Do you want to grow your business? Is the sky blue and the grass green?
Well I am going to let you in on a secret; it isn’t as hard and complex as you may think to start seeing growth in your business. Of course, nothing is a ‘one size fits all’, but there are definitely some general tips that you can literally start today that will start to benefit your company’s performance.
Get on social media!
Before I get called biased, I need to stress that this list is in no particular order…
Although, the fact I work in marketing leaves me in a good position to tell you just how beneficial being on social media can be. I’m not talking all the bells and whistles of £100+ video and picture editing software and sticking to a social media content plan, I mean literally just being there – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter, in my opinion are the four horsemen of online marketing.
By no means do you need to be on them all, but by being on at least one it gives your company a platform to create some form of community with your core customers, share company updates and at the very least somewhere to showcase opening times and location.
It can also help you create a closer relationship to your customers by engaging with their (hopefully) lovely comments about your service or product!
Related: Sprout Socials’ ultimate SME social media guide
Service with a smile
The way you interact with customers both in problem-solving for them and also daily interactions can have a bigger impact than you think. Being friendly and accommodating to customers can be the difference between keeping and losing a customer. You also want to avoid a snowball effect, as the famous survey done by Coca-Cola said “Satisfied customers will tell 4-5 people about their experience, unhappy customers will tell around 9-10 about it”. You definitely don’t want to get caught in a negative word of mouth train!
So make sure you are doing everything in your power to make the customer experience as enjoyable as possible and make it as hard as possible for your customers to talk negatively about your business to their friend or worse… review online.
Related: 8 reasons why customer service is important
Be on the lookout for opportunities
What I mean by this is find out if there is potential to access additional ways to make money in the business. Do you want to offer an additional product? Is there any sponsorship or ads that you can provide to create passive income? Are you in a position to vary pricing strategies for different customers? These are just a couple of questions I think can offer you food for thought and get the ball rolling.
If you are able to implement additional revenue into your business, then that my friend is an expansion of your business!
Related: 5 strategies to spot new revenue streams
Quick fixes aren’t always beneficial
Yes, in the short term it may seem like the perfect solution when time and money and scarce, investing in a basic solution to fix a problem short term. But, it can be really easy to lose track of the bigger picture and forget about long term success. Getting trapped in a vicious cycle of replacing inefficient resources with more inefficient resources can end up leaving you losing more money long-term. So the message here being to invest in your business the same way you would invest in organs for your body, you wouldn’t cheap out on a heart or a lung, so why would you for your business?
If only I knew a way that would allow people to purchase high quality assets and be able to spread the cost of it over a period of time…Hmmm…
Related: JR’s equipment leasing options
Trust your instincts
Corny? Maybe. Factual? Absolutely. But you took the leap of faith and started your own business and you’re reading this now which means your business is still running – so that’s a good sign. This means that you do have entrepreneurial skills and you do have good ideas. So trust yourself and your ability to make your business grow, there are ideas in there somewhere and this blog is an attempt by me to tap into them.
I am not giving you the ideas, I am just facilitating yours.
To Conclude
So there we go, business growth doesn’t seem so unachievable and scary now does it! When you break it down into things that can be implemented and tweaked literally today, it seems a much easier task to grow your business than it did before you clicked on this blog.
Now, I leave it in your hands. If this is the only blog you read on our website then I wish you and your business every success in the future!
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