How to Accelerate Business Growth

15 steps to Accelerate your Business Growth

“How can I make my business grow faster?” is a question many small business owners ask themselves. These business owners often feel like a hamster on a wheel — they’re hustling and spinning the proverbial wheel every day, and not seeing the fruits of their labor.

Like most things in life, there is no one answer or magic wand to grow your business quickly. 

Fast growth can be the result of being in the right place at the right time.  Sometimes the answer to how you can enhance the growth of the company is nothing more than hard work, effort, and energy.

There is no one business growth strategy to snowball.  Think of growing your business like baking a cake.  There are a lot of different recipes.  It partly depends on your taste.  However, like most recipes, it’s a step-by-step process.  Change one ingredient, and the bread doesn’t rise or maybe tastes funny.  If the recipe says to bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, raising the temperature to 700 degrees doesn’t mean it will take half the time.

The path to get your business to boom is the same concept. Pick a recipe.  Gather the ingredients.   Grease the pan and put it in the oven for the prescribed amount of time.  Does that mean you can’t change the recipe if you don’t like the way the cake turned out?  Of course not.  Just know that if you change something, write it down so you can measure the impact it has on your bottom line.

Luckily, there are many ways you can accelerate business growth and build the business of your dreams. Check out how to grow a small business with these growth strategies and tips below.

1. Build a Great Team

All successful businesses start with an all-star team of employees. You may not be ready to hire anyone in the beginning, but consider the possibility of your first hire long before it’s necessary. Delegating tasks will free you up to do what you do best. A new employee can also help you in areas where you’re not as experienced.  The key is to hire the right person.  Once you have your team, can you utilize their insights for new products or ideas?  Do you even have enough staff to help identify and, more importantly, capture these growth opportunities?

2. Get Customer Feedback

Your customers are a valuable resource for tips on how to improve your business. Create a survey or ask them in person what they like about your business, and how they think you could improve it. But don’t stop there! Be sure to implement any feedback you get and continue to ask for feedback throughout the growth of your company.

3. Follow an Investment Plan

Invest in yourself.  Following a well-thought-out investment plan is vital for growing your business. Every great company must invest in development.  A small business loan is a good option for those who otherwise wouldn’t have the cash flow to invest in their business. Use the funds for hiring, purchasing inventory, or for any other needs. The ket is to change your perspective to the cost or expense associated with the loan.  Most successful entrepreneurs think of the cost or expense as the investment. Get comfortable with business finance.

4. Create a Customer Loyalty Program

The existing customer is the bread and butter of your small business. Treat them well, and they’ll stick around for years to come. A customer loyalty program can help create brand loyalists who feel more strongly tied to your business. Give customers reasons to come back again and again by offering coupons, freebies, and other rewards.  Build an email list.  Acquire new customers; it’s the lifeblood of any business.  Then keep the customers happy.

5. Identify What’s Working

We love to talk about finding ways to innovate your business; we also need to mention that it’s essential to keep doing what’s working for you. We all know the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This strategy applies to your business, too.

6. Create a Sales Funnel

Sales funnels are an efficient way to automate processes for your business. You can grow more quickly by planning when it comes to customer experience. Consider sending emails to remind customers about items left in a cart or offer free shipping or even a smaller free gift to those who spend over a certain amount. Every business has a sales funnel.  Think about how you acquire your customers.  How did they find you?

7. Use a Customer Management System

Even if your business is small, it’s best to get a customer management system in place, so you have an electronic record of transactions from the very beginning. These systems can also help with accounting, marketing, and more. Choose from a wide array of software programs and find the one to fit the needs of your business.

8. Form Partnerships

You can spend your days going after individual customers, or you can bring in herds of new business by forming the right partnerships. Find online influencers and other complementary companies, then create strategic partnerships or an affiliate program.  The program can reward your partners in the form of cash, giveaways, events, and limited-time offerings. You’ll quickly see your customer base grow, with a fraction of the effort. Rather than making one sale, the partner can help you sell them like bananas – in bunches.

9. Expand Your Offerings

If you want to increase sales, try expanding your offerings. For example, if you sell shoes, you could consider selling socks and shoelaces as well. However, sometimes, an array of options can be too overwhelming, so make sure you hit the sweet spot to know how to accelerate business growth.

10. Create a Webinar

When you’re in the daily grind of your business, you might wonder when you’ll have more time to dedicate to the aspects of your job that you love. Creating a webinar can help you do just that. A webinar requires some upfront work, but once you’re done building it, you can let it do all the work of bringing in customers for you. If you’re selling a webinar, it will be a great form of passive income to increase the cash flow of your business.

11. Research the Competition

Shop your competitor.  What do they do?  How do they do it?  Look at everything.  Be honest with yourself.  Can you make changes or improvements if they’re beating you?    Many a CEO will take one day a week to see what the competition is doing, whether it’s on the web or visiting brick and mortars.

12. Consider a franchise mode

Do you see consistent profits in your business?  Is your business replicable?   Is there a large market for potential franchisees?  If the answer is yes, then perhaps the economies of scale can get your business to that next level?

13. Acquire other businesses

Buying a competitor can get you into markets you are not reaching.  Strategically you may be able to offer new products.  Determine if some natural synergies make sense.

14. International expansion

Does it make sense to expand into overseas markets?  Have you adequately built your backyard before entering another or foreign market?  The right product at the right time may be the ticket to accelerated sales.

15. Products

Are you asking, “how can I improve my small business?”  Look at the products you are selling to your current customers.  Now ask yourself if your company can grow faster if you continue marketing to your existing customers, or perhaps to new ones?  Ask yourself what new products you can introduce to your current customers.  If you are going to target new customers, what should you sell them?  If you’re selling your existing customer base, it’s the same question.

Implementing These Tips

So, now you know the answer to “how do small businesses grow?” These tips are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the strategies you can implement to help your business explode.  Take a deep breath, clear your desk and calendar of all distractions.  Focus on the challenges.  What are the distractions? What’s working and what’s not working.  Stop what’s not working.   You need to be specific with your goals.  Write them down. You’ve heard that a million times, but it works.  Create that plan of action. It’s your recipe. Don’t be afraid to hire a business coach.

Think about your favorite sports team.  Do you have a bunch of guys or girls just running around on the field?  Heck no!  They have a coach.  Even the players making 25 million dollars a year have a coach.  Think about it. Don’t be afraid to take your business to the next level with business coaching. Remember, you asked the question. Believe in yourself.  Your efforts will pay off.  There will be a day, and you’ll look back and realize you have the business of your dreams.