The key to the growth and survival of any small business is constant customer acquisition, customer retention, and attaining a positive cashflow index. As small businesses strive to attain profitability, they try out different small business growth strategies. Many mostly lead to dead ends, but the small businesses that are constantly learning and changing their tactics fast enough, end up successful.
While it may be a daunting task trying to figure out how to grow your small business, this article will show you 10 small business growth strategies that will take your business from slow or no growth, to a faster growth.
See Also: 7 Revenue Killers For African E-Commerce Businesses
Here are 10 powerful small business growth strategies you should start today:
1). Acutely Identify Your Ideal Customers And Add Crazy Value To Their Lives:
Do you know who really needs your product? Have you been studying the type of buyers that patronise your business? What type of customers complain the most? Which customers come calling even late in the night for your goods and services?
Answering the right questions with valid data will help you know your most ideal customers. It’s important you figure out who these individuals are and focus a lot of your marketing on them to maximum your output. Especially when you’re just starting out.
2). Offer An Extra-Ordinary Customer Service Even The Heavens Would Doubt:
Do you ever just sit and call the customer just to say hello? How about on their birthdays? If you offer a 7 day return policy, can you still accept the item on the 12th day?
Offering a mind-blowing customer service is one wonderful way to not just make your customers appreciate and value your small business, but to also get them talking about you.
A perfect example of a brand that offers a wonderful customer service is the online shoe & bag store, Zappos. Unlike Amazon that doesn’t want customers to phone-in, Zappos wants their customers to call them. When a customer orders an item and it’s not available on Zappos, they go as far as recommending other competing business’s that have the product the customer wants.
Great customer service can never be underestimated because, without the customer, you have no business.
See Also: 7 Ways To Immediately Increase Revenue In Your Small Business
3). Learn From Your Competitors And Do What Works For Them Even Better:
Before you enter a new market, it’s important you understand what currently works and what doesn’t, by studying all the potential competition.
What are they doing right? What do they do that create a customer frenzy? How much are they spending? What products or services makes them stand out?
Armed with a good information about how your competitors are operating, you can set out to compete effectively. Implement some of their strategies and yours creatively to make you stand out.
When you understand the competition well, you can take advantage of their flaws, and deliver a product or service with the best value in the market.
4). Invest In The Best Talents You Can Find, Or That Finds You:
The people on your team will either make or mar your business. You can only be as smart as the people with you. There’s a reason people are always advised to associate with people smarter than them.
To come up with creative small business growth strategies, you need creative minds around you, making creative decisions with you, and implementing creative executions with you.
If you feel the people who work with you are not smart, then they probably aren’t. Get yourself the right team!
See Also: 7 Sure Ways To Cut Your Small Business Expenses And Increase Your Profit
5). Pick A Less Crowded Niche, And Do Everything To Be The Best In It:
Rather than do what everyone is doing, focus more on a small niche with a sizeable market. Zappos started out as an online shoe store. They took advantage of the lone market then, grew exponentially, and eventually diversified into other categories.
Instead of focusing on what everyone else is doing or a popular niche, focus instead, on a child of a parent niche. Once people know your brand for that acute product or service, you’d grow faster, and have a chance of fully dominating that category.
6). Partner With The Most Valuable Complimentary Businesses You Can Find:
People trust friends of friends. This is the reason it’s easier to make someone your friend if you both have a mutual friend. The same goes with partnerships. People who use a certain brand will naturally trust a brand their favourite brand partners with.
By taking advantage of the power of partnerships, you can gain more customers for your small business faster.
See Also: 10 Ways To Find More Customers For Your Business Without Spending Any Cash
7). Acquire An Already Established Rival Or Complimentary Business:
When you’re trying to take over a new market completely, instead of burning through a lot of money to stay on top or acquire many more customers, one small business growth strategy you can implement is to buy out multiple smaller competing businesses. This not only gives you breathing space in the market, but also gives you a large customer base to work with.
Many of the largest companies in the world do this. Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.
Acquiring smaller growing companies will help better position you in the market.
8). Introduce New Unbelievable Products Into The Market:
When Apple first launched the IPhone, many thought it was going to be a flop, after all, Nokia was king. What many didn’t realise was that Apple had just changed the smart phone user experience game, and consumers standards and tastes for even smarter mobile phones than the likes of the then Nokia device was already fast-rising.
Introducing a product that has a wow effect, solves a real problem, and is affordable can turn prospects attentions towards your small business. This not only gives your products a wide exposure to customers, but it also opens up your previous products and services to them.
See Also: 6 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Startup
9). Expand To Newer Markets:
If your small business has reached it’s potential size in it’s existing market, expanding to newer markets is the next best course of action. Setting up a presence in more markets opens you up to more prospective customers, and to larger sale potentials.
10). Constantly Set Targets & Milestones:
It’s important you track your progress every step of the way. Knowing where you’re lacking will help you know what’s going wrong, and why. Never assume your progress rate. Always have data, for data is king in any scenario.
Data will help you plan your next business growth strategies, help you understand what type of customers are coming back and leaving the most, if your business may survive the long-run, and a lot more.
By acquiring data, you can always set targets and milestones in a better guided approach. As you meet your targets and set newer targets, every accomplished phase would guarantee your business is indeed growing.
See Also: How To Sell An Expensive Product
These small business growth strategies are essential for businesses to implement. As your venture grows, you can adjust your small business growth strategies to align with the expanding size of your business.
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What are your thoughts on these small business growth strategies? Please let me know by leaving a comment below.
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This is all that needs to be said, it’s very enlightening.
Thank you for the commendation Ugwu.
Brilliant write up. Am wowed
Thank you for the kind words Tolu.