No cashflow? Here’s what you can do
The problem of most businesses are those “dry spells” where you don’t really earn much. During my lowest months, I was probably earning from $100-$200 per month as a web content writer. Since cashflow is the lifeblood of your business, you need to set it up in such a way that you’re always earning money. How do you do that?
First, you have to measure trends. To do this, you need to keep accurate records of your income and expenses. Usually you’ll see some kind of pattern where you’ll do better on some months or weeks compared to others. This information will help you plan for the dry spells.
Try to make money passively. If there’s something you can make money on for a regular basis that doesn’t need much maintenance, go ahead and do that. I know of a web designer who makes money by selling a “Tell-a-friend” script as an add-on to all his customers, and he also sells the script on a separate site. It only took him a few hours to make the script, and an hour or so every now and then if he thinks of updates, and it’s still paying off years later. Information products also do well as passive income sources, if marketed well.
Sell a regular extended service to clients. If you do web design, try to sell website maintenance or web hosting as well, and offer it to all your clients. Try to sell these regular services as often as you can so that you have an assured income each month.
When desperate, sell to your customer base. Last June 2005, I had almost no income coming in. That’s when I thought of creating a promo and sending a notice to my top 5 favorite customers that if they order a web content package, they get an article for free. Guess what - they all availed of the promo, except one customer who actually bought 3 web content packages! It quickly became one of my more successful months of that year. If you can, come up with these promos or sell add-ons to current clients. They’re easier to sell to because they already know and trust you.
Are there any other ways that you use to avoid dry spells? For your own ideas and experiences, leave ‘em in the comments. 
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