Hold on for one second...
Don't fire up that email program and start blasting away at me yet.
I don't mean you have to totally forget about managing your business to extract maximum profitability out of it.
That would be business suicide.
Picture this with me for a second...
You have two buckets, one above the other.
The top bucket represents the value your offering to your customers with your product(s) or service(s).
The bottom bucket, represents your business' profits.
If the customer value bucket is directly above the other, you cannot start to fill the profits bucket until you fill the value bucket.
No, you cannot tip the top bucket over either.
In other words...
your value bucket has to overfill in order to start filling the profits bucket.
Are you with me so far? Good, because you absolutely must understand this concept as the small business environment keeps getting more and more competitive (both online and offline).
You have to deliver more value than your customers expect in order to fill your profits bucket.
As you can see, the profits bucket is empty with each new customer that you serve in your business.
But what if you could fill more than one profit bucket for each customer? You can...
and that is actually the focus of this lesson.
Which bucket will you focus on for each customer in your business? Value, or profits? Focus on value, and you can keep filling up more profit buckets for each customer.
Focus on profits, and you will have a hard time filling that bucket without adding value.
So, which one do you choose? I already know the answer to that question.
So, the next logical question would be...
How do you add to the value bucket?It is quite simple actually.
But I wonder why more businesses don't add value to their transactions?You simply take the item(s) or service(s) that your selling...
and package them with something else that enhances the lives of your customers for little or no additional fee.
The key here is to make what your offering irresistible to the customer who is buying.
I will give you a few ideas, perhaps you can use one or more of these in your business:

• Are you a service provider? Add a special report or two that will aid in making it easier for the customer to do business with you.
  You can also include reports that will allow your customer to make some money in the process of doing business with you.
  
• Are you a retail store? Then simply package items that enhance each other's usability together.
  For example, shampoo and conditioner for just a little more than the price of shampoo.
  Oil and filters for the price of the filter etc...
  
• Do you sell services and products? Then package a couple of products that enhance the service you provide together for the price of your main service.
  

There are obviously way more possibilities that could make this post over 100 pages long.
The key here is to make the offer a creative one, an offer that benefits your customer's lives.
And know this...
the better your offer, and the more perceived value your customer senses, the faster you will be able to fill up those profit buckets.