It often feels like a stab in the dark when you are choosing which opportunities are worth it and which are actually going to be a waste of your resources.
To make informed decisions, you need to make three clear and focused choices, and then use them as a filter every single time you are considering spending a minute of your time or a dollar of your money
To grow a small business, you have to figure out how to protect the time and money you have and make sure that you only spend it on the activities and resources that will get you closer to your goal.
We have all found ourselves asking questions like:
- Should I do this marketing campaign?
- Should I spend this on advertising?
- Should I go to that networking event?
- Should I recruit additional staff?
Most business owners think that when the going gets tough, they have to change their products or services. It’s a common knee-jerk reaction to waning sales that actually slows growth even more. When you change your products and services, what your company does becomes less clear to customers, which makes it more complicated for them to buy. This means lost opportunities and fewer sales.
By being laser-focused, you get really good at what you do and also build a name for yourself based on the credibility and momentum that many years in business brings.
When you constantly change what you do because you think it will meet the needs of the market or your customers, you are actually decreasing your chances of growth.
Businesses that have a very clear “what” and stick to it for the long term grow faster than others who make changes to this core element of their business.
Small-business owners often believe that to grow, they have to market their products and services to everyone and anyone. However, the businesses that choose to go after a particular type of customer are the ones they grow the fastest. No small business has enough time or money to be in front of everyone, but when you use your time and money and go deep, you can grow!
Every business needs an Ideal Client, i.e. a profile of the type of client who is worth investing your time to go find.
Think about the customers you serve who value your work, who you enjoy working with, who pay you willingly and who are ambassadors for your work.
Those are your Ideal Clients, and you want to use all of your time and money trying to find them and not waste a second or a cent on anyone else.
Your scale is how far and wide your customers will come from. Getting clear on the scale with which you want to grow will help you make so many decisions about how to find and serve your customers.
Imagine you have designed and developed a beautiful set of furniture. For example, if you decided you wanted to build your business on a local scale, you would create an entirely different business model than if you tried to grow your business on a global scale.
For a local business, you might set up a beautiful showroom and host events in your store, do local consignments and work on building a local vibe to your brand. However, if you wanted to build it on a global scale, you might decide to work on distribution deals with other major retailers, build a factory to be able to take your designs and mass produce them.
When you are not clear on which scale you are growing your business, this may result in making a lot of wasteful choices.
However, if you know what your desired end result is, you can make strategic decisions about both your business model and your marketing activities right from the start. In this way, you will be able to use your two most valuable assets — time and money — so much better.
When you know what you do, who you do it for and what scale you want to do it on, you can make fast decisions about where to strategically spend your time and money. We all know that the failure rate for small-business owners is high, but after the last 11 years of working with small businesses, we know for a fact that when you know where you are going and make day-to-day decisions to keep yourself focused and on track, you can succeed.
Understand Your Customers
You can only develop products and services that will be a huge hit if you are attentive to the needs of your customers and prospects. One way to understand exactly what your customers want is through research and surveys.
You should be constantly inviting them to provide honest, even brutal feedback. Reviews and surveys are the best ways to get inside the mind of your customers. This makes it easier for you to develop products and services that are suitable to the current demands of the market. Moreover, it helps you understand the areas in which your company needs to improve.
Improve Customer Service
If you don’t provide quality customer service, it will be difficult to satisfy your customers even if you have a superior product or service. This aspect of the business is about taking the extra step to make them feel special.
Let your customers know that they are valued. If they have problems, make sure you address them right away. If they have questions, take time to answer them. They should not feel like things are difficult for them if they raise certain issues. Social media is a great way to understand your customers by listening to them. If they find the customer service satisfactory, they might even recommend others to also buy from your business.
Establish Loyalty
It takes time to encourage customers to come and buy what you have to offer. But it’s not enough to just get them to buy. You need to encourage loyalty. Considering that there are other competitors who could offer them better, you want them to remain loyal to you. Don’t feel complacent just because you already have a lot of loyal customers. They can be easily attracted to other options and they might leave you.
Provide loyalty rewards. If there are discounts and promotions, let these most loyal customers be the first ones to know.
Maximize Social Media
Without a doubt, social media is a very powerful tool. It reaches out to hundreds upon thousands of people at once. Make sure your business is engaged in social media.
This helps you stay relevant. Listening to people and reading their comments will give you an idea on how to make them feel more satisfied. You will also understand their behaviour and find a way to meet their demands.
The best part is that you won’t have to spend a lot of money just to attract new customers, keep it simple and stick to reliable avenues to grow your social media following. You don’t need to engage in comment wars though. Just keep it positive and make everyone feel that they are heard.
Focus on Professional Development
The success of your business also depends on the quality of employees that you hire. Building an effective team is the key to ensuring that your business prospers.
One of the best ways to have motivated employees who work hard is to give them a sense of purpose. They should not just feel like they have to work for the sake of working.
They want to belong to something bigger than themselves. They must understand the bigger goals. This is where branding comes in. Many mistakenly believe that branding is something you do to attract customers. However, a powerful brand will also help you draw quality workers to your business.
There are team-building activities that could help them perform well as individual employees and through collaborative tasks. You should also send them to training sessions and seminars so that they can improve on the current Your employees should also feel that they are heard. bank of knowledge that they already have.
Find Out What Works
Ultimately, you will know which of the approaches you’ve used worked well. Take note of these tactics and use them again. Those strategies that failed must be eliminated to help your business move forward. The goal is to remain relevant. Refine the approach and focus more on those that bring satisfactory results.
In the end, you will see your business improve. You just have to be patient. You also need to work really hard and not let obstacles prevent you from doing better. Soon, you will see the positive results you have always hoped for.
Spend Time Attending Networking Events
If given the chance to join these events, take it. This is the opportunity to extend your networks. This is highly important – but it is something many entrepreneurs neglect. You must build relationships with other people.
Networking is a great way to connect with people who can help you build your business. You can find employees, more customers, and even investors.
Focus on Corporate Social Responsibility
Your business must have something it is passionate about. This helps in improving the image of your business. People will patronize you because they know that the money they are spending goes to the right causes.
It is important that you ensure your business exists for more than just making money. Nowadays, people want to feel emotionally connected to the companies with whom they do business. This is why it’s important to craft a unique brand perspective for your company. Is there are cause you wish to support? Is there something in the world you want to change? Let that be one of your company’s missions.
