How to Increase Your Income During a Recession

Posted: 16 Mar 2008 | Categories: Wealth Building

The most effective thing you can do to increase your income immediately is to collect any outstanding accounts receivable. Some other things you can do include making cash sales, selling assets, renting out space you don’t use and having rental income, and taking advantage of early payment discounts.

You can also create a cash flow plan which might consist of cost reductions, new marketing strategies, debt reduction and specific ways you can increase your income. To reduce costs you might get rid of things considered luxuries or things you don’t really need. For example, excess inventory just sitting on your shelves, cash bonuses, excessive travel expenses.

Some things you can do to increase your income could include changing your insurance plans, when is the last time you compared prices and checked which features you pay for and which you use? You might want to change or at least review your coverage and compare prices. You could also cut back on utilities and phone expenses, have your electric meter checked to be sure it is working correctly and you are not being overcharged, make sure to really look at your bills when they arrive and make sure there aren’t any billing errors. You can save a lot of money by cutting back on bells and whistles with your phone company; do you have call waiting, caller ID, conference calling, call forwarding, voice mail, and multiple phone lines? Do you rent or lease your phone and equipment or do you own it? Try getting rid of some phones, and while you’re at it get rid of call waiting and a dedicated fax line. Stop renting and buy your own phone equipment.

Do the same things with your bank statements, check each statement, and compare a few banks, their monthly fees, overdraft fees, any monthly service fees and what they charge when you order new checks. Make sure you have the best deal for what you need without overpaying or paying for things you don’t need.

When times are tough you can’t afford to be the nice guy, you need to be paid now and if you don’t take action to collect the money that is due to you, you won’t be in business very long.

Michelle Dunn, author of an award winning book has spent the last 18 years stepping into dangerous debt collection potholes. She shares her hard-won expertise on debt collection with the titles in her “Collecting Money Series.” She is the founder and president of Never Dunn Publishing, LLC and her 10 year old Credit & Collections Association with over 1075 members. Michelle started and ran M.A.D. Collection Agency for 8 years. Visit http://www.michelledunn.com and http://www.credit-and-collections.com for more information.

Article Author :Michelle_Dunn