Every small business, regardless of shape and type, reaches a point where you need to increase sales and improve margins. There is no formula for instant success; you need hard work and dedication to boost your business growth.
This blog post will provide tips for startup owners on how to grow their businesses.
Table of contents:
● 10 essential tips for growing your startup
● Wrapping up
10 essential tips for growing your startup
1. Do a proper market research:
Starting a business is difficult; you need proper market research, from launching a product to checking consumer reactions, requirements for product changes, and more.
Market research allows you to understand the changes in existing customers’ demands, attract potential ones, look out for competitors, and gain insights into the target market.
Market research can be primary or secondary.
Primary market research includes direct research using focus groups, one-to-one surveys or interviews.
Secondary market research uses data that has already been collected, analysed and published. Such information is usually available in the public domain- both paid and unpaid.
2. Build a sales funnel:
Are you looking for how to grow your business but unaware of what is a sales funnel?
A Sales funnel can grow your business by understanding every level of a customer journey. It starts from entering your store or landing on a website to buying a product or signing up for a service.
Entrepreneurs should look for ways to successfully pass target customers through the sales funnel and increase sales. You can offer discounts or send business updates through email, SMS, and other contact sources.
Having multiple sales funnels is critical to revenue growth and maintenance.
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3. Understand the essential tools you need:
Businesses must use advanced tools to automate their processes and reach success goals efficiently.
Some essential startup business tools include:
● A website builder:
It assists in creating good websites to increase your online presence, connect with potential customers, and build trust in them.
● A CRM tool:
Customer Relationship Management tools help businesses track customer relationships, including contact details and purchase history.
● An email marketing tool:
It helps you promote services and products via email to potential customers.
● A payment processing method:
If you are conducting business online, you need a payment processing method to accept customer payments using credit cards, debit cards, BACS and others. Common payment processors are stripe, GoCardless or Paypal.
● A project management tool:
If you have many contractors or employees, managing work or delegating tasks can be challenging. Use a project management tool to assign tasks to your development or sales team.
A set of tech tools can help your startup succeed quickly.
4. Focus on customer retention:
Ask a successful entrepreneur about how to grow your small business, and they will recommend you pay attention to customer retention. It increases customer loyalty, and together with new customers, you increase sales and profits.
How to increase customer retention?
- Prioritise customer service
- Use a customer relations management system
- Create customer loyalty programs
- Launching email campaign
- Engaging customers on social media
- Keep a promise made to your customers
Focusing on your existing customers means you won’t invest in something with no guaranteed returns.
5. Understand your finances:
You can never overlook your finances while running a startup. Because if you don’t have sufficient cash, you cannot fulfil a business requirement like hiring an employee or purchasing equipment to meet consumer needs.
Poor financial management leads to startup failures, significantly when costs or expenses exceed your business’s revenue. You need a good cash flow forecast to predict sales and profits or losses.
Startup owners need to secure funding, look for government grants for unsecured funding at a lower interest rate, build passive income streams, and look for other financial resources.
6. Focus on marketing:
New entrepreneurs try to walk along with the latest trends in the market, leading to extra expense against a bit of revenue. A few marketing tactics you can try are:
- Focusing on Search engine optimisation strategies
- Indulge in strategic marketing partnerships
- Use social media marketing tactics
- Apply content marketing strategy or start a blog
- Start Email marketing strategy
- Start a podcast
- Go for webinars
- Attend business events
Create an effective marketing plan that reaches your customer. Startups have little resources and need to operate on small budgets; therefore, they look for different cost-effective marketing methods.
7. Be adaptable:
How do you grow your business if you are not adaptable to the changing market trends? Yes, it’s essential to adapt and change quickly to taste different approaches to business and find out which works best.
Additionally, looking into the current trends can bring greater opportunities for increasing sales and revenue in the current market. You can select different growth strategies, from market penetration and diversification to changes in products or services.
8. Understand the risks:
Starting and growing business associates with numerous risks, and controlling them is impossible. Some significant risks include:
- Losing major clients
- IT issues or data loss
- Running out of cash
- Supply chain issues
- Litigation
- Tough competition
- A physical disaster
Make a list of all possible risks in your business and see if buying insurance can cover their expenses. You must also create a risk mitigation plan to ensure your business and people are safe.
However, if you are ready to take risks in any business, you can make significant profits. For example, taking a big order from a new client can be risky but comes with a good reward.
9. Be creative:
You don’t always have to sell a new product; educating the market and convincing customers can be challenging for startups. Don’t stop dealing with products and services already introduced in the market, but try to create the uniqueness that makes you stand out from the competition.
Think as a customer, and wonder why you will come to a business that sells a product similar to your chosen brand. It will help you find something new in your company or motivate you to add a new concept.
10. Stay focused:
A famous saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. You need to stay focused on your business plan, look for opportunities or create new ones. Everything needs time, and startups need time to let people know who they are and what they sell. Have patience, stay consistent, keep providing the best services and maintain a healthy customer relationship for faster growth.
Hire Startup Accountant
Work with a London-based accountant for tax, accounting, payroll, & EIS/ SEIS needs.
Wrapping up
While different strategies help a business grow, your task is finding what’s working for you.
Maybe engaging your customer on social media can increase your revenue, or creating a customer loyalty program, make changes in a business plan, extend to new markets, or something else.
Make a detailed study on the growth strategies and consult with professionals before implementing a new plan in business.
