Introduction
If business is good, and revenue is constant, you may be thinking that you can just sit back and relax. This is not the case.
Though you may be achieving consistent success, there’s always room for improvement or development within your business strategy to maximize your results.
But the core question is: how do you make business boom?
From technology giants to automobile manufacturers, the greatest types of businesses are always seeking new ways to improve their approach to providing a service for their customers.
This could include more advanced and higher quality products for their clients, or figuring out ways to adapt efficient processes toward their clientele.
Other businesses are focused on figuring out their niche target audience and working out ways to keep them interested in the business while also maximizing marketing techniques to attract more customers in the future.
Growing your business may be a more gradual process or might happen at the snap of your fingers.
This depends on the approach that you take and how consistent you are with it.
If you want to learn how to successfully grow your business, this article contains everything you need to know.
Growing A Business
When Is It Time?
When Your Industry Is Growing
If your industry or market is seeing significant growth in any capacity, it might be time to reevaluate and begin growing your business alongside it!
This will ensure that your business keeps up to date with trends which will, in turn, maintain customer loyalty and interest.
You Have The Cash Flow Available To Grow
You must be financially ready to experience business growth.
Before taking major steps in this direction, you must have a couple of years of steady revenue and a consistent record of new customers flocking to your business.
This shows that the demand for your product or service is there, and means you will be able to grow sustainably.
Customer Demand
If you’re finding that you have more business than you can truly handle, it’s probably a sign that you’re ready to grow your business!
Sudden sale spikes don’t directly indicate that demand is high.
This means you must ensure that you have a consistent demand for more than you can supply before taking the time to do something about it.
Ask your customers to gain insight into their satisfaction and general opinion on what you are offering.
Then try to identify any patterns in the responses that you record. If they’re asking for more, you know you’re going in the right direction!
Steps To Be Taken
Re-Evaluate Your Business Plan
A business plan will help you and your company to decide on a vision and a single direction for the future.
A lot of smaller businesses might not have ever stopped and taken the time to develop a formal business plan.
However, this is an essential part of expanding your business as you move forward.
Whether you haven’t had a solid business plan before or need to re-evaluate the current business plan that you have, focusing on your approach to business will be essential to the potential success of your company.
Overall, developing your business plan is an effective step in growing a business, but you must ensure that your mindset matches your ambition.
- Sit down with relevant team members or stakeholders to discuss the business plan, and what you are intending to achieve. Form the plan around these goals so it aligns with your company values.
- Assign a particular individual to draft the business plan and then ensure everyone takes some time to properly review it.
- Revisit the business plan frequently – even more so as business opportunities begin to evolve and grow. This will ensure that your business plan remains relevant at all stages.
Evaluate Your Target Audience
In the business world, a target audience is the specific group of people that your content, services, or products are aimed at.
A lot of entrepreneurs do not know who their ideal customer demographic is.
The key is to figure out exactly who your niche audience is and then figure out where the market stands concerning that, so you can tailor your marketing strategy accordingly.
Being able to identify and then evaluate your target audience is an excellent way to gain a deeper understanding of the consumer’s needs.
Once you understand your target market you can tailor all content by creating a specific tone of voice that best speaks to your customers.
It also gives you an idea of which direction you can take your marketing so you can proceed to build strong and strategic relationships with your target audience.
Create A Strategy
To increase your expansion speed, you should focus on creating a solid strategy and thinking ahead!
A good strategy will give you the confidence to make good investments such as how and when you would like to spend your money, what the company’s capabilities are, how these can help the company to grow, and the expectations and needs of all customers.
But not all businesses can get the strategy right immediately.
There are going to be some weaknesses in any organization but a good brand strategy will do its best to remedy such weaknesses so that the impact isn’t too bad.
There are some key reasons why a strategy is very important:
- A competitive advantage to help understand the direction in which they are headed, and to better understand their values as a company.
- It may act as a guide to show how the business is performing internally.
- Create a vision and a direction for the business. Everyone in the company should be able to follow the goals of the company, which can be established using a strong strategy.
Talk With Shareholders/Investors
Clear communication with shareholders or investors is an essential step if you want to build and maintain a healthy relationship with these individuals.
If you don’t take a more transparent approach to communication, your investors or shareholders have no official way of knowing whether you are fulfilling and delivering on all of the promises that you made when they first invested in the company.
Taking time to strengthen this type of relationship will help you to cement the relationship between you and your investors that will continue to help your company grow.
During these talks, you must provide full-disclosure relevant and timely updates about the business’ next steps.
Open communication will also honor their commitment to your business, increase awareness of your company, and will also ensure that all key messages are consistently delivered.
You can talk to startup coaches, investors or stakeholders via email, phone communications, or video call.
10 Tips For Growing Your Business
Research
One of the easiest ways to grow your business is to do your research.
We know, it sounds a little too simple, but it truly is one of the most effective methods of building up your audience!
When you begin to look into how you can successfully grow your small business, you must carry out your market research.
Not only will this give you an understanding of all of your existing customers but it will also provide you with insight into how to attract potential customers, too.
This will give you an idea of the needs of all customers so you can continue to grow your business authentically.
While doing this, you should also make sure to carry out some research into all of your competitors.
Having a competitive analysis will enable you to see all of your advantages as an organization while also presenting you with potential barriers to growth.
This will help you to strengthen your business and marketing strategies.
Increase Your Customer Retention
Customer retention is vital as it will eventually work in your favor to increase all of your profits.
It measures the loyalty of your customers and is also a great way of noting exactly how an organization can keep its customers over time.
Nowadays it isn’t enough simply to find new customers for your business.
You must also find ways to entice them into repeatedly coming back to provide your company with more business.
Plus, if they have a good experience with your company, they are far more likely to recommend your brand to friends and family.
If you work to increase customer retention via customer loyalty programs, engaging with customers on social media, or using a customer relations management (CRM) system, then you will be automatically building your customer’s loyalty.
This might lead to a significant increase in sales.
It can also cost up to five times as much to attract new customers as it does to maintain current customers, so you’ll be saving a considerable amount of money in the long run.
Create A Sales Funnel
Creating a sales funnel is another great way of growing your business. It involves moving prospects from their initial contact with the company to the final sale.
You can think of a sales funnel as if it is a customer’s journey with your business.
As soon as they click on your website or enter your business, they remain towards the top of the sales funnel.
If they then sign up for a service or want to purchase on your website then this means they will have completed a journey through the funnel.
This can sometimes be a bit difficult so you will have to come up with new and innovative ways to continue moving these individuals through the funnel so that you can successfully make a sale.
It’s relatively easy to track the level of engagement and behavior at each stage of the sales funnel process to see where the customer currently stands and whether it is working successfully.
Consider Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the practice in the business world of hiring a third-party outside of the organization to carry out certain processes.
You can generally outsource any type of service including accounting and recruitment.
Outsourcing has many advantages including savings for both cost and time.
It also allows you to optimize your working time as you are subcontracting specialists, meaning you can reclaim the time you may have otherwise spent on meetings, training, and team management.
It gives you more time to focus on what matters within your company.
Bringing in a specialist to do some of the important work for you may also increase company performance and productivity.
This saves a lot of money and time on training and also reduces the overall risks of the process. A specialist will also work to find the most appropriate solution for your organization.
Build Strategic Partnerships
Entering into a strategic partnership with another established business might allow you to develop a broader range of customers or might even align strategic growth and goals within your business plan.
You might even build a strategic partnership with a specific vendor to easily expand the reach of your business.
Make sure to properly value your partnerships and business relationships to ensure that your business experiences organic growth.
The best part about strategic partnerships is that all partners remain independent parties, and there is a lot of potential for these companies to obtain access to new customers and services.
Strategic partnerships will inevitably involve challenges that must be efficiently resolved to ensure the longevity of an alliance.
If they are not met then there is a chance that the partnership will fail, so be cautious.
Market Your Business
Successful marketing will educate many people about a specific product or service that you offer.
When your customers are more informed about the things you offer, your sales will see a significant increase.
As a tool, marketing will help to determine whether the enterprise will see success or not.
It will create and then maintain relevance, demand, competition, and reputation for your product or service in the current market.
Without a solid marketing plan (and execution) your business will likely close down due to a distinct lack of sales.
More importantly, marketing is an effective communication channel that is tasked solely with engaging customers with your company.
Provided you keep your content fresh and consistent, marketing has the power to keep the conversation going about the types of things that you are offering as a company.
Consider Hiring A Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants provide a flexible alternative to fulfilling administrative demands, all without the commitment of having to take the time to hire another individual.
These individuals will usually work on a contractual basis which is much more cost-effective as you don’t need to pay for recruitment costs or anything of that sort.
Hiring a virtual assistant is also a good way to scale operations with a smaller amount of risk.
These assistants can handle the pressure of high business volume which means you will be able to manage everything without any unnecessary worry.
You’ll also have access to a variety of impressive skillsets.
Many VAs will proactively support everything you do so that you can focus on more important matters while they handle a specific part of your business.
Virtual assistants tend to come with lots of experience supporting businesses. This provides them with greater insight into the best industry practices.
Be Open To New Markets
Making sure you do business with an open mind is an essential part of business growth and success.
That being said, you should ensure that you do not limit yourself to a single market as this will limit the type of audience that you might be able to attract.
Franchising provides you with the opportunity to increase the total customer base.
If you don’t have a business that lends itself to becoming a franchise then there are some alternative options you can explore.
Expanding into new markets is also a good way to help businesses adapt to the ever-changing industry trends and specific consumer needs.
Knowing how to effectively do this will give you the tools to enhance your employability while also contributing some sort of beneficial changes within your company.
You might also be able to lower your cost per unit and drive production by expanding into a new market.
Diversify Your Product/Service
Let’s say you’re in a situation where you have achieved a lot of success in selling a specific service or a product to your customers.
This idea is likely the thing that inspired you to focus on growing your business.
However, if you rely on a single product, things might slow down in terms of the number of customers that you tend to attract.
But by considering adding new services or products into your repertoire, you could potentially attract many new customers. You might do this by:
- Identifying a gap in the market. Doing this for a new service or product will require you to carry out specific market research to spot an opportunity for something new that might appeal to your customers.
- Discovering new ways to market existing products could be just as effective. By “repackaging” a currently existing item, you are creating something new entirely. This added element of diversity might be far more appealing to prospective customers than simply offering a single product.
Get Involved In Networking Events
Making sure that you take all opportunities to participate in networking events is an essential way of guaranteeing business growth.
It can also work in your favor to attract new customers.
If you want to do this organically then attending networking events might be the next logical step for you.
Keep up to date with local organizations in a professional manner and attend as many events as possible so you can spread the word about your business.
Networking events are quite easy to participate in. Some of the events you might find yourself in are:
- Speaking as an expert in the industry
- Setting up a booth to promote your business
- Attending and meeting likeminded business owners
Outsourcing And Virtual Assistants
What Is Outsourcing?
Outsourcing is a convenient business practice that allows you to hire an outside party to create goods, perform specific services, or handle operations that would traditionally have been completed by a member of the in-house team.
Outsourcing is usually done as a way to cut costs instead of hiring a new employee and can increase the efficiency of a company without really trying by hiring another company or individual to complete tasks on behalf of the requester.
All business cases for outsourcing vary depending on the individual situation. But the benefits remain the same, and include:
- Access to innovation
- Lower costs
- Variable-capacity
- Increased efficiency
What Is A Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant (VA) can assist you with daily tasks, usually from a remote location.
They function as a normal assistant would but will typically offer more developed skills, and be more convenient and cost-efficient – instead of hiring someone to take on the role in person.
A lot of VAs are freelance workers who seek employment on a contractual basis, all of which have particular expertise in a certain area.
If there is a specific service you require it is relatively straightforward to search around and find someone to fit that particular niche.
It’s pretty easy to outsource work to a VA, depending on the type of service you’re after from them, and your specific needs.
Hiring a VA is also pretty easy and you can break the contract just as easily as you can build one.
VAs generally offer a helping hand to the busiest working professionals including CEOs, medical workers, and even entrepreneurs.
They will shoulder a lot of the day-to-day burden so you can turn your attention elsewhere.
Benefits Of Outsourcing
Time Management
VAs guarantee more free time to focus on more important things – whether that involves another situation at work or your family.
As they are taking on the responsibility for more time-consuming tasks, you have more free time to do what you please.
A key goal of outsourcing content is to free up your time and also ensure things are still done, without having to sacrifice the total quality of your work.
So it might be an idea to look at all of the tasks you must accomplish and figure out whether any of them can be outsourced to lessen the burden.
Reliability
Trying to complete multiple tasks all at once by yourself can be unmotivating and detrimental to your productivity.
Hiring a VA will ensure that you can get the work done on time without sacrificing the quality.
However, you must make sure to give specific instructions so that everything goes according to plan.
Plus, because they are being paid for their services and expertise in a particular area, these individuals are highly likely to be punctual and reliable on all fronts.
You can do a bit of a background check to make sure that this is true before hiring them to do some of your work.
Efficiency
Having to complete a seemingly endless list of mundane tasks by yourself will likely make it impossible to be productive at any rate.
Having one or more people to collaborate with on such tasks means you can improve productivity without feeling overwhelmed.
You can turn your attention to different tasks in your free time such as writing a research paper or taking on a new side hustle or project.
Take some time to consider how you can create a more valuable use of your time, and spend it on something that will be extremely beneficial to you in your career and personal life. If it’s a side hustle you want, make sure that it’s something worthwhile.
If tasks seem to be encroaching on your free time, outsourcing work to a VA will be a great way of keeping on top of everything.
Able To Start Different Projects
Having some additional free time means you can turn your attention to starting other new projects.
If there is a side hustle you want to start, now is the time!
Not only will it be a great and productive use of your spare time but it also means you can utilize your other skills for a greater sense of financial security and independence.
Try your hand at blog writing, crocheting, or even starting your dream travel business on the side.
With the help of a VA, you can do anything you want to without wasting any of your time!
You can run multiple sources of your income while also maximizing the service of a VA. It’s truly the best of both worlds!
Delegation Of Tasks
We all have to complete tasks that we’d much rather outsource at some point in our lives.
Let’s say you have a time-consuming and repetitive task to complete that only seems to be draining you, and have no motivation to do anything else. This is why businesses very often use outsourced answering service.
This could have a severe negative impact on the running of your business, may lead to burnout on your part, and could just generally spell disaster.
By delegating such tasks to a VA under your supervision, you can get through mundane tasks without them beginning to pile up.
Simply, anything you find tedious, hire a VA to do for you!
Working With Experts
Freelancers make money because they are experts in a particular subject or style.
Outsourcing to these brilliant individuals means you can utilize their knowledge to benefit your business.
If there is an area within your business that you struggle with, or there is something that you don’t enjoy doing, a VA will step up and do the job for you.
Not only can you widen your industry experts’ network but you can also set realistic and achievable goals with their help.
Quality Assured
VAs are usually experts in their specific fields. As a result, you can be assured that the work they produce on behalf of you will be impressive and up-to-standard.
Having someone solely focused on specific tasks will also help to put your mind at rest and remove worry about whether their work is of a high standard.
With the help of VAs, you can guarantee increased productivity without having to sacrifice the quality of work. Hence, you can all but guarantee quality assurance.
Cost-Effective
One of the main benefits of outsourcing is that it will cost you less to hire than it would be to get a new full-time employee on board.
With VAs, you are only required to pay their hourly rates or the fee that was agreed upon before they began working for you.
You could even add bonuses if they are doing a good job, or exceeding your expectations.
Hiring a VA is also much cheaper than hiring a new employee as you only need to communicate with them digitally while facilitating the onboarding, instead of forking out for office equipment, healthcare, and compensation (as you would with a traditional full-time employee.)
Flexibility
Outsourcing equals more flexibility. You can enter negotiations with your VA to figure out a way forward that is beneficial to both of you.
This could include hours of work per week, salary rates, time zones, and the types of services that will be on offer.
VAs are remote workers which means they will likely work outside of the typical 9-5 hours.
So, even if you are asleep, you might be able to have your VA getting on with work to put the business back on track.
Such flexibility means that your business can grow significantly while also increasing your total productivity.
Summary
These are the core steps you can take to grow your business.
From focusing on your target audience to adopting a more flexible working approach with the help of an external VA, there are many ways you can grow your business organically to maximize your results.
As long as you remain consistent, determined, and organized according to your business plan and marketing strategies, you should see growth in a relatively short period.
Continue to engage with your consumers to build a rapport with them and tailor content to involve them in the expansion and development of your business. For valuable insights and strategies, consider implementing critical thinking tips to enhance your decision-making and problem-solving abilities throughout this growth journey.
After all, if a customer feels included, they will be more likely to repeat custom.
