How to boost your income

Are you achieving the income that you want? There are many ways to increase revenue and profitability - the best option for you depends on what best suits your lifestyle and what makes use of your talents. There are three broad categories to consider: increasing the revenue from your accommodation business, creating an additional source of income or reducing costs.

Increasing revenue from your accommodation business

The most obvious (although not necessarily the easiest) way to increase income is to focus on your key activity, ie your accommodation business. Some ideas to boost revenue are as follows.

Send previous guests 'loyalty' money-off vouchers.Boost Christmas/Easter business by offering guests additional cheaper rooms before and after their stay, making more of their break Review how you use technology within your marketing plan – do you offer what your customers want, eg online booking, e-offers, reader reviews?

Additional sources of income

As outlined in our previous feature, Work/life balance: how to achieve it, combining your accommodation business with an additional home-based business that could also appeal to guests can be a great way to make more money. Here are some ideas of services that fit well with running a B&B or self-catering business.Hair and beauty treatments.Bespoke taxi service to the airport, shows or local attractions.Creative workshops.Selling home-made jam.Sculpture, paining, photography, sewing - make sure you display some of your work in your home or garden – guests can become customers .

Reducing overheads

Sometimes the easiest way to boost profit is to cut down on your outgoings.

Get the best deals on utilities – compare prices at www.uswitch.comGrow your own breakfast ingredients or set up a group-buying scheme with other accommodation in your area.Consider closing in the shoulder months (ie the months either side of high season) and working on another business.Think more about green cost saving – reducing water usage, using energy efficient light bulbs, reducing your waste – spread the word to your customers so they can help too.