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Many entrepreneurs commence business with great ideas, yet they are unable to scale their companies for growth. Building and growing a business requires a lot of perseverance, determination and patience… things don’t happen overnight!
But laying the foundation for a successful business does not have to be stressful. While every business is unique, there are certain key pointers to follow in order to build a solid small business for success.
Here are seven tried and tested principles that will enhance your thought process, build a solid foundation and help your small business grow.
1. Revisit your business goals
A business strategy is what you started with. And you have always known that without set strategies and goals, there is no path to success. But how often have you re-visited that strategy? Are your three-year business plans on track? And did you modify them as you went along?
If you haven’t set a pattern of measuring yourself, your team and your organisation against some predetermined objectives, then it’s time you do that. When everyone understands clearly what the overall goals of the organisation are, it allows everyone to unite and bring those goals to fruition. Stay focused on the big objectives.
2. Grow your team and get more done
Having the right players at the table is a guaranteed way to ensure fast growth. A well-thought-out team will pave the way and help you meet your goals. Hiring people with multiple-skills, who aren’t afraid to pull up their sleeves to get the job done will help you to delegate.
Once you have the right team in place, it’s time to start placing trust in them to work independently. Empower your team, set individual goals and help them achieve and contribute to the business. Observe closely, but try to stop wearing all the hats in your business.
3. Attend networking events and meet new people
To develop a small business, it’s often about being in the right place at the right time and having the right connections can make all the difference to grow your business. You need to be proactive.
Investing time to build your networks will go a long way to building new relationships. These new relationships may turn into customers through word of mouth. Take advantage of speaking at local or industry events; it’s a great way to associate with other businesses and future customers as well. Go out there and network – market yourself and be seen.
4. Make data-driven decisions
You have leveraged the power of social media, increased your online presence, invested in a CRM and/or you moved to the cloud. Awesome! With the mound of data that you now have and probably didn’t have before, you expect this new data to make a world of difference to your business.
The problem is …does it make sense? Like most small businesses, you too may be clueless about how all this data is going to work for you. Invest the time to clean up your data and leverage it to help you drive your business. Use your big data for analysis and to facilitate decision-making around sales.
5. Focus on your customer experience
The digital age is all about complete customisation. While it’s important to keep your audience engaged, it’s also crucial that you personalise the experience to boost and strengthen your customer relations. How you treat your customers and their perceptions about you can really make or break a small business.
For fast business growth, the customer experience makes all the difference. Make sure you always understand the importance of focusing on individual customer interactions. Understand your customer and then cater to their expectations. The most successful small businesses exploit the ability of personal interactions and create a solid reputation, which translates to more profit.
6. Ensure that your brand is on point
Building your brand equity is crucial in establishing yourself in the marketplace today. While you build clarity around what your overall brand is, you need to ensure it sends out the right message. You also need to reinforce that brand image within your organisation by ensuring that your employees work and behave in a manner that bolsters the image.
Weave your unique differentiators into your organisation’s marketing. Use visual branding to give your customers a glimpse of the experience that they will gain by working with you. Work towards making your customers feel an emotional attachment to your brand and translate it into sustainable growth.
7. Adopt new technologies to streamline your business
Many small businesses are negatively impacting their success and limiting their growth by not making timely technology adoptions. Innovating and devising new strategies around technology-enabled business systems are helping small business globally to drive growth and gain a relative advantage over competitors.
Don’t let emerging technologies haunt you, instead, make an effort to leverage technology-based systems (think CRM) to automate the routine, daily tasks that sap you of your time and mental energy.
Whether it’s getting paid on time or following up with a lead, make technology work for you by automating any repetitive workflows in your business. The latest business systems make your job easier and show your customers that your business is modern and evolving.
All business owners begin their journey with a focus on growth. Refine your methods if something is not working out as planned. Implement these principles to grow your business and focus on the areas that give you the best results.
“The opinions expressed by BizWitty Contributors are their own, not those of BizCover and should not be relied upon in place of appropriate professional advice. Please read our full disclaimer."
