If your business has seen reasonable success, it may be time to consider expanding. There are a few ways to do this, and which ones are best will largely depend on the specifics of your company and what you produce. Consider any of these seven actions you can take to grow your business.
1. Keep Improving and Innovating
One thing to remember is to never rest on your laurels, so to speak. Your business must always be striving to improve what you offer and come up with new ideas. If you stay with a formula for too long, even if it is doing well for you, your competition will eventually pass you and your customers will go elsewhere. Keep up to date with new technology as well so you can continue to offer the best customer experience.
2. Diversify Your Offerings
Diversifying the products and services you offer is a great way to grow your business. Before beginning production on or deciding to offer something new, carefully plan for it. Do market research and do your best to predict whether your new offering will sell. See what products or services are the next logical offering based on what you already produce. If you diversify too much, you run the risk of stretching your resources too thin and losing money.
3. Open A New Location
This is a more traditional method of expanding your business but it is effective all the same. Opening a new location will help you take advantage of a different local market and likely bring in more revenue. You also have the option of franchising your business, which is a different avenue of expansion that might suit your business well. Franchising usually works best if you have a product or service that can be uniform and consistent. It also has the benefit of being a rather hands-off approach.
4. Expand Your Digital Presence
In this digital age, businesses need to have a solid online presence. Aside from being where customers are more likely to discover you, the Internet can help expand your business to literally anywhere. If you are a small, local business, consider selling your products online.
This is a particularly winning strategy if you have a solid niche, like old and rare books, for example. If you haven’t put much time or effort into your online platform, now is the time to do so. Set up profiles on a handful of social media sites. Update them frequently and leverage them well, and you will draw more attention to your company.
5. Partner With Another Business
Forming a partnership with another business can help grow your own company by leaps and bounds. Look into companies that offer products or services that can be complementary to yours. Craft an intriguing and detailed proposal for a partnership and then present it. Explain how both companies can benefit the other.
For example, your partner company might have the larger distribution network you want, while you make a product that would be great bundled with theirs.
6. Up Your Marketing Game
Your marketing strategy is vital to growing your business because it is the methods you use to reach new customers. A marketing plan should be a flexible thing and encompass a number of different strategies and areas. For example, a good marketing plan should account for physical promotion and advertising, digital advertising, viral marketing, content marketing, charity work and more.
You can use databases that contain B2B contact data to generate better leads and research prospects before you even pick up the phone.
7. Focus On the Customer Experience
Without customers, you simply won’t remain in business. To grow, you not only need to maintain existing customers but also bring on new ones. Most companies report that word of mouth is by far their most effective marketing tactic. When customers are happy with the product or the service they receive, they are more likely to recommend it to others and bring in more customers.
To accomplish this, focus on good, effective customer service and being personable to customers. Your company can encourage good word of mouth by establishing a solid referral program.
There are a number of routes you can take to grow your business, and it’s usually not a good idea to attempt them all at the same time. Carefully weigh your options and decide which avenues of growth will best suit your company. If you aren’t sure, a consultant can help you. Once you have decided, pursue growth aggressively and it will happen.