Author: Donna Jo
Building a business is hard work; it takes time, personal sacrifice, and grit to turn your dream into physical reality. You must wear many hats, learn the ropes of business law and taxes, and learn about compliance. You will experience a steep learning curve in many areas of business, but the fact of the matter is, if you want to grow, you’ll have to take some specific action steps to ensure solid and steady growth. Here are some simple yet effective steps you can take to increase growth in your business.
Success Tip #1: Automate your sales funnel
The foundation of any successful business is a sales funnel. If you miss this critical step in business growth, you are making a big mistake. Sales funnels can automate your business and create consistent and steady growth. With proper customer care and follow up communication, you will soon build a loyal following that continues to bring in revenue for years to come.
Success Tip #2: Use a customer management system
Tracking transactions manually might be manageable at first, but you will soon outgrow that system and need to somewhat automate your system of customer management in order to stay organized with increasing volume. Most customer management systems can seamlessly integrate with other types of business organizational software, and the wonderful thing about cloud systems is that they communicate and organize data by integrating all systems together. Spending a little capital right now and making the right investments in organizational software will ensure that you are around long term.
Success Tip #3: Research your competition
If you want to outsell your competition, find out all about them! Uncovering a competitor’s marketing strategy and finding out what types of products they offer will give you the knowledge and advantage to outsmart them. Whether by dropping your prices, making additional offers that customers cannot refuse, or finding ways to boost your search engine ratings, knowing what your competition’s strategy is will give you opportunities to be superior in every way.
Success Tip #4: Create customer rewards and loyalty programs
Loyalty programs are a great way to boost sales with existing customers. It costs almost three times to acquire a new customer as it does to pamper an existing one; if you offer incentives for spending more money with you, customers will begin to see the clear value of your products and services, and they will return time and again for the high-quality products and superior service you can provide. Asking for referral information in exchange for rewards is another way to continue to treat your existing base well while looking for new customers as well; treat every transaction with utmost integrity and care, and you will continue to grow your base exponentially.
Success Tip #5: Identify and capitalize on new opportunities
As you begin to know your demographic better, their needs will become clear to you. Finding ways to create products and services that fulfill these needs is key to gaining their trust and loyalty as they do business with you. Stay relevant to their changing needs; regularly ask for information with regard to what customers are looking for, and then find ways to give it to them. You never know where your next great product suggestion is going to come from!
Success Tip #6: Build an email list
Getting potential customers to subscribe to an email list will be a very important factor in building your sales funnel. Regularly posting valued content, sales promotions, and personal stories that allow others to connect with you in meaningful ways will cause people to revisit you and your site time and time again. If you are seen as a trusted and credible source of information they are seeking, you will eventually turn your contact with them into sales.
Success Tip #7: Form partnerships
Finding companies with similar and complementary visions to yours can be very helpful in determining what pathway your business travels. If your business specializes in security systems for industrial businesses, you might want to consider partnering with a company that specializes in the development of a home security system in order to boost sales and product recognition. While it may take time and a bit of forethought as to how these partnerships can be mutually beneficial, it will be worth the time, money and effort put forth to build on these partnerships and offer customers better and better product packages. Your business will explode!
Success Tip #8: Evolve….constantly
With the changing climate of the market, your changing demographic, and product saturation, it becomes necessary to constantly look at your business efficiency and ask some hard questions:
- Are my products still relevant?
- Am I making enough money?
- What can I do to gain new business while keeping existing customers
- Am I still outperforming the competition
- What do my customers need, and can I give it to them?
Being able to ask and answer these questions will put you in a position where you can grow and change as your customers are growing and changing. If you don’t change to fill market needs, someone else will. Flexibility will gain you growth.
Success Tip #9: Build passive income streams to fund growth
You don’t want to lose your shirt on every little mistake that you make. Having some income put aside from passive income streams will ensure that you can afford to take some bigger risks that yield more significant growth without worrying about your primary source of income running dry.
Success Tip #10: Keep everything in proper perspective
In everything, there must be balance. Work needs play, effort needs rest, activity needs stillness. Know what you need as you work your tail off to build your empire, and then take the time that you need to care for yourself and your family to ensure that nothing falls by the wayside. Business is business, relationships require much care as well. Keeping life in proper perspective will make business ups and downs a little bit more manageable.
Be proud of the work that you are doing, that you have done, and that you will do as you turn your dreams into reality! All the very best of luck to you and your future business success!