There are approximately 28 million small business in the United States, and each one is vying for growth and an increased share of profits in the marketplace. Small businesses are responsible for as much as 65 percent of the new jobs created since 1995. Clearly, other small businesses are finding productive, efficient ways to grow, and you may be wondering what steps you can take to foster growth and development in your venture.
By exploring a few helpful tips, you can more easily navigate to a successful and desirable end result.
Develop a Thoughtful Plan.
While some small businesses are successful and grow to generate great profits over the years, many others fail entirely. A lack of planning and proper funding are among the top reasons why these businesses fail. One of the most crucial steps you can take to foster growth is to develop a thoughtful business and growth plan. It is unreasonable to think that your business would get from its current location to a desired new location without strategy and focused effort. Consider where you want your business to be in two, three and five years. Create a step by step plan that walks you through the growth process. Consider the marketing and product development required to walk through each step. Examine the competition, pricing in the marketplace and other key factors.
The best plan will also incorporate a cost analysis of each step. After all, you have to ensure that you have funding available as needed throughout the growth process.
Invest Heavily in Marketing.
Business growth requires you to branch out into new markets and to take a greater share of the pie in your established market. Both will not happen without a heavy investment into marketing. You can brainstorm cost-effective marketing strategies that allow you to reach your target audience without spending a fortune. The use of online marketing, email campaigns and other efforts are effective ideas in many industries. Each business has a unique target audience, so carefully review the best ideas for reaching your target audience. Hiring a professional marketing team may be worth the expense in some cases.
Seek Funding When Necessary.
In the creation of your business’s growth plan, you likely determined that you may have a cash shortage at certain points in the years to come. Businesses often need a solid infusion of capital at strategic times to foster growth and to maintain steadily heavy marketing. You must plan ahead so that you have access to the funds needed in a timely manner. By planning your finances and managing your budget accordingly, you may be able to carefully monitor and control spending to gain access to the necessary funds. However, many other small business owners will need to seek outside financing through a small business loan, angel investors, crowdfunding, strategic partnerships and other efforts.
Invest in New Technology.
Marketing and product development may be two prime areas where you want to concentrate a bulk of your funds on to foster growth, but you should not overlook the important aspect of technology. Technology has the ability to save your team time and effort. It may even reduce the need to hire more staff, providing additional financial savings. Furthermore, in some ways, it can even help by providing customer service to your clients. For example, a business intelligence platform is a type of technology that provides end users with a self-service experience. It can ensure that customers receive timely and helpful service without you having to invest heavily in manpower.
Many small business owners dream of growing their venture to incredible sizes. While some businesses fail entirely, other stagnate or only experience nominal growth over the years. If you want to have one of the rare few businesses that reaches astronomical levels of success, you must guide your business to the end result every step of the way. By following these helpful growth tips, you can more successfully reach the end result that you desire for your business.
Cameron Johnson is a business consultant and social media expert. Over the course of his career he has conducted case studies on both social media optimization and non-profit marketing. Cameron has also had the opportunity to speak at international marketing conferences and was recently recognized as one of the world’s top 100 advertising experts to follow on social media.
Thanks for mentioning our business intelligence platform. We definitely think Grow will help any small business grow faster.
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