Tips on How to Grow Your Small Business

Whilst there are many small or medium sized businesses who are happy to stay at that size, there are just as many, if not more, who wish to solidify their position and then move on to bigger and better things. The question therefore is how to grow your small business when you feel that the time is right to expand? And we have some tips on how to do exactly that. Growth is just as tricky as launching a business, and failure could see a lot of that great work in the past go to waste, get it right however, and you’ll be very much on the pathway to success.

Marketing

Marketing is often overlooked when businesses look to grow, and this is for a number of reasons. The first is that most companies recognize that it is time to grow once the demand for their products and services begins to get overwhelming, the assumption therefore is that further marketing isn’t required at this stage. The second reason is cost, a business is already spending money on the growth plans, so marketing is an easy spend to chalk off. It is however absolutely essential that a business keeps driving new customers in order to make that growth worthwhile, and whilst that may mean some hard working months ahead, it will be better for the general health of the business.

All Areas

When you scale up it is important that you recognize that all aspects of the business must be increased, and improved. Many fall into the trap of thinking that a bigger space and a few more staff is all that is needed, but there is much more to it than that. From logistics to manufacturing, supply to sales, everything in the business must be scaled up. The key to doing this will be slowly but surely, there is no scale up button which sees the business expand, growth will always be a slow and systematic process. Prioritize which areas need it first, then scale up gradually.

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

Another common mistake which many small businesses make when they implement plans for growth is to go too far, which is going to end up being costly, dangerously so in fact. This is why businesses should always grow based on the numbers that they are seeing. Let’s say you have a clothing business which is able to make and sell 100 units per week, but orders are coming in at 150-200 units per week, looking to get a premises, staff and materials for 400 units per week will make little sense. There should always be some flexibility for future growth so opting for an infrastructure which can cope with 250-300 units per week would be the smartest move here. This will ensure both growth and risk aversion, should things take a downturn for any reason.

This is a complex plan and one which should be thought out very carefully before enacting.

 

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