One of my primary tenets is that most businesses miss profit opportunities on every transaction or customer/client relationship - and they have unique profit potential that goes completely untapped (and business owners, managers and professionals are unintentionally limiting their incomes without even knowing it).

I call those missed profit opportunities your "hidden cash." Often, with just a bit of guidance, you can uncover many of them for yourself. You'll discover that hidden cash can be found in:

* Your transactions,

* Your customer/client interactions,

* Your marketing,

* Your positioning in the marketplace,

* The way you're operating your business,

* Assets you're not using (or don't even recognize),

* From your promotions, events, and business activities.

* And now... even the economic crisis and recession hold hidden cash.

All of these areas can prove to be a bonanza of new opportunities for you, right in your own business... without having to spend lots of money to capture them (in fact, many are completely free). Here in this article, we'll begin to explore some of the preliminary things to know and steps to take - to discover the hidden cash in your business.

First, there are a few underlying principles that can help us - especially given the current economic climate - to put things in perspective and understand how to get started:

1) There's always business going on to some degree in your field --

No matter where you are... or what the conditions of your local economy... there's business going on to some extent in your field, industry, or profession. So, ask yourself, "How can I be the one people choose to do business with?"... and, "How can I find more of the people who do want what I offer right now?"

2) There's money you're not getting from methods you're not using --

Most likely, you've heard the following definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again... expecting a different result." Well... that couldn't be more true than right now, when facing the current economic crisis and recession. All bets are off the table - and it's time to aggressively take action to survive and can produce new results - by using new methods.

3) There's unnecessary business activity and costs you're supporting --

It's time to completely take stock in your business, your expectations, and your situation. Be real! Get a very clear picture of what activities and costs your business supports that are producing a result... and what activities and costs are not pulling their weight. Now's the time to jettison non-productive items - and adjust your business to the new economic realities.

Time for a fresh start...

We'll start with the unnecessary business activity and costs side - simply because a business that's out of balance will distract you and consume your available time... making it difficult to focus on getting new profits and cashflow.

Frankly, if at this point your "Plan B" is to find a suitcase full of money in the alley (or it's mainstream equivalent... borrowing the money) - then you might want to reconsider - and take the action needed now to get your business house in order, so you can free up your time to focus on the profit-oriented steps available to you.

After clearing out all identifiable unnecessary business activity and costs - the next step is to seriously examine what it takes for your business to do what it does. Ask yourself:

"Exactly how much money do I need each month in PURE PROFIT to maintain my business at it's current level?"

"Exactly what are my gross sales each month for each of my products/services?"

"Exactly what are my profit margins on those monthly sales for each product/service?"

"Are my gross sales and profit margins producing the new cashflow I need each month?"

(Most smaller businesses only guess, and don't know these exact answers).

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Without exact answers to those specific questions... you're just guessing... and juggling... and hoping that you can cover everything. And, if you've been relying on cash infusions to your business that aren't generated from... and directly attributable to... current profitable business activity - then you're at the mercy of the economy, the financial system, and the recession.

You might also want to take this a step further by outlining a "fallback position" - so you'll be ready to take the needed steps to make further cost-cuts based on the realities of the future numbers posed by the questions above. There's a lot of freedom knowing you can operate at different levels of profit.

Moving forward to new profits...

But, let's assume that there's a net positive balance you can strike now between your profitable business activity and your business costs - or, that you already know your business is solidly in the black in the current economic environment (obviously, even better).

Now you're ready to start focusing on producing new profits... and find your hidden cash. And finding those upside possibilities that are unique to your business - and creating new profit sources - should be among the primary components of your business strategy. And, in today's harsh economic climate... nothing could be more valuable to your long-term survival.

Copyright 2009, Guerrilla Profits International