Here are the three steps I’ve taken to succeed in “dark” times:

Identify When the Economy Will Take a Turn

• Wall Street. Look for rapid drops in major markets for consecutive amounts of time. When this happens, most investors start to sell and take higher losses, which in turn creates great opportunities for savvy investors. The common phrase associated with smart investing is, “Buy low and sell high.”
• GDP. Gross domestic product is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. When GDP is continuously dropping, it’s a sign that a downturn is close.
• Loan ability. Talk to your banker on a regular basis; look for them to tell you that they aren’t loaning much and qualifications are becoming more obtuse. When banking opportunities start running dry, it squeezes the economy as well as business owners. This can create great strategic opportunities if you have money in the bank and are looking to buy out competition.
• Inflation. This means your dollar can’t buy as much in a short period of time as it could before.

When all of these signs occur, there’s a strain on businesses and consumers, giving strategic business owners great opportunities to buy.

Prepare Yourself to Take Advantage

In a study published by McKinsey & Company of the Global 1200, and in the words of Rafi Mohammed, author of the book The 1% Windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow, it was found that “if companies increased prices by just 1 percent, and demand remained constant, on average operating profits would increase by 11 percent. Using a 1 percent increase in price, some companies would see even more growth in percentage of profit: Sears, 155 percent; McKesson, 100 percent, Tyson, 81 percent, Land O’Lakes, 58 percent, Whirlpool, 35 percent.”

If pricing is so important, certainly it’d make sense for entrepreneurs to put some serious effort into it, right? Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs skimp out on this opportunity and simply look around to see what everyone else is charging and set their own prices to fit within reasons of the norm. Big mistake. Tim Williams, one of my early career influencers, would say “pricing is positioning,” and they’ve just wasted a perfect opportunity.

So how should we go about pricing then? Here are three questions to help you get on the right path:

What Problem Are You Solving?

Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

My buddy Brian and I were chatting the other day and agreed that figuring out what problem you are trying to solve should be top of mind for all entrepreneurs. The problem and the pain that it’s causing your audience would be the main component in calculating how much you can charge for your solution.

When most entrepreneurs are busy figuring out their costs and trying to guess what they should charge, the right thing to do would be to go to the source and understand the value you are creating. Remember, everyone only cares about themselves, and your customers don’t care about your costs and hours spent on the solution. They care about the problem you are solving for them.

Who Are Your Customers?

A continuation of “What problem are you trying to solve?” would be “Who are you solving the problem for?”

The person that you are solving the problem for, how much value they place on this problem going away, as well as how much money they can actually afford will determine what price you can set. While many entrepreneurs would like to think their products or services are worth X and that they are in a vacuumed market of their own, they are wrong. You cannot charge more than the market will bear and that is just one of the few rules everyone has to abide by.

While a small island in the Pacific might be on sale for the low price of $80 million this holiday season, I am not the right buyer for it no matter how it’s priced. I am the wrong audience because I just can’t afford it, even if I really wanted the island.

What Do You Stand For?

While we would like to think that our frontal lobe makes us adults capable of rational decisions, we are not. If anything, scientists have proven that we are predictably irrational when it comes to most things in life. People are driven by emotions, so it is important that your brand speaks to them as such, and there is real value here that people would pay extra for.

If you think your product or service is a commodity where branding and emotions don’t apply, take a walk down the water aisle next time you are at your supermarket. There, you will find one of the best examples of branding’s effect on price. Products like reusable grocery bags and recycled tableware are other examples that appeal to the consumer’s desire to be environmentally friendly.

Does your product and/or brand offer similar emotional value? If not, it might be worth looking into and should be applied to your messaging. It’ll certainly increase your value to your customers and, who knows, you might be able to charge more for it.

So there are the three questions to ask to help you set the perfect price for the value that you are creating for your customers. With these concepts in mind, moving your revenue by just 1 percent doesn’t seem to be all that difficult, right? Remember, even 1 percent can yield a big impact.

A version of this article originally appeared here.

As a small business owner, I have watched the rising popularity of the sharing economy and found it amusing that people think of it as something “new” and “hip” and “innovative.” The reality is that we who run small businesses have been applying the principles of the sharing economy since we first hung up our shingles. Whenever we exchanged or bartered goods or services with someone rather than paying with or getting paid through cash, we were using sharing economy principles, even if we didn’t know what to call it.

In the five years that I’ve run my own small business, I’ve had to learn about applying sharing economy principles the normal way – through trial and (sometimes painful) error. But these experiences have taught me quite a few valuable lessons, some of which may sound familiar to you from your own experiences.

Below are four things you can do today to take part in the sharing economy, and benefit your business in the process:

1. Create a local and regional following by collaborating with local influencers. The more people hear about you and your products and services from third parties, the more likely it is that they’ll remember you the next time they need something that you provide. For example, when I ran a salon, I collaborated with pageant title-holders, local news anchors, local socialites, local authors, various business industries, fashion, food and style bloggers.
2. Leverage connections in the local market to cross-brand your business. No matter what niche your business is in, there will always be another business in an adjacent or related industry that you can connect with. Find those businesses and start cross-branding and marketing collaboratively. For example, my salon collaborated on a business social event on the importance of beauty and style. We partnered with resource speakers on leadership skills along with well-known DC Stylist Stara Pezeshkian to give our attendees practical tips for improving their overall personal executive presence.
3. Participate in local and regional events. Be a visible and valuable contributor so others start to see you as someone who helps make special events a success, all while learning more about what your business offers. People will remember you as someone who enables positive results and they will want to work with you further. My salon co-hosted an annual fashion and beauty show with our local county government during their annual festival that drew in thousands to the area, which gave us exposure along with the other brands that we partnered with.
4. Volunteer with your professional community or association. If your line of business has a professional association or a professional community, be a part of it. But also consider other communities that you might find interesting. If you run a fashion boutique, you may also have an interest in cooking. Join a cooking club or connect with other local chef and bakers, and you’ll soon find like-minded small business owners who may become your next key collaborators, co-marketers or co-founders.

As any small business owner knows, great ideas are worthless without proper execution. Collaborating isn’t an easy process, but it doesn’t have to be difficult either. It requires a collaborative mindset. If achieved, the possibilities are endless. By coming together and uniting local businesses, we become a more visible united brand in our community.

As founder of a SaaS company myself, I’ve wrestled with all of these questions. One strategy my company recently implemented is already paying great dividends: offering  a completely free, no-strings-attached product to our current and prospective users called Datanyze Insider. Based on my own experience, here are four reasons why it is smart for a for-profit SaaS company to offer a free product:

Put Your Users in the Driver’s Seat

Many SaaS companies struggle to choose between a limited time offer and a free product. While companies that choose to offer a free trial can share the full depth and breadth of their product with users off the bat, they often face challenges in overcoming the initial sign-up barrier. To keep track of free trials, users are generally asked to provide details such as credit card information, which can be a real deal-breaker. Psychologically, many people would rather register for a completely free product — even if it is scaled down — that can be used indefinitely. The user can then choose if and when s/he wants to upgrade and access additional capabilities and tools. Additionally, offering a free product can bring in new users who may not be inclined to sign up for a demo promoted on a website, by allowing them to test it out on their own time and in their own way. By offering a completely free product, you put your users in the driver’s seat – exactly where they want to be.

Diversify Your Audience

Offering a free product can help you capture new audiences and expand into previously untapped industries. For example, in the first two weeks of unveiling a free Google Chrome extension, my company tracked a number of registrants in entirely new markets for us — from human resources and public relations professionals to technology analysts. A free product can be the quickest, most effective way to exponentially grow your database of warm leads.

Cultivate Strong Brand Advocates

Vineet Kumar, assistant professor of marketing at Harvard Business School, has done extensive research on freemium models, and has found that “a free user is typically worth 15 to 25 percent as much as a premium subscriber, with significant value stemming from referrals.” He suggests that companies focus on referral incentives and prioritize ongoing communication to increase the value of these referrals. Satisfied users are your strongest brand advocates, so it’s important to listen closely to find out what they like and why, then engage with and encourage them to share their positive experiences with their colleagues and friends across social networks.

You’ll Have a Lead-Gen Program All Your Own

Your company is unique, innovative and going places fast! So why rely on companies who sell or rent questionable lists or keep going back to a stale list from an event that took place two years ago? A free product can serve as an invaluable lead generation program that is uniquely yours. No one else can offer what you can. Take full advantage of that.

In closing, it’s important to remember that savvy companies use their free product not only as a powerful way to diversify audiences and deepen their potential customer pools, but also to demonstrate their commitment to continued innovation. A free product will undoubtedly get users in the door, but it’s up to you to develop new, compelling offerings that will tip the scales and prompt them to move from freemium to premium tools, and ultimately, become loyal, long-term customers and brand advocates.

Yet financing these markups has the power to make a positive impact on both the economy and your business. Companies that can overlook the negative stigma and provide financing options will create a viable business model and attract long-term customers from a variety of backgrounds. Here’s why:

Financing Makes Economic Sense

To understand how financing impacts the economy, let’s take a look at the United States’ savings rate over the past five decades. Trading Economics reports that personal savings in the U.S. hovered around 8.39 percent from 1959 to 2015. In May 1975, it reached a record high of 17 percent, and in July 2005, it hit a record low of 1.9 percent. So what do these numbers reveal?

Consumers have been saving less and less over time. By the same token, we can see that people are also earning less: personal income in the U.S. has decreased over the same timeline. It averaged 0.54 percent from 1959 to 2015 — with 3.8 percent being the record high in December 1992 and -5.1 percent being the record low in January 2013.

These trends highlight a major problem: regardless of the statistics, people must keep spending in order to keep the economy healthy. Consumer spending accounts for a large portion of economic activity in the U.S., and it’s a key driver of growth.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), the only way to continue consumer spending in an economy of low personal income and low personal savings is by utilizing financing to continue spending. Customers live in this reality, so it’s vital that your business offers financing as a purchasing option. After all, many of your customers probably can’t pay up front due to these macroeconomic trends, and they need some type of support in order to get the instant gratification they crave. Financing opens up cash flow and turns more inventory. In a world of hypercompetition and thin margins, smart financing serves as a vital tool for staying ahead of the competition.

Financing Builds Brand Loyalty

The state of the overall economy — combined with personal financial struggles — creates an emotional barrier for customers. Luckily, your business has the opportunity to overcome it. A majority of customers are still feeling the effects of the 2008 recession and are working to rebuild. It can be incredibly embarrassing for them to realize that they can’t afford something they want or even need.

Having a simple financing solution for customers builds brand loyalty. When their financial position turns around, they’ll remember the companies that extended a hand when they were striving to get back on their feet. Companies offering bold solutions that meet emotional needs will create faithful customers for life.

Finance options also service fiscally savvy customers: smart consumers may have the cash on hand, but also realize the value of personal cash flow. They might finance to break a large purchase price into smaller future payments or exercise an interest-free loan or a buyout option, while others want to build their credit to decrease their financing costs over time. These kinds of customers understand a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow.

The fact is that offering a wide range of payment options creates a win-win for your business and your customers. It opens up your customer base, attracting and acquiring a broader range of people who will buy the product. Cash flow is the heartbeat of your business; financing will retain current customers and enable you to turn inventory faster and more effectively.

Smart entrepreneurs understand the macroeconomics of the market and know that not offering financing will only give their competitors an edge. By busting through negative stereotypes and offering financing, you will be investing in your business and consumers — now and in the future.