8 Tips to Help You Grow Your Business

Tens of millions of small businesses are competing for a dwindling amount of consumer dollars in today’s economy. That not only makes it hard for seasoned business owners to keep their organizations afloat but also makes things challenging for new companies that are looking to get up and running.

There are a lot of questions swirling around on how to grow your business and if that’s still even possible. Fortunately, growing your business is absolutely possible and how you might go about doing that is mostly the same it has been in years past.

Below, we share low-hanging tips you can leverage to start building momentum for your company.

1. Hire Great People

A business is only as great as the team of people running it. Therein lies the value of putting focus on your hiring pipeline if your goal is to grow.

There are several ways you can find quality candidates when hiring. You might choose to use online recruiting services or to start advertising your company on college campuses that have majors related to your products and services.

When hiring, always try to look for a diversity of backgrounds and talents as the more perspectives you have on your team, the broader your reach will be in your market.

2. Get Automation Savvy

Hiring great people is important when you want to grow your business. You don’t need a person to fill every role on your team though.

In some cases, a task you need done is best accomplished by a robot like if you need Business Proposal Templates, hence the value of automation.

Automation is when you bring on software to carry out rudimentary tasks. That eliminates the need for you to hire a temp or an administrative staff member which will save you tens of thousands of dollars per year.

That money can then be reinvested in your company’s growth.

3. Put Money Into Marketing

Curious to know where you should invest those automation savings? What about marketing?!

Marketing is always a great investment because your company can only grow if prospective consumers are aware of its existence.

Marketing investments might include hiring an agency to manage your marketing for you. Or, if you’d like to take a more DIY approach, you could use your marketing dollars to sponsor pay-per-click ad campaigns across popular websites like Google, Instagram, Facebook, and others.

4. Plus Out Your Web Presence

If your business doesn’t have a stunningly functional website today, it’s losing money.

Customers look to websites to get an idea of what a business does, how professional it is, and even to consume products and services. Look at your website as if you were a consumer and ask yourself, “Am I getting everything I might want from my site in its current form?”.

If you answer no to that question, start making adjustments.

5. Research and Service Your Customers

Your business exists to serve your customers. So, it stands to reason that knowing a lot about your customers would be good for business.

Always keep meetings and projects on the books that let you explore who your customers are more deeply and how their needs are shifting. Use those findings to continue improving your products and marketing tactics.

Focus group testing is an example of a great way to get your business in front of prospects and get solid feedback on where you can improve. Leaning on solid CRM tools and understanding the difference they versus other tools will make can also be helpful.

6. Ask for Feedback

So few companies value the importance of getting feedback from their customers. That’s a huge misstep as quality feedback has the power to transform a company in ways that can make them much more successful.

If you’re interested in getting feedback from your client base (and you should be) consider sending out a digital survey to consumers after they’ve shopped with you. For those of you that run brick-and-mortars and don’t have the means to do that, consider asking people to sign up for your mailing list or fill out comment cards in-store.

Looking at your online reviews is also a great way to quickly get feedback on how you’re doing.

7. Network

Companies that are in the business to business space need to network to be successful. That might include showing up at trade shows or having a robust presence on LinkedIn.

Even if you’re not in the business to business space, networking can turn you onto new vendors that could revolutionize your workflows.

The more people your company knows and can call on when you need help growing, the better positioned you’ll be to succeed.

8. Be a Staple in Your Community

Giving back to your community isn’t a conventional way to grow your business but believe us when we say that it’s effective. The more awareness you can bring to the people that live and work near your place of business, the further your brand stretches its legs into the hearts and minds of potential consumers.

That passive awareness can turn into word of mouth recommendations which, slowly but surely, will lead to a large brand footprint that’s more capable of pulling in revenue.

Grow Your Business With Any Combination of Our Tips

We’ve just hit you with a handful of tips that are laser-focused on helping you grow your business. By adopting just two or three of our suggestions, we’re confident you can scale your company to new heights, even when economies are sitting in a slump.

Our team wishes you the best in your quest to be successful and welcomes you to read more content on our blog if you’re like additional guidance.

Cyndy Lane
 

Cyndy is business journalist with a focus on entrepreneurship and small business. With over a decade of experience covering the startup and small business landscape, Cyndy has a reputation for being a knowledgeable, insightful and approachable journalist. She has a keen understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing small business owners and is able to explain them in a way that is relatable and actionable for her readers.