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Every business, even non-profit organizations, wants to make money. For many, it’s no easy proposition. Competition is cutthroat and margins are skinny, yet many businesses have an overlooked profit center somewhere in their organization that can generate substantial revenue. In many cases it can turn a loser into a cash cow, or push a marginal line of business into a solid revenue generator. The best thing is that the capability to do this is often no more than a good idea away.

The problem is that, in many businesses the organization gets caught up in the existing way of doing things, and that status quo ends up robbing them of the success they should be enjoying. Weather that means they’re just not generating the profit they should be, or the business is foundering on the edge of insolvency, the overlooked profit capability in your business is often easy to tap into with just a few minor changes.

Here are some examples-

Make Money Example 1-
Apple growers in Washington State are turning former waste products into revenue generating crops with minor marketing changes. In the past, premium apples with minor flaws, such as cracks, were sold as scrap for juice or applesauce. For such uses, apples fetch less than 10 cents a pound. Not a huge help for a grower that must support a large and complex operation.

Now, however, some have found a way to increase the revenue generated by these former waste products by 1,000%! The secret is in changing the marketing strategy so that the apples can be sold not as waste, but as pre-sliced, packaged fruit. When pre-sliced the flaws are unnoticeable, and now the growers are getting around $1.00 a pound instead of a dime. It could be the difference between winning and losing in the apple business.

Make Money Example 2-
A consultant friend of mine once turned around a business that was losing about $1 million per month in one of its divisions. Needless to say, the burn rate was putting a serious crimp in the business’s operation. By investigating new markets for the company’s products, he was able to recommend minor changes in the company’s product mix that would allow them to utilize their existing raw materials, plant, and equipment to produce a premium, specialty product mix that turned out to be a big hit with the company’s customers. They had a higher price and provided greater incremental revenue for the company.

The combination of higher prices and greater margin created a huge turnaround for the company, which went from a division losing a million dollars a month, to one that was highly profitable. To make a good thing even better, the new product mix opened up additional markets for the company. The diversification in its customer base helped it ride out subsequent economic problems that adversely affected the industry.

Make Money Example 3-
Specialize in profitable products, leave the others behind. Financial consultant Stephen J. Kerr, of Business Marketing Consulting, counsels publishers he works with to shift their marketing emphasis to specialty products and shy away from mass market outlets. In this way he gets his clients to more effectively seek out targeted prospects for their books and other publications, while not wasting marketing resources on less productive efforts. By revising marketing strategies in this way, he sees publishers go from money losers to earning up to 10 - 30%.

So, the bottom line is you can turn a money losing part of your business into money maker. You just have to be a bit creative with your marketing.