Are you familiar with the Disney Pixar movie Up? It's one of my favorite movies and there's a particular scene that just cracks me up. Without ruining it for you if you haven't seen it, a group of dogs flying fighter planes is attacking until someone yells, Squirrel! and off they go into another direction, forgetting what they were supposed to be doing in the first place.

It is probably the concern of every business owner - "How do I increase my profits?"

The business has been set up, the client base has been established, and your products have gained a good following - so what else must you do to increase cash flow? How do you substantially increase profit?

Here are the top 5 tips that might help answer your questions.
 

The late payment of trade invoices is threatening the profits, growth and even survival prospects of small firms but few use formal procedures to tackle the problem. This is according to findings of a research report launched today by the commercial credit referencing agency Graydon UK, working in partnership with the Forum of Private Business.

CashFlows, part of the innovative Voice Commerce financial services group, today announces the launch of their unique new e-invoicing tool which is the only e-invoicing service that can be linked to a business’ merchant bank account. Businesses using e-invoicing can improve their business cash flow by up to 70 per cent.

A ‘credit gap’ for small businesses is making it harder and harder for small businesses to get bank loans, according to the fourth European Credit Risk Survey from FICO, a leading provider of analytics and decision management technology. The survey, which queried credit risk management professionals in January and February, found that 71 percent of respondents across 31 European countries said small businesses will find it harder to get credit in 2012.

A recent report suggested the Gang of Four (Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon) are looking at moving into the field of payments in the new Mobile-Social Technology era. It suggests we are at the beginning of a new technology cycle as consumer adoption of mobile and social media extends the reach of the web and integrates those media into the physical world.

Small businesses should be saving £2,500 on average a year on their energy bills - more than 30% of a typical annual bill. Many businesses stuck on uncompetitive tariffs could be saving up to 70% on their energy costs. 

MarketInvoice, the online marketplace for invoices, announced today that invoice trading volume on its market-based platform increased 10,000% in their first year of trading, with volume going from £20,000 in their first month of trading in February 2011, to £2,000,000 by the end of February 2012.

I was working with a client last week, says Ted Hurlbut, analysing January sales results. The month had been mildly disappointing, but there was one store in particular that was off more than the others. What do you do when one store takes a tumble?