By JOHNNY CARCIOPPOLO / Community Columnist

In this highly competitive environment in which we operate today, there is no such thing as standing still; you are either moving ahead or falling behind.

To grow your business, you must continually develop strategies to turbo charge the engine by driving revenue to constantly higher levels.

Essentially there are seven ways to increase revenue. Mastering any one of seven will produce significant results.

Success in all seven will lead to dramatic growth.

1. Expand your customer base. The first and most obvious way to increase revenue is expand your customer base. How can you attract more customers?
2. Sell more often to the same customer. In addition to expanding your customer base, you can also make more sales by selling more often to the same customer. Customer acquisition costs can be quite expensive.
3. Sell something else. In addition to increasing the “number of transactions per customer,” you might also be able to sell them additional products.
4. Make larger sales. Another way to increase your revenue per customer is to make larger sales. (Increasing the average transaction value.) Increasing your average dollar value would reflect in higher sales revenue overall.
5. Increase your price. The simplest way to increase your revenue is to increase the price of your product or service. Although the simplest may not be the easiest way, as the question becomes how do you justify the higher price to your customers? To do this, you must increase the perceived value of your offering.
6. Make more profitable sales. In addition to growing sales, you can turbo charge the business engine by improving sales margins and how the revenue flows in. Examine the profitability of each of your customers. You can significantly increase the profitability of each sale by focusing on the sale of your most profitable products and services.
7. Reduce your selling costs. The financial health for any business is the cost of customer acquisition. Do you know yours? Examine your sales processes thoroughly. Do you have systems in place to accurately track your selling costs? What percentage of Gross Margins do “commissions paid” represent?

Continually seek ways to increase revenues, both gross and net. Your business is always moving. The question is: Are you moving forward or backward?