A successful business never stays stagnant. Even household-name companies are constantly changing up how they do things to keep expanding their footprint. These companies have the resources to pursue all kinds of initiatives, but a smaller business needs to first take important initial steps toward growth. Of course, that’s an imposing proposition, but this small business growth guide can help you get there. Read on to learn all the ins and outs of growing your small business.
Growing a business is a matter of:
Although all businesses benefit from the above growth steps, online businesses need to take separate steps for best results. Some best practices for online small business growth include:
As all the above advice suggests, company growth is a complex process. It’s so complex, in fact, that small business experts often split it into five company growth stages. These stages are:
Presumably, you have a hunger to achieve your growth goals as soon as possible. While that ambition is respectable, it can also be unstable, as growing too rapidly can lead to myriad problems. Employees can become thinly spread, leading to work and customer service that leaves buyers dissatisfied. You might also run out of space if you have physical inventory or hire many employees who work in person. However, if you spend on growth more quickly than you earn, you might struggle to afford to move.
Losing track of your finances is perhaps the easiest trap to fall into during rapid growth. After all, with things accelerating faster than you can handle, can you really track every sale and expense? Plus, sales alone don’t mean success during growth – your market and competitors influence your future too, and if they’re outpacing you, these efforts may not have as big an impact on the market as you’d hoped.
Just as your sales tracking might get disorganized, so too can all your operations. Rapid growth can mean that some procedures and tasks get left by the wayside in lieu of more important, growth-oriented tasks. It can be easy for you and your team to fall behind, and that can translate to customers who can notice the impact.
Another concept you should be familiar with as you grow is the distinction between organic and inorganic growth. The latter describes growth through acquisitions or mergers; all other growth is organic.
You can typically drive organic growth by optimizing your business operations and production budgets. As you do so, try diversifying your internal workflows, marketing, promotional activities, products and services, and more. Firmly identifying your target audience, unique selling propositions, key performance indicators (KPIs), and key qualifications can help too.
Organic growth typically gives your business more cost efficiency, flexibility, financial freedom, steady rates of growth, and basis in your strengths than inorganic growth. That said, it can be slower than inorganic growth and subject to market fluctuations.
All the above advice can be distilled into the below tried-and-true small business growth strategies:
The final step in any growth strategy is to measure your growth rates. To start, choose the right KPIs, look at employee satisfaction and performance, and review your business plan. Next, track changes in your revenue, workforce size, market share, cash flow, and expenses. Do the same for your customer acquisition costs.
Compare all these figures to those of your competitors, and compare all your marketing tactics to one another. This combination of comparisons will tell you if you’re on the right track and, if not, how you can switch gears to get there. Admittedly, it’s a lot to take on yourself, so bringing in outside help may be necessary.
With this helpful guide, you’ll have a better understanding of the fundamentals you need to acquire new customers, increase your sales, and earn more revenue. Of course, a successful business will still face challenges ranging from funding to employee management. Visit the SmartBiz Learning Center for advice that can help you with various issues that may arise.