So, you own a business and want to improve it? The best businesses are always looking for ways to expand their businesses. Whether it could be offering better products or adopting more efficient methods. Here’s how you can take your business to the next level.
Most business leaders will tell you that starting a business is relatively easy, but growing a business is more complicated. Growth is crucial to the long-term survival of a business. It helps to acquire assets, attract new talent, and fund investments. It also drives business performance and profit.
How to Grow Your Business?
Expanding the business has many benefits for the owners. Let’s take a look at the most
important reasons why the owners may want to grow their businesses.
1. Survival:
In our ultra-competitive economy, new businesses need to be better and more competitive in securing the first few orders to compete with their growing rivals by finding the potential
customers and developing the first few products.
2. Increase in sales:
Businesses grow by selling more products, either by selling more to existing customers or
finding new customers. However, the growth in the value of a business’s sales does not
automatically increase its market share.
3. Increase in market share:
An increase in market share results from business growth. With the increase in market share, the company will gain a higher profile and more market power. This will allow the firm to charge higher prices, have greater bargaining power with suppliers to negotiate lower prices for raw materials, and will make it easier and less risky for the business to continue growing by launching new products onto the market as its brand becomes more widely known.
4. Greater power to control the market:
Industry giants have much greater power to control and influence market activities than
smaller businesses include having greater control over setting prices.
5. Increase in profits:
Expanding businesses and achieving higher sales is one of the ways of becoming more
profitable. To increase profits while expanding, the business should keep its costs under
control. Keeping the costs at the same level as before expansion or keeping the growth of
costs less than the growth in sales revenue, should also increase profits.
6. Protection from the risk of takeover:
Public limited companies are often at risk of hostile takeovers – buying a majority stake in
the business because they have growth potential, have a widely recognized corporate name, or due to a decrease in profits and subsequent fall in their share price. But large businesses are very, very expensive to be taken over. There is less risk of being a takeover target because not many investors can afford to buy such a large company.
7. Increased status and recognition:
Controlling a large and well-known business gives the owners and directors higher status and broader recognition in society. Status and fame may bring new opportunities to gain
publicity or influence the next generation. Growth is an ongoing process that requires hard work, patience, and dedication. There’s no special step or secret way to surpass other
businesses in the industry or achieve immediate success. There isn’t a one-for-everyone business growth strategy for small business owners.
But here are some key strategies to grow your business.
- Do your Research: Researching your competitors is one of the most important first steps in launching your business. Knowing what their strengths and weaknesses are can help you to gain insight into your existing customers and your potential customers. It will also help you to understand your target market.
- Boost your customer service: When you’re thinking about expanding your customer service, focus on your existing customers, too, because it’s not enough to get new customers for your business. Because you need customer loyalty to expand your business. You can increase your customer service by:
• using a customer relation management
• creating a customer loyalty program
• keeping up your promises - Attend networking events: An excellent way to increase your brand visibility is by attending networking events. It allows you to connect with like-minded individuals, many of whom have unique perspectives and insights that can help you grow your business. The connections and relationships that come from networking events can benefit your business.
- Practice corporate social responsibility: Consumers want to buy from businesses passionate about causes that help make the world a better place. You could publicly express your support to underserved communities, donate to various organizations, offer your time to fundraisers and offer sustainable products to help the environment.
- Invest in yourself: In the early stages of your business, it’s better to invest in your business’s growth to reap more immense benefits later. Determine which parts of your business need more attention: For example, do you need to hire more workers, expand your marketing efforts, or improve customer service? When you find a crucial area that needs improvement, give that area your financial support.
- Focus on digital marketing: Another method to grow your business is to create profiles on all of the major social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). An active profile allows you to better market your business and interacts with more potential customers. You can also use email marketing for your audience, helping them feel more connected to your brand and cultivating trust.
- Form strategic partnership: Strategic partnerships have mutual benefits and can lead to long-term profits. Entering a strategic partnership with another business can allow you to reach a broader network of customers. It helps you increase your expertise and resources, decrease your acquisition cost, create predictable revenue streams, and provide incremental lift to sales and revenue.
- Be adaptable: Building adaptability can help your business compete in this highly competitive market. To adapt, you must have the sense to understand the change from the external environment, decode them, and quickly act to refine or reinvent its business model and use it for your business purpose.
