Eight Tips for Increasing Your Average Sale

Written by Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur.com

Walk into any McDonald's (MCD Quote), order a Quarter Pounder, and the clerk will invariably ask, "Do you want fries with that?" Each affirmative answer adds $1 or more to that particular sale. If just a fraction of McDonald's' 54 million daily customers say yes to that question, that's millions of extra dollars in the burger biggie's pocket.

The same strategy is important for start-ups. You haven't yet built a large customer base, so you need to coax as much money as possible from each person who does show up. It's the old story: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush....