How to increase business growth.
To paraphrase the old business adage, if you’re not growing, you’re not going anywhere. In this rapidly changing international economy, being able to grow and overcome obstacles is key to being able to weather market changes and economic shifts.
While the economy is always changing, a growing company is simultaneously able to absorb and accommodate these influences.
The question that business boils down to is: How to increase business growth? The following 6 useful tips will help to keep your business moving in the right direction.
Marketing/ brand management
Brand management has become a catchphrase in the modern marketplace because of how critical brand identification is to the success of a company.
Just think of the logos and associated phrases of Coke, Ford, or Apple and you can quickly see how a quality brand is a reflection of and an influencer of business growth and success.
Although a start-up or growing company is not as attached to its brand, logos, and trademarks relative to actual performance, brand management can help get your business into the room and compete with established companies.
Marketing today is as much about quality as it is about quality. Depending on what you are trying to sell and to whom, one needs to be specific and direct in the marketing venues one pursues.
A great way to influence brand placement as well as to promote one’s products and services is to use social media platforms, such as Instagram or TikTok to create a more dynamic image of one’s business.
Blogs and videos are also great outlets to showcase what your business does while also offering product tutorials or troubleshooting. Amid these various venues, brand management that makes content and one’s products or services as relatable and engaging as possible is more likely to generate traffic and interest in one’s brands.
Whether you choose to affiliate with certain events (like energy drinks and concerts!), affiliate with certain activities or people/ promoters, or present your products and services in appropriate venues (think dog collars at a dog park), strategic marketing that positions your brand as clear and convincing as possible is going to generate more revenue and growth.
Samples and Sales
There’s nothing like a good sample as well as a discount to generate interest in your product. Samples are fairly intuitive ways to generate interest and increase growth through sales as well as referrals.
Samples allow consumers to interact with your products directly, whether it’s a brownie or a bicycle (not that you’re giving it away, but you can let people ride it).
Samples also allow customers to interact directly with company-affiliated personnel to answer questions and create a more human-oriented business approach that makes products more engaging.
Finally, when combined with product placement and brand management, sales and direct client interaction can allow clients to see how useful, dynamic, and engaging your product may be, making them more likely to interact with your product, have a positive response, and keep coming back for more.
Using discounts has a similar effect with opposite and slightly counterintuitive logic. The goal of business is to sell as much product for as much money as possible, which would seem to disincentivize using sales and discounts.
However, a well-placed discount, such as rewarding frequent customers, certain spending levels, or even discounting certain products during the year, can make your company more relatable and accommodating.
Customers don’t like feeling like they’re being taken advantage of, but when there’s a sale or discount on certain products or services, customers feel like they’re prioritized over your company.
Improve Production/ expand inventory
Although it’s not so easy to rapidly change production capacities given the inherent costs associated with all levels of production, strategic investment can allow rapid growth of one’s business.
Simple upgrades to equipment, such as purchasing improved printers or manufacturing assemblies, can drastically reduce costs due to production delays, repairs, or improperly manufactured products.
Lowered expenses have an inversely proportional relationship to one’s revenue, as the lower they go, the more money you hold onto from product sales.
By the same token, improving production can also allow experimentation that can generate more revenue. Expanding inventory, whether to accommodate a new market or seasonal production variations, gives customers more options and is more likely to attract businesses away from similar businesses with limited production lines.
Likewise, limited edition products or services can temporarily generate interest while also increasing your revenue temporarily and, in select cases can give you the opportunity to try products or services that could be featured regularly at a later date.
Focusing on quality issues that may have arisen during production or from customer feedback can also improve sales and growth given the intrinsic response to improved products, whether they are more durable, easier to use, or more effective at their intended function.
Internal Efficiency audit
Internal business audits oriented towards improving efficiency are essential and provocative tactics to improve overall business performance. An internal audit can allow business owners to see how a business is actually run.
What processes are wasteful, whether because of excess waste, needed repairs, or producing ill-suited products? Are more employees needed, or better-trained employees, or should certain employees be moved to a new position?
What areas of your business are too energy-intensive, and can they be improved by new practices (timers for lights), new products (more efficient coffee makers), or new approaches to how the business is run (working 4 days a week instead of five to reduce commuting and office expenses)?
Auditing your business on at least a yearly basis can keep you on track of how your business actually operates and allow you to allocate resources where they are most needed and divert them away from where they’re not.
Network with complementary businesses
Working with complementary businesses takes advantage of the “two heads are better than one approach” to maximize each business’ attributes. Working with complementary businesses, or co-branding offers many benefits.
Businesses can create collaborative marketing campaigns that boost each other’s sales while sharing in advertising expenses, thus lowering overall costs.
Co-branding allows businesses to reach new markets and to create products that blend each other’s strengths, generating new markets altogether.
Co-branding allows businesses to create networking events that allow both businesses to showcase their efforts, reducing advertising costs, expanding each other’s overall network, and improving overall customer relations. In the end, for two companies that provide complementary services, a collaborative approach allows both to reap the benefits of collective effort.
Collaborate with competing businesses
Although it may seem counterintuitive, working with competing businesses can actually lead to improved performance and accelerated growth. Assuming that you are effectively differentiated from your competition, you can attract customers not satisfied with your competitors and refer unsatisfied customers to them.
This synergy allows both companies to benefit from the improved referral process and customer traffic at the expense of not having to invest in additional marketing or try to outcompete the other firm.
Competitors can also share production strategies, particularly if one competitor has already been established in a specific field and is looking to offload equipment or properties in order to upgrade.
In some instances, working with a competitor can allow previously competing for businesses to form a partnership and restructure into a larger entity, as has been done with such competing agencies as Daimler and Chrysler, among other notable entities.
Every business should be oriented towards constant improvement and growth, as doing so not only improves business performance but also customer satisfaction.
These strategies are some of the many that can help to accelerate the growth of any business and generate new possibilities for improved performance.
