Different ways to increase revenue in your social enterprise

We each have different objectives and needs for increasing revenue in our social enterprise.

For you it might that you are ready to earn more from the work you do (increased salary); you want to scale your capacity and bring on new people to your team; you want to scale your impact or “give back” more to causes that you care about.

Whatever the reason, it’s important to know the intention of this increased revenue before you choose a particular approach to increase it, as well as why you want to do it and how much you want to increase your revenue by, over what period of time.

When you’re clear on this then you can start looking at the different options to increase revenue and decide on which is the best approach for you at this time.

Below I list nine different ways to consider increasing your revenue

1. Increase prices (or profit margin)

Pricing is an excellent way to increase revenue, quickly and easily. As well as looking at new products or services you could sell at a higher price. In my experience, most social enterprises (or businesses with a social or environmental purpose) are underselling the value of what they provide and should be looking at increasing their prices to better reflect the true value of their service.

2. Increase market share by:

Increasing the number of customers you have (and/or increasing your target audience of potential buyers).
Finding new audiences who will buy what you already sell.
Creating new services or products that your existing clients / customers want and need.

Another great way of increasing your revenue is by increasing your market share, in one of the ways mentioned above. Never be restricted by what you have or haven’t achieved in sales before. There are always ways to increase your market share.

3. Creating an affiliate programme or collaborating with others to sell your services. This is a great way to increase sales easily, by partnering with someone else who has an established audience that includes people in your target audience. It’s a win-win for both parties, as you both earn from the process.

4. Upsells or bundles. Think about how you could upsell your existing services, could add extra’s that people have asked for in the past, and charge a bit more for this. Or bundle your services together for a slightly reduced rate.

5. Recurring revenue (subscriptions, memberships etc) is a great way to increase revenue especially because it helps you predict how much you’re going to have coming in via repeat payments in the future.

6. Advertising. Yes this usually requires an upfront investment but if you get it right it should be worth the return on investment and help you grow your client and customer base. Be intentional about the type of advertising you use and constantly review that it’s actually working for you.

7. Increase visibility, recognition & exposure. Like advertising this is all about being seen by more people but in a more organic, cost-free way. Ask yourself: “How can I get in front of more of my ideal clients?” Remember to pick one thing you become known for, so people know who you are, what you do and why you have services for them.

8. Crowdfunding is both great for any existing audience you and have, as well as helping you grow an audience of prospective customers who are interested in supporting at an early stage of your business or offer. There are lots of established platforms which provide excellent training and support in starting your first crowdfund as well.

9. Grant funding. I’ve purposefully put this at the end because I don’t think it should be your first port of call (read here for an explanation), however if you need a cash injection for a particular project, something your piloting or wanting to grow capacity whilst you establish a new service, grant funding could be a good option for you to explore.