Amazon wasn’t even profitable until 2015. Fueled by the bold vision of its CEO, Jeff Bezos, the company spent a lot in its early days to build a future where the company could dominate.

Today, it appears the vision has been fulfilled. The company’s continually explosive top-line growth has finally led to a very profitable bottom line.

Still, in the early days, Amazon had to justify its spending to investors and even other team members, who had concerns about high operating losses and financial sustainability. This is a common conflict many businesses have to continually address.

Within any organization with a budget, there’s bound to be issues between expenses, revenues, and profits and losses. Here’s how companies can prudently balance business development and investment with expenses:

Understand there is no one-size-fits-all approach

As noted in a guide published by the US Small Business Administration, “managing the finances of a growing business requires persistence and balance.” There is no one right approach, not only because each business’ needs, goals, and situation are unique, but also because we live in a world of uncertainty.

After all, macroeconomic forces can alter business plans. Internal decisions about how to use resources can also change with the times.

With that said, companies should unite teams around a common goal: growth and development. The strategy, and how fast it accelerates the business, depends on the proper balancing of opposing forces, one in which financial leverage, sales growth, operating expenses, and profit margins must be considered.

Within any organization, visions may not align. This is where companies must compromise and find direction.

Establish a clear development strategy

Jamie MacDonald, a business development expert, recommends leadership take an objective look at their company’s current situation, analyzing strengths and weaknesses and financial health. Input from all facets of the business, from the budget-minded CFO to the growth-oriented CMO to the efficiency-focused COO, is necessary to ensure the needs of the organization are effectively balanced.

For instance, a business could perform SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). This can help uncover growth opportunities that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Once you locate problems to fix and potential growth areas, it’s time to identify strategic objectives. This means laying out high-level goals for all areas of business. Then, break this down into short-term plans that describe what teams need to do to achieve these goals. Next, establish ways to manage performance and adapt and improve as business development is ongoing.

Of course, this is easier said than done. As Peter Bregman, CEO of a global management consultancy, notes, there is always a tendency for leaders to think about their “own arrows — their piece of the company,” rather than the company as a whole.

Bregman says there isn’t an issue with crafting a unified strategy. What’s necessary is to remember the “big arrow” — the direction in which leadership hopes to take the company. Strategies across every department should keep the big arrow in mind. The key is consistently emphasizing this overarching strategy. This will make decisions around financial leverage, operating expenses, growth strategies, and more much easier.

Stay on top of finances

Prudent CFOs and accountants remain crucial to ensuring growth is sustainable. A staggering 82% of businesses that fail do so because of poor cash flow management, according to a US Bank study.

Clearly, any business development strategy must keep cash flow in mind.

For example, financial leverage is only a good idea if the return on investment exceeds the cost of debt, or the influx of capital leads to greater bottom line growth. If sales growth can’t rise quicker than expenses and debt, then the business will not be in position for success. Though it’s worked eventually for some companies, top-line growth at the expense of the bottom line can be dangerous. Without profitability, funding for business operations and development becomes more difficult to obtain and manage.

One way businesses can obtain help and guidance is through their investors. Business development companies like Saratoga, for instance, not only invest in developing companies, but also provide strategic advice and managerial assistance.

When considering growth strategies, businesses should think of both the top line and bottom line, and how the two should feed off one another. There is no need to highlight one above the other, as both are important to long-term success.

A company must attempt to simultaneously earn more revenue while continually optimizing business processes to lower operating costs. Set goals that detail how an increase of X percent in revenue should lead to an increase in X percent in profit. This will put the company on a path greater market share and positive cash flow. This is how businesses can set themselves up for long-term success.

Remember the direction ahead

Intelligent handling of finances, savvy business strategizing, and thorough execution of plans requires leadership maintain focus on the vision. With solid communication and transparency, conflicts between expenses, profits, investments, and debt can be solved, and the business can successfully forge ahead.

Depending on your individual personality, email is either the best invention of the digital age (thus far), or a time-wasting, soul-sucking menace, evidence of humanity’s tendency to take two steps forward and one step back.

Whatever description you may settle on, know this: email proficiency is incredibly important, especially when it comes to private equity and business development. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that email management is, next to networking and deal flow, probably the most important skill a BD professional has–at least in terms of first communication and softening up prospects.

Think of it this way: when it comes to following up with warm leads, particularly those prospects that you’ve already met in person, email is an excellent tool, allowing you to keep records of conversations, facts and other details exchanged, and even set reminders. But without the right mindset and goals, it’s impossible to master this valuable medium.

What is the point of email management?

Let’s get one thing out of the way first. Even the best email management techniques are useless if you don’t have an end in mind. Instead of picking and choosing from the thousands of email management listicles out there, try working backwards: determine your goal and then work backwards to achieve it.

To begin, your email goals are likely simple ones: boost efficiency, streamline your processes, and simply have email take up less of your life. You’ll probably want to spend less time on useless emails, to spend more time with specific leads, and spend less time sorting out your email inbox. Basically, you wish to have email work for you–and not the other way around.

Switch services if you can

Though it may be out of your control, one action that could work wonders would be to change email providers. Granted your company may already have an existing email interface (Outlook anyone?), but to be honest, not all email services were born equal. The best offer intuitive, all-encompassing interfaces that you can plug into your other apps, such as calendars, and are responsive (they can be used on smartphones and tablets in addition to computer browsers).

By far, the best email provider is Gmail. Granted, Gmail for Business (the company calls it G Suite) is no longer free; however, it is a fantastic choice. With G Suite, you can rely on all the standard features that you’ve grown accustomed to with Gmail: Calendar for keeping appointments and Drive for editing documents and spreadsheets on the cloud, to name a few. More importantly, such programs are integrated, and boast significant cross-functionality: it’s easy to set reminders and invite others to events, and to track deadlines, appointments, and important documents.

Yet G Suite isn’t the end-all of email providers. For those investors who travel frequently, especially to nations like China (where Gmail is banned) will need alternatives. As a result, Zoho is an excellent option: its broad suite of features allows users to synch emails on all devices, easy-to-use archives, templates, and integration with Zoho apps, and unlimited online storage. Still, in comparison to G Suite, Zoho is more limited: you cannot detect dates, and searching isn’t nearly as thorough as Google.

Learn to create filters and keywords

With any email provider, it’s key to set filters. This way, you not only automatically sort important documents and emails into the right folders, but you’ll also prevent overzealous spam filters from accidentally sifting out emails you actually need.

More importantly, setting up filters can prevent your inbox from being overloaded. Directing new emails to the appropriate folders (such as “New Prospects” or “Cold Leads”) allows you to avoid searching constantly for every email when you need it. After all, keep in mind that a full inbox has consequences that go far beyond frustration. One study found that email raises stress levels considerably–simply because people receive so many emails every day.

Check email periodically, and only then

Make a schedule–and stick to it. One reason for email-induced stress has to do with how we interact with email; specifically, rather than setting aside chunks of time to check email, we instead check frequently–more than is reasonable or healthy.

When it comes to this email-related multitasking, the danger isn’t just in wasting time; instead, it’s in wasting energy. Neuroscientists have found that people cannot actually multitask; instead, our brains simply switch quickly from one task to another, rapidly depleting glucose. As a result, when you compare someone who multitasks to someone who doesn’t, you’ll find that the person who focuses on a task longer will be more productive.

Towards that end, it helps to turn off notifications. In their place, set up reminders, either in the form of a timer (Pomodoro works great for this), or a more sophisticated, daily alarm that rings at various intervals (perhaps every weekday on the hour, from 9 in the morning to 5 in the evening). However you choose to do it, the goal remains the same: check your email, but only when you’re allowed to. Save your energy for everything else.

Build email catchup into your schedule

This is related to the previous point. Even paradigms of efficiency and innovation like Tony Hsieh of Zappos can fall behind on emails (and get stressed out as a result). Therefore, a helpful solution is to prioritize: set aside less urgent emails for the next day, and send the first hour or so of each day reading and answering emails remaining from yesterday.

Known as Yesterbox, this approach brings a systematic, straightforward approach–and more importantly, doesn’t demand that you do more (read and answer more emails) in less time. The trick, however, is to shuttle all emails which aren’t urgent to the next day. Moreover, when you do complete (read, reply, file, or delete) at least ten of your emails from the previous day, then (and only then) can you move onto the day’s emails. For any emails that require a lot of time to respond, you should schedule out on the calendar to do so.

In the end, none of these techniques and methods come naturally. But research shows that any behavior change, no matter how small, is very difficult. Try to pick one at a time, and stick with that. After all, you owe it to your loved ones and yourself to live a less stressed, more productive life.

Software companies have become an increasingly attractive investment choice over the last few decades. This is largely thanks to the rise of SaaS (software-as-a-service). The SaaS model has enabled promising small- to mid-market software firms to lower costs, scale more easily, and iterate quickly.

Needless to say, big bucks can be made by investing in a growing software company. Let’s take a look at the top middle market software investors today: [Read more…]

As a Business Development professional, your schedule is tight. You’re always putting out fires and making sure your business is set up for success. The best use of your time is when you’re delivering high-level, actionable strategy. The worst use of your time is when you get bogged down with a laundry list of administrative tasks.

But how can you reduce the time you spend on admin and focus more on the consulting process?

Know Your Flaws

Do you get distracted with your inbox or your social media? Are you constantly switching between your project management tools, your accounting tools, and your email accounts? If so, you’re killing a lot of time.

Little tasks are sneaky and deadly. In isolation, none of them seem to take up too much time. But when compounded, it’s difficult to recover from the loss.

A report by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), says small business owners are spending more than 33 hours a month handling internal admin tasks. 55% say this is causing a lag in business growth. As you might expect, accounting tops the list of major time wasters with up to 14 of the 33 hours. Business banking takes 9 hours, taxes 6 hours, and HR and employee care take 5 hours.

Here’s how you can cut down on that wasted time: [Read more…]

Starting a business is easy. Getting the clients is hard. No matter what business you’re in, there’s always a challenge in convincing prospective clients to jump on board. They need to believe your business is right for them (rather than vice versa).

That’s why a business script can help. Having a pre-programmed monologue (or dialogue) about the merits of your business makes the sales process much, much easier. Of course, reeling in a prospect requires more than just saying the right words, but a proper script can give you a strong foundation and the confidence you need to make a sale.

Let’s take a closer look.

What scripts can do for you

Each business prospect is unique in how they respond to the product you’re selling. The only thing that remains consistent is your ability to connect your business with the potential client.

When you have a script put into place, this becomes a lot easier for you and your employees. When you’re just winging a response on the spot, you may stray away from the message you want your business to send. This, in turn, decreases the strength of your brand.

Here are a couple of ways business scripts can help you further develop your business.

• Not everyone’s a natural salesperson. Having a guide to follow will help the process go a lot smoother. By feeling more prepared for any given situation, you can gather the confidence needed to successfully pull in those prospects.
• Some individuals need more convincing than others. Instead of losing these potential clients, take on the extra challenge with statements ready to change their minds.
• With a script, you’re ensuring that everyone is reflecting the vision you have for your business. Business prospects see that vision, no matter which of your employees is in front of them.

When business scripts are put into use, they allow you to have complete control over your business prospects. In a scripted setting, you’re guiding the outcome of the situation because you’re prepared for every potential scenario.

What you can try

Now that you’re well-versed on the benefits, you can try putting some of them to use. Test out one of the following scripts (or all!) to see how it impacts the way you connect your business with a variety of business prospects.  

Get a good review

One of the ways to draw in more business is through referrals. Here are the first steps in reaching out:

• Get a reference from an existing member of your business. People rely heavily on the reviews of previous clients. LinkedIn is a great way to find who knows who in (or out) of business.
• Reach out to those existing members and ask if they’re satisfied with your business. Once they say “yes”, you can see if they know of anyone else who may be in need of your services.
• From there, you can reach out to those individuals and lead with someone they personally know who can attest to the quality of your services. You’ve already created a sense of trust and familiarity through mutual connections.

Just think about all those times you were hesitant to try a new restaurant and pulled your phone out to check the customer reviews. Reviews play a crucial role in dictating to consumers whether a business is worth their time, with 90% of consumers reading reviews before even visiting a business. Getting a reference from a trusted source of a business prospect can boost your chances of expanding your business.

Go straight for the big guns

It’s definitely the most intimidating of approaches, but it generally has the best outcome. Head straight to the highest level of a company (CEO, CIO, CFO, COO) and appeal to their interests. This requires a change in language and mindset. You don’t want to be casual and you need to think big picture. Here are some things to keep in mind when talking to executives.

• Remember that C-suite executives place a higher level of importance on how exactly your business can increase revenue, decrease costs, and increase profits. Essentially, the numbers are what matter.
• Lead off your conversation with facts. An example of how this conversation can go is “Hi, Mr. President, this is (name) with the (company). We haven’t spoken before but my organization has helped companies very similar to yours save over $300 million in the last year alone. I wanted to reach out and share some ways we can do the same for you if you’re interested.”

Make sure they know exactly how they can benefit from your services. Here are some additional tips for conquering this approach.

Testing it Out

The best way to see what approach works for you is through trial and error. Once you find a script that works for you and your business, you’ll see how much more efficiently your business operates and communicates with business prospects.

So if you’re looking for a way to further expand your business, try testing out a couple of scripts to see how well prospects respond to you and what you’re offering. You’re bound to see some progress.