But even profitable businesses can find themselves without enough cash to operate. It all comes down to timing: Do your customers pay you before you have to pay others?

To ensure that you don’t get caught in a crunch, watch out for these common cash flow mistakes:

1. Not keeping enough cash on hand. You need a cushion to make sure operations run smoothly through slow times. When revenue is up, that means socking away a little extra for when revenue dips back down. Depending on how seasonal your business is, you may want to keep enough cash on hand to cover three to six months’ worth of expenses.
2. Letting late payments slide. As a small business owner, you have a close relationship with many of your customers, and you don’t want to sacrifice future sales by turning into a rabid collections agent on the 29th day of every month. But don’t let unpaid invoices pile up in a misguided attempt to keep customers happy. You simply can’t afford to let late payments affect your ability to operate your business.
3. Making unrealistic revenue projections. When it comes to both long-term budgeting and short-term cash planning, honesty is the best policy—honesty with yourself, that is. Sure, it’s exciting when your business is growing and sales are moving in the right direction. But you need to be realistic about how much and when you’ll actually see that revenue. SCORE offers templates you can use to help plan your cash flow and financial projections so you don’t get caught short.

“If someone does give you a bad review, you have to realize this is their opinion,” said Nick Slettengren, founder and director of Power Digital Marketing. “You don’t have the right to ask them to take it down or to go back and slam them.”

Instead, Slettengren recommends responding graciously. “If you show some humility and say, ‘How can we make this better?’ it shows the rest of the audience that your business is trying.”

In addition, you can dilute the impact of a negative review by asking happy customers to go online and review your business as well. Slettengren recommends finding your most loyal customers (look at your sales data or rewards program if you have one) and asking them to leave a review. In all likelihood, they’ll be glad to leave an honest, positive review of your business.

What do you do if someone appears to be posting nasty comments simply for the sake of being combative? “As hard as it may be, I advise clients to ignore that,” Slettengren said. “I’ve seen some people ask for money or free products to take those reviews down. You want to be sure you’re not being taken advantage of.”

According to SEO agency Moz, 4 billion desktop queries and more than 50% of mobile searches have local intent.

To gain insight on how small businesses can improve their local SEO, we turned to Cain Richards, a digital analyst with seoWorks.

“With Google’s recent changes—the reduction of local results to a three-pack and the removal of side ads so the desktop results page mirrors that of its mobile pages—it is more important than ever to make sure your business is doing everything it can to optimize itself for local search,” RIchards said. Here are his top three tips for getting started:

1. Claim your Google Business page. Set up a Google Business page. This page lets Google know your business is proactively engaging with customers.
2. Build consistent NAP. NAP stands for “Name, Address, Phone Number,” and consistency is vitally important to any company looking to move up in local rankings. Make sure this information is updated in online listings including Yelp, Yellowpages and Manta.
3. Diversify with long-tail keywords. Use keywords on your website to target niche markets where you have greater opportunity of ranking higher. For example, “Emergency 24-hour Plumber Sydney,” instead of just “Plumber Sydney.”

1. Define what “good quality” means for you. How should your product function, appear, taste? Document your core procedures, using photos and videos if possible. For services, do your employees need to clean up after a job? Are there steps you need to take to ensure their safety or the quality of their work? Educate your employees on what constitutes a good quality product or service. Empower them to bring any concerns to your attention. Quality should be everyone’s responsibility!
2. Conduct pop-up audits. Schedule time to periodically check the quality of your products or services. If you’re a service provider, make time to check in occasionally at different phases of a job to see how the team is working. If you sell products, check occasionally that they meet your definition of “good quality.”
3. Ask customers for reviews. Ask your customers about their experience with your business. Send an email asking for feedback. Make a follow-up call after completing a job. Hang a suggestion box in your shop. Post an online survey for your Facebook followers. Being tuned-in to your customers will prevent missed sales opportunities.

Basic quality assurance is this simple. Don’t overlook it! It’s easier to find and fix a problem early than to repair customer relationships once the damage is done.

“What we see over and over is companies that have not defined the audience they are trying to reach,” said Chrystal Neal, executive director of the Greater Richmond Small Business Development Center. “It sounds simple, but doing the research really makes a difference.”

Defining your customer base (or the group of customers you hope to reach) can help you with everything from product development to marketing because it allows you to learn more about them. “Find out the zip codes where they live, their incomes, their ages,” Neal said. “It can inform you on how to go about marketing to reach them.”

How do you find this kind of information? Look at resources like Nielsen’s segmentation research, the U.S. Census Bureau’s free data tools and your local library. You might even consider setting up your own online questionnaire to solicit information and feedback from your current customers. Even a small amount of research can yield valuable insights that will help you grow your small business.

To learn more about managing the growth of your small business, attend the Manta Trends webcast “Growth & Taxes: Expand Into Ecommerce.”

Networking can be an effective tool for growth, especially for service providers. Connecting with businesses that offer complementary services creates opportunities to recommend each other for work, according to Susan Ball, a senior consultant with the University of Mary Washington Small Business Development Center.

“Network with other professionals who serve the same customers,” she said. “So, if someone is a house painter, he should talk to carpet cleaners, handymen and so on.”

Meetup groups can be a great way to find people who share an interest or a passion of yours. If nothing exists in your area, consider starting a group yourself. Ball said your local chamber of commerce can offer good networking opportunities, but make sure it’s worth it for your business before you sign up.

“You have to figure out where your customers are, and network there,” she added. “Don’t just network for the sake of networking.”

To learn more about strategies to grow your small business, attend the Manta Trends webcast “Grow Your Small Business: Add New Products & Services.”

Don’t let the thousand-mile view fool you, though. Communication is hard. It’s made harder when you’re trying to make the mundane memorable.

While the good, the bad, and the ugly of customer service gets most of the press (as with everything else), the majority of support conversations are pretty standard: "I have a problem with Sky Hub Microfilters," and "Let's fix that problem for you."

In these cases—the day in, day out—good service becomes great thanks to the pleasantness of the interaction.

Customers want to know that their issues matter to you; that you don't see them as “Complaining Person #5589.” How you communicate this means everything.

Let’s explore a few simple phrases that can be used to improve nearly every support interaction.

You should avoid: ending conversations so bluntly that the customer feels you are hurrying them out the door. Even a simple, "Are you all set?" will do.

1. "I Understand How ____ That Must Be"

You should avoid: "That sucks." Any sort of communication that remotely resembles "sucks to be you" should be avoided like the plague. If the situation is minor and the customer doesn't have a problem, referencing it as "annoying" is perfectly reasonable, though.

2. "As Much As I'd Love to Help..."

3. "Great Question, I'll Find That Out for You"

4. "Nice to Meet You"

You should avoid: *Crickets.* Silence and brusque responses are the deal-breakers here. Our not-so-fictional Quinn character (many customers have contacted us in a similar fashion) is interested in finding out about the company she is about to invest in. It certainly doesn't hurt to showcase that there are competent, friendly, and passionate people sitting at the other end of the screen.

5. "May I Ask Why That Is?"

Great communication is an art. Honing it to a keen edge is a science.

If three years at fixithere have taught me anything, it’s that improving your ability to convey information in a concise, friendly style will yield better results than anything else. There are few “hacks” for talking to customers, and nothing scales quite like consistently delightful communication.

These phrases will go a long way in helping you improve on the craft in the meantime. You may incorporate their intentions into your own style, they have proven to be consistently helpful for our team; I hope they are helpful for yours.

We use stories to connect with other people. Think about that inspiring teacher, that colorful client or that charismatic friend of yours who gives entertaining toasts at social events and seems to live a charmed life.

Most likely one characteristic they all have in common is their ability to tell a compelling story. What does that mean for your small business? The more you can incorporate storytelling into your marketing, the more memorable it will be. And when people remember your business in a positive light, they will seek you out and keep coming back.

One obvious but often overlooked way to do so is through your customer success stories, which can be leveraged using video or text quotes in your marketing materials, on your website, and by enabling reviews on Facebook.

“There’s nothing that will build more credibility with prospective customers than for them to know that you have worked with someone like them, and you understand them,” said Chris Smith, founder and creator of the agencyThe Campfire Effect.

For more ideas on how you can transform stories into profit, attend the Manta webcast “Social Marketing: Turn Your Story into Sales.”

On the flip side, some recent advice suggests you don’t need a business plan at all. The Wall Street Journal cited a study performed by Babson College: “The study found no statistical difference in success between those businesses started with formal written plans and those without them.”

Ultimately, an approach somewhere in the middle of the two extremes may be useful for your small business.

“The act of planning will help you not only deal with issues you might not think about otherwise, but the process will give you a better framework later on for how to deal with changes and problems you couldn’t have anticipated,” said John Turner, CEO of UsersThink.

For more business planning strategies, attend Manta’s Expert webinar, “Business Plan Basics: How to Save Time & Write an Effective Strategy.”

Make it personal. Don’t start by talking about your business. Instead, focus on your customer and establish a personal connection right away. Refer to customers by name or mention a mutual contact in your subject line. Carry on that personal touch in your message body by mentioning where you last saw them, identifying a challenge their business faces, or complimenting them on a recent accomplishment.

Keep it short. The most common mistake small business owners make when writing sales emails is making them too long. You’re busy, they’re busy—don’t waste anyone’s time. Make your sales pitch in three sentences or fewer. Identify a problem they might be having and succinctly tell them how you could help. Don’t worry about explaining every detail as to how you would do it. You’re trying to get a response, not close a deal.

Leave just one option. You have one goal, not three, so don’t propose three things. Muddling the call to action will decrease your chance of a response. You might ask customers to try a demo, to let you know if they’re interested, or to schedule a time to meet—but not all of them. If they can answer your email with a message as simple as “Yes, I’m interested,” you’ve done your job.