So you’ve been plugging along for a little while now, and your business seems to be leveling out. All the craziness of setting up a business has worn off, and you’re starting finally get some regular orders trickling in—you’re finally starting to settle into something sort of resembling a routine. You even have a handful of employees running around taking care of things you used to have to do yourself.
If this sounds familiar, you’re probably getting a little antsy about how you’re going to make your business grow. After all, a business that isn’t growing is a business that’s not doing so hot. All businesses need growth to really thrive. The Ivy Business Journal has some timeless advice on the subject here, but we wanted to share some proven strategies with you that you can apply today to ramp up growth.
Growth doesn’t happen magically. Growth requires hard-work, which you’ve got in spades, but it also requires a strategy, something you might not have thought about up to this point.
It’s time to start thinking about business growth strategies.
Like anything else, having an organized, well-thought-out plan to grow your business is key to creating sustained growth over the long term. Keep in mind that plans need to change, and that the plan you come up with for growth this year may not be viable next year, and probably won’t be of much use to you five years down the road.
So, what are some specific strategies you can employ to grow your business? I’m so glad you asked 🙂
Narrow Your Focus on a Target Market as Much as Possible
A common mistake that small businesses make (and people too for that matter) is when they try to be everything to everyone. Your business is successful because a small segment of the market finds that this business is exactly what they need. Instead of trying to break into a bunch of different market segments, you should consider trying to grow your market share within the specific segment in which you are most profitable.
As a for instance, let’s think about a hypothetical window washing business. A window washing business is successful because it has found a niche cleaning the windows of high-end residential customers. Suddenly, they decide that they want to start washing windows of middle class customers in a different part of town. They figure they might not get as many bites as the high-end customers, but surely some middle class people want their windows washed, right?
So they go to it, and spend many hours, many gallons of gas, and many miles on their company truck running around middle class neighborhoods trying to wash some windows. They do a few jobs, but the return is lower because their upsells and cross sells don’t seem very popular with the middle class crowd.
In the mean time, there’s another high end market nearby with plenty of dirty windows that they could easily expand into. But it takes them a while to get there because they were screwing around in the middle class neighborhood for so long. They forgot who their target market was, and they lost business and spent money without a return as a result.
Instead, the window washers should have sat down and figured out who their ideal customer was (We developed this Customer Persona Worksheet for situations just like this), and then targeted that customer relentlessly. Trying to be everything to everyone simply doesn’t work–you end up being not much to most people.
Before you do anything, try to narrow the focus of your market as much as possible. Find the subsegment you most want to sell to and market to them like there’s no tomorrow. But to implement that particular business growth strategy, you first need a documented plan.
Business Growth Strategies Should Include Cutting the Fat
Once you have figured out the precise market segment you want to target, you’ll probably notice that you’ve got some products or services that don’t exactly fit into that segment. You’ve also probably got some customers who don’t fit into that segment either. As difficult as it might sound, you’ve got to cut them both.
The most successful businesses only do one or two things, but they do them really, really well. And they know exactly who they’re selling those one or two things to. You should consider doing the same. By eliminating products or services that your core segment doesn’t care much about, you will free yourself up to improve the products and services that they love, or even add new products or services that they would much rather have.
If we go back to those lovable window washers, we might find that they do great by replacing fogged or streaked windows, which their customers seem to often have a problem with and which their particular high-end segment can easily afford to pay to replace. However, when they try to convince these same folks that they will wash their cars as well, their customers are suddenly not so keen–their customers like to clean their babies themselves. If our wayward heroes were to eliminate this service (which they’re not that great at anyway) and focus instead on providing exceptional window care, they might find that there’s another service that their customers need a lot more than a clean car.
And to return to those middle class customers they were trying to work for earlier, our window washers need to get rid of them as well. While their hearts were in the right place, the implementation didn’t work because the middle class customers just didn’t match up with their strategy. Cutting out the people who aren’t giving you much business to focus on the small segment that gives you the majority of your business is one of several business growth strategies you might consider.
Consider Adjacent Businesses to Your Core Business
Now I know I just said you need to cut the extra products and services, but hear me out. Remember, you need to cut the products and services that don’t fit directly into your target segment. To return to our intrepid window washers (I’m really starting to love these guys), I’d remind you that they are replacing foggy and streaked windows. That’s definitely not window washing, but it’s very closely related.
More importantly, it’s something their target customers were interested in. This is really the key point. They have a service that isn’t their main source of income, but their customers asked about it enough that they started doing it. These are the kinds of adjacent businesses you should consider.
How do you figure out which of these new products you should start providing? Ask your customers! They might already be telling you, or rather asking you. When you provide your product or service, are your customers asking about another, related product or service? If they’re not, go out and ask them. Find out what they want you to provide most, and then see if you can deliver.
If this all sounds like a lot of work, get in touch with us. We’re happy to help you come up with a comprehensive strategy that fits the specific needs of your business.
