For most businesses, the goal is to scale operations over time, not just maintain the current level of progress that they’ve made thus far. However, for small businesses, this can be especially hard if you’re not sure where to begin. The good news? No matter where you are in your business journey, there is plenty of great advice out there that you can leverage to experience business growth. To get you started, here are three things that’ll help your business grow.
1. Outsource your brand needs or acquire the equipment you need for faster production.
If you’re a product-based business, the biggest barrier to growth is having what you need to increase production and meet the demand of your customer base. Now is the time to consider what your current needs are and how you can begin to take action to meet those needs. You may wish to start with the following items.
- Look at your current demand and expected growth. How well are you keeping up with your current orders? If you were to receive an influx of orders, would you be able to keep up? If not, what’s the resolution that’ll help your business function more effectively?
- Ask yourself what you need to succeed in your current business model. For example, those who run a strictly online business will have different needs than those with multiple store locations or a hybrid business model. Take this into consideration when planning out your next steps.
- Figure out whether you should outsource your needs to a third party. For example, let’s imagine that you run a vape business where you’re constantly coming up with new products and providing your customers with cartridges and other goods. Chances are that you need to deal with branding, filling your cartridges, and beyond. One excellent solution is to purchase cartridge filling equipment so that you have access to the cartridge filling machine you need when you need to fill loose cartridges, vape pens, or even syringes for customers who enjoy doing the repeatable filling on their own. Whether you’re outsourcing your needs or finding a custom solution to your production woes, there are always solutions to help you push your limits.
With the right equipment to help you keep up with orders, you’re one major step closer to scaling your business beyond what you’ve known it to be in the past.
2. Make it easier for your customers to pay for the goods they love.
Small businesses must be able to process popular payment options that customers have become accustomed to. That said, finding the point of sale (POS) systems and integrations that they need to effortlessly accept and process payments can be very difficult for new business owners, which is something that can prevent them from moving their business forward more effectively. The good news is that there are plenty of great companies out there dedicated to providing small business owners with the solutions they need to succeed.
Let’s imagine that you’ve decided to set up your own online storefront. For your eCommerce needs, you may want to consider a solution like Lightspeed POS. Lightspeed is a POS solution that focuses on ease of use and offers a simple setup process, making it easy for any business owner to implement it into their NitroSell webstore. Based in the cloud, Lightspeed provides users with a lightweight POS experience that keeps them updated about real-time sales data and analytics. If you’re on the hunt for a POS system that offers reliability, simplicity, and speed, the Lightspeed POS for your eCommerce business is a great solution to use.
3. Develop a marketing strategy that’ll help you achieve success.
There are plenty of talented individuals in the world with great products or services to offer the wider population. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to make it. Why? One factor that separates those who succeed in their endeavors from those who don’t is how they market their business. Your marketing strategy plays a crucial role in your business’s survival as well as its growth. After all, it determines whether or not people are going to be interested in purchasing the products and services that you have to offer.
But how exactly do you create a solid marketing strategy that’ll ensure your business scales over time and gains the exposure it needs to make it sustainable? Although a marketing strategy can be rather extensive, some important points to research further include:
- How to market your business locally: Do you operate a small brick and mortar business? If so, you’re going to need to look deeper into local marketing strategies to help attract people to your business. Local marketing, with the exception of marketing strategies like local SEO, is a different breed entirely from the world of online marketing strategies. Carefully research physical marketing strategies that can create local awareness and buzz about your small business.
- What your customers will respond most effectively to: Developing a customer persona will help you better understand who your audience is, how you can reach them, and what type of marketing they’re most likely to take notice of. If you market without a solid idea of who you’re marketing to, chances are that you’ll miss the mark by quite a bit.
- How your competition has grown: Seeking out inspiration from popular companies in your industry can be a great way to figure out how you can scale your own business. Look deeper into what has worked for businesses you look up to, what lessons they’ve learned, and how you can incorporate these elements into your own business. Although you may have to tweak a few things here and there, chances are that your competition has a lot to teach you when it comes to marketing.
- What resources you have and which methods you can pursue: Your marketing strategy will not only be defined by the type of activities you’ll engage in but by how much you have to spend on marketing as well. Take into consideration which avenues you wish to pursue and how much you have to spend. For example, if you know that social media will likely yield positive results and you want to avoid overspending, you can deal with managing your own accounts and outsourcing certain activities you can’t do like making social media videos to a video production service. Then, with your efforts on one end and the support of a company specializing in video production (whether you need explainer videos or product video content for your website), you’ll be able to cover more ground. Define your goals and figure out the most effective way to achieve them.
Marketing can be difficult, but it all boils down to planning. Once you’ve created a comprehensive plan of attack, all you need to rely on yourself for is to ensure its execution.
Small business growth can seem near impossible at times. When you have a better idea of what it takes to scale, however, it becomes a matter of taking the right courses of action moving forward. To help you get started on your own small business growth, use the three tips above to focus on three vital aspects of your business and begin your growth journey!
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