As an entrepreneur, when you ask yourself how to grow your small business to the next level, you might at first think this is extremely difficult and get frustrated by the lack of possibilities. The reality is exactly the opposite – there are quite a few ways to do this and this article suggests a list of the kinds of things you can think about immediately. So let’s get started…
1- Penetrate Deeper Into Your Existing Segment
You are already operating in a particular segment – say in a particular location with a certain kind of customer – and you have a few customers. What you really need is more of the same. This might require you to do more aggressive promotion and marketing in the same segment, asking existing clients to provide testimonials and referrals to other potential clients in the same segment. You may even think of refining the segment a bit to start targeting clients you weren’t thinking of before.
2- Revamp Your USP – Add a New Segment or Change It
One of the great benefits of revamping your business model and your proposition is that you may find you had misjudged who your customers were. Perhaps it is time to add a new segment or maybe it is best to change it. A startup is after all a process of exploration and if you are not getting the number of customers you expected, it is good to re-assess the business model.
3- Go Into A Niche Market
The more specialized you become, the less there is of competition and you can get into your own specific niche that you excel at. This is not going to happen automatically but it is possible to get into a niche where it is hard for the competition to copy your offerings.
4- Add a New Product or Service
Let’s say you have a type of perfume for young women. You notice that a number of older women are also coming into your store. This is telling you something: you need to have something for them. Perhaps it is time for a second product – maybe a perfume for older women. In some businesses, it is possible to add a second or even a third product for the same type of client. For example the young woman looking for a perfume may also be interested in a skincare product.
5- Extend Your Geographical Reach
This might mean another location in another city or it might just mean making yourself visible to potential customers via the web in other cities or even other countries. It is not easy for small businesses to extend geographical reach physically but you can leverage the web and social media to get you noticed in a lot of places.
6- Work on Referrals and Testimonials
This is a great way to get more business without spending money on promotions. Customer referrals and testimonials sent out via emails or featuring on your website can be very compelling.
7- Get into a Partnership or Alliance
This might mean leveraging on another organization’s geographical presence in a particular location, business acumen, marketing clout or brand visibility, etc.
8- Franchising
If you have a reasonable brand that is known in other locations, or you have an exciting product/service that you can teach someone else to roll out in another city, why not think about the franchising option?
9- Spend More Time Selling
Selling to existing customers and potential customers is something you should be doing multiple times a week. Meeting potential clients face to face has much more impact than a remote email interaction.
10- Start a Blog
Start a blog and offer valuable insights to your customers and prospects. This improves the number of leads on youur website and converts you from someone who is a just a vendor or salesperson to a knowledgeable consultant.
11- Offer Free Seminars/Webinars
Like the blog content, this is something of value that customers and prospects can get for free. One company that markets training programs offers free “mini-training” sessions that are usually full. This is a great way to get your kind of customers to come to you.
12- Increase Your Price
Yes, this is a completely legitimate way to increase revenue. Obviously this is not something you can do too often without scaring clients way but it is a very important tool in your overall “grow your business” toolkit.
13- Get Better at Marketing
No matter what marketing you currently employ, there is always room for improvement. Start using some metrics for your marketing. How many people are visiting your website, how many email enquiries are you getting, how many interactions are you seeing on Facebook? Are you using Twitter? Are you present at seminars and exhibitions? Is your marketing collateral good enough? Do you have an updated company profile?
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