When you first start your business, your end goals seem like millions of miles away. Even in your early successes, you are looking to make things bigger and better. The only problem is that growth takes time.
However, with the help of the latest technology, better communication systems, and global connectivity, it has never been easier to scale your small business into the empire you’ve always dreamed of.
So how do you do it?
The following growth hacks are simple yet effective solutions to help your business thrive in today’s climate and reach for the stars. It’s about staying focused on your goals, without depleting your resources.
Tip 1: Efficiency is the key
When you start your own business, you can expect to wear several hats. For an hour on a Monday, you can be a team leader, while the afternoon is devoted to customer service. Head over to Tuesday and you are navigating the payroll world while learning the ropes of marketing.
It’s not just you who are supposed to wear all of these hats, either. New businesses often rely on their employees perhaps a little more than they should to help them with the difficult job of building a brand. You will likely have limited resources and work long hours.
All of this means that you – and your employees – could find yourself suffering from burnout after taking too much all at once. Burnout can seriously slow productivity, increase job dissatisfaction, and skyrocket your employee turnover. None of this will lead your business towards the growth spurt that you are looking for.
Growing your business is all about efficiency; it is quality over quantity. While you have big plans, it’s important to avoid pushing yourself and your staff too hard.
While some business owners swear by the multitasking efficiency, others think it’s the efficiency killer.
But you also need a strong sense of collaboration; If you find that your employees are grappling with too many tasks, it is your responsibility as a leader to reassign tasks and manage the workload of the team.
Tip 2: Take advantage of outsourcing
Anyone can have the passion and determination to start their own business, but that doesn’t mean you can do it all yourself – let alone have the time to do it all!
Being a business owner is knowing where you can let go and where you need to stay focused. This is where outsourcing can help.
There are many jobs that you can contract out for your small business. A the popular job to be outsourced is Nashville HR Consulting because the world of Human Resources is a lot to understand. So, rather than spending all of your time trying to figure out what other people spend years studying, outsource it.
If your business doesn’t have the capacity to employ different departments, outsourcing is a great way to manage your budget. Rather than paying a full-time salary to a marketing, HR, and IT department, you can use them as needed. This way you can focus on your growth rather than the administrative aspect.
Tip 3: Attach emotion to your product or service
Emotion can be associated with just about any product or service with the right marketing approach.
As humans, we can easily be influenced by a decision or purchase by emotion, so use psychology to your advantage.
If you want to grow your business, you need to understand what motivates your target audience and how you can make your business attractive to different audiences. It’s a good idea to invest time in what your competition is doing, to really understand how they market themselves, how they talk to customers, and how they frame their offer.
All you have to do is figure out how you can do the same, only better.
To get started, you can use competitor review pages to understand what they don’t do and what weakness their services or products have. This will help you shape or improve your services, which you can then market as your unique selling point.
Another great tactic for adding emotion to your brand is to create exclusivity and hype. Everyone wants what they can’t have, so why not make your product something highly sought after. Alternatively, you can create a countdown timer until a new product or event is released.
With smart marketing, you can turn your business into an empire overnight.
Tip 4: Always find ways to improve yourself
Even after you’ve built a hype or a loyal following, you need to keep them coming back for more.
Lucky for you, there are always ways to improve your business. From the launch of new products to the establishment of a customer reward system, or to boost your office morale, there are so many projects you can take on to make your business bigger and better.
There is no end to growing your business – there is always room to grow and develop. Thanks to automation and the latest technology, you will also be able to remove tasks from your workload to devote time to others.
Tip 5: Ask for help
You never know who might have a friend from a friend in high places. One of the things people miss the most when starting a business is free help. Your family, friends and even your customers are ready to help you get your brand off the ground. Whether it’s answering emails or connecting yourself with a better provider, don’t be afraid to ask for help.
In order confirmations or service emails, don’t hesitate to ask customers to rate your business on top review sites, or to let you know on their social media. If you sell physical products, customers are a great tool to get user generated content it can help market your brand to other potential customers.
Extend your requests for help further by reaching out to other small business owners through LinkedIn. You will find that people are more than willing to help others, especially if you can give them value in return.
With the passion to always grow and learn, and the willingness to let go of control for certain jobs, your business will get better and better.
Interesting related article: “What is a startup?” “