Here are seven proven steps for fast-tracking your revenue, cash flow, and efficiency.

1. Clearly define your services, pricing, and packaging

Many firms are using outdated ways to price and package services. Yet strategic pricing and packaging can significantly enhance your firm’s profitability and operational efficiency. Effective pricing strategies start by clearly defining and breaking down your services into detailed components. Once you’ve identified the services you’re offering, only then can you determine the value and put a price on each of those services.

This is where a three-option pricing system comes in, enabling your business to offer predefined service packages to clients. Clients understand exactly what they’re getting, when, and for how much, which improves communication and sets clear expectations.

Using a platform such as Ignition allows you to easily build your service library and create predefined service packages using proposal options.

2. Re-evaluate your billing model

Holding on to traditional billing models is another common culprit that can hinder efficiency and profitability for service-based businesses. Billing by the hour, manually tracking billable hours, billing after you’ve completed the work, chasing clients for payments – these are all entrenched habits that drain your resources and your profits.  

Updating old billing models is key to managing your firm’s revenue. This includes rethinking how you bill and get paid – for example, shifting from billing upon completion to billing upfront or taking a deposit before the work begins.  

When re-evaluating your billing practices, it’s important to have a billing and payments solution that can help you successfully navigate this transition. Ignition’s flexible billing options mean you can bill hourly or use fixed fees, apply one-off or recurring fees, take upfront payments or deposits, and more.

3. Shift to upfront client payments

It’s no surprise that many firms suffer from cash flow issues if they’re stuck using outdated billing practices.

Even if your business isn’t ready to make the leap from hourly to fixed-fee billing, you can still implement billing processes that will guarantee you’ll get paid. Just like when signing up for a gym membership, firms can collect payment details upfront when clients sign a proposal using a tool such as Ignition. This puts you, rather than your clients, in control of the payment process and allows you to collect the payment automatically when the invoice is due. You can then transition to upfront payments, before the work even begins.

4. Transition to recurring revenue

If your business is stuck on a roller-coaster revenue recycle, it may be time to transition to recurring revenue or diversify your revenue streams to protect your cash flow year-round. For Marcus Dillon, CPA and President of Dillon Business Advisors (DBA), transitioning from a traditional accounting practice to offering more comprehensive client advisory services (CAS) has led to increased revenue. DBA now offers Essential, Premier, and Elite core packages for CAS.  

5. Engage clients with a clear scope of work

One of the fastest ways for firms to lose out on revenue and profits is by not having a clearly defined scope of work when engaging clients. You’re not only missing out on an opportunity to communicate your firm’s true value, but also introducing ambiguity to the client relationship. Clients don’t know exactly what they’re paying for, and your staff members are unclear on the services they should be delivering – exposing your business to scope creep.

When sending clients your proposal or engagement letter, it’s vital to include the scope, frequency, and pricing for the services you’re offering, alongside your payment terms, so everyone is on the same page.

Luckily, Ignition enables you to templatise proposals and engagement letters, meaning it takes only minutes to create proposals that provide clients with complete clarity on the scope of services.

6. Get paid when the scope changes

Even if your business is diligent in engaging clients with a clear scope of work, chances are that you’re not charging them for all the ad hoc services you’re providing. It’s all too easy to assist clients with a ‘quick favour’ or spend time on the phone giving advice you probably should be charging for. Ultimately, it all adds up and means you and your staff are working, at least in part, for free.

The solution? Refer back to your original signed agreement to remind clients what is or isn’t in scope, and charge them for additional services appropriately.

Thankfully, Ignition makes it easy to bill for any ad hoc or out-of-scope work using the instant bill feature.

7. Automate time-consuming processes

Once your firm has redefined its approach to pricing and packaging, engaging clients, billing, and payment collection, it’s time to tackle the biggest challenge holding many firms back – administrative burden. Automating manual client engagement, billing, and payment processes is the key to scaling your business, and your revenue, more efficiently.

Taking stock of your current processes is the first step to helping you identify the biggest efficiency gains for your business. You can then implement platforms, such as Ignition, to help automate the way you run your business and unlock more revenue.