. I didn’t even fold my sleeves. But still, I was fast and played well enough to be called the best defense of our team.

Everyone used to be surprised by my energy and when they’d find out my father is an SSG Commando they are like “Oooooooohhhh, that’s why”. I never understood this phrase until now.

So yeah long story short,

If you ever feel like you have nothing in common with your parents then take a look around one more time.

Not to the big things but the small activities, you must have inherited some kindness or strength or sharp IQ.

That’s all from my side.

See you next time.