OPM Business Credit

OPMB, Other People's Money for Business is what you want to finance any business activity you take on.  Everything you do for your business cost you money or time.  So when you borrow money try to do so to pay for an activity that will bring you in more money and profit.  Here are 6 ways you can use OPMB, the money you borrow to earn money by attracting more prospects.

• 1. Use OPMB to Fund a Special Event

What is your big event that you put on for your customers, their family and friends?  How about an appreciation dinner, dance, show or performance?  What can you do once a year that your target market will attend and bring in good will for your company?  For clothing companies it could be a fashion show.  How about a bike rodeo for a bicycle store?   

Whatever the event your money is made in getting the list of attendees and marketing to them later.  Imagine your event attracting current customers who bring their friends and family.  Now you have names of prospects you can sell.  This event may cost thousands to set up so borrow the money to do this and keep your cash reserves for operations cost.

• 2. Use OPMB to Fund a Periodic Event

Every three months you should have an event to at the very least remind people that you are still in business.   Link these events to the broader things going on in the world.  You could have a periodic event to celebrate the seasons, (summer sale, fall closeout, winter wonderland, and spring sale).  Celebrate sports, (football, baseball, basketball, tennis, soccer, and fishing).   Celebrate holidays, (MLK Day, Valentine's Day, African History Month, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Independence Day, Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukah, and so on).          When you write the budget, add in how much new business you will attract by selling products and services that fit the event.

• 3. Use OPMB to Fund a New Target Market

Let's say you have sold quite a bit of products and services to your target market.  So now may be a good time to go after that second target market you held back until your primary market was addressed.  Now is the time to design material and events to attract your secondary market.  You will need additional funding to do this with, OPMB is the way.

For example, you have reached parents to buy for their children, now go after grandparents.  Ask yourself who is the second largest group of people who buy from me?

• 4. Use OPMB to Fund a New Product or Service

If you have a product that doesn't have a service, develop a service.  If you have a service that doesn't have a product, develop a product.  If you sell clothes, develop an image consulting service.  You can help your customers pick clothes that compliment their body type and lifestyle.

If you have an image consulting service develop a clothing line or write a book about image consulting.  Too busy to write a book, get a ghost writer to write it for you.

• 5. Use OPMB to Fund New Staff

Are you bogged down in detail and finding it hard to focus on bringing in new business?  If you are feeling overwhelmed, then you can clone yourself or hand over certain repetitive operations to an assistant.  Funding this new position for a few months will give you a chance to increase sales to pay for the new position out of revenue.

• 6. Use OPMB to Fund Personal Selling

Here's the best for last strategy for using credit to fund activities to bring in new prospects.  Hire commissioned sales people.  Commissioned sales people are paid out of the new business they bring in so their commission check doesn't cost you a penny.  But you do need money for the sales material and events you have them conduct.  Here is where you can tie all of the other activities together by having sales people at all annual events, periodic events, talk to new markets, and sell new products or services.

 Boy! After all of that writing and outthinking myself I need a little fun.  Let's see what are my options?  A movie, date, dinner, sports, bath, meditate, or just to sit here and think about how much fun you're gonna have doing all of these things and raking in the dough!

Sayonara!