Five Ways To Grow Your Business

As if getting your business up and running and established were not hard enough, small business owners then face the much underestimated, and sometimes very difficult, task of growing that business into a solid and burgeoning enterprise. This is a task which can take a very different shape for each individual business, but in all cases is a crucial stage of development which is required to turn the firm into a sustainable one which will stand the test of time.

Being an individual and almost unique process for each individual firm does indeed make it difficult to offer a foolproof template for growing a business, but fortunately there are a number of endeavors which tend to prove useful in almost all cases. What follows therefore, is a brief discussion of five ways in which to grow your business which should provide success for almost all small and medium sized enterprises.

1.      Expand your products and services

Once you have established your core selection of products and services, and streamlined the way in which you market and provide them to customers, then a simple yet effective way to attempt to grow your business is by expanding this product base.

Adding a product or service extension is a good way to try to broaden both the number and the variety of customers that you serve. Doing both of these things is a good way of growing your overall business, both over the short and the longer term.

2.      Encourage repeat purchases

The saying goes that it costs less to keep existing customers than it does to attract new ones, something all business owners should be mindful of. One of the key roads to growth is to not only encourage repeat purchase, but to encourage customers to buy more each time that they deal with you.

Implementation of loyalty schemes, providing discounts to customers who refer your firm to others, and using customer purchasing habits to effectively target your marketing are all great ways to encourage larger and more frequent purchasing. Of course building positive relationships with customers and providing the best customer service will also help.

3.      Target new markets

It is always the responsibility of small business owners to keep abreast of market trends and customer needs. With this in mind, a good way of growing an enterprise can be to target any new markets which you may identify as being appropriate for your company. This may involve implementing different marketing practices to appeal to a new section of customers and the local community, or introducing new products or promotions based on what will appeal to your target market.

4.      Offer online purchasing

Today, everyone spends huge amounts of time online, whether for leisure purposes, work, or to buy products and services. A great way of growing your business then, is to ensure that these people can come across your company and what you offer while they are on the net. Making the purchase of your products and services as easy as possible for your customers is key, even if they are only down the road.

This can be particularly effective for some enterprises, as it opens up your firm to a whole new raft of customers who may simply do nearly all of their business and purchasing online rather than venturing into town.

5.      Increase your prices

At face value, this may seem counter-productive but stick with it. If you have got your company established and are dealing with as much business as you can handle, but would still like to grow your turnover and profits, then increasing prices may be the way to go.

This may be something that you shy away from due to the fear of losing customers but the chances are that if you're providing a good enough service, and have already gained repeat custom, these customers will be willing to accept reasonable price rises.  It's always worth looking at the prices charged by similar local enterprises before making a decision.