how to grow your small business

 

Lack of knowledge and a proper growth strategy for business owners have repercussions. It’s unfortunate, but rather common, to hear that an entrepreneur didn’t grow their small business, is not making money, or went bankrupt.

 

Sometimes, as a business owner struggling to ensure that your business survives, you can easily lose perspective and lead your own business to its downfall. It pays to know what you should be doing for your business to ensure not only its survival, but its growth as well.

 

In this piece, I’ll explain some strategies and techniques I used myself, that can help you get put your business on the right path and off to a strong start:

 

 

Define Your Workday

 

Defining the tasks you are going to carry out every day of the week is a great way to ensure that you don’t become overwhelmed. Write down the tasks you are going to do today, and not just a vague plan or ‘To Do’ list. Keep track of the starting and completion time of each task.

 

Doing this for just one week will help you understand how many disparate tasks that you are performing. It will also help you gain some focus and move you towards documenting some of the core processes in your business.

 

 

Perform Your Core Tasks

 

When your first got started with your business, you likely realized there are tasks you’re not the best candidate to perform. There are also those tasks that you have no other option but to carry out.

 

At least once a week, try to devote some time to process improvement. It may be challenging to do so but, when you really focus on what you do well and define your skill set accurately, it pays off big time! When you practice a key skill or simply commit to documenting a laborious process, you reduce the complexity of your work and your work life become a lot easier to deal with.

 

 

Delegate Work

 

In order to grow a small business, you’ll have to learn to delegate work. Delegating duties to other capable people could be the difference between business success or watching your dreams disappear into thin air. Delegating duties may sometimes require that you outsource to an entire team of people for a particular expertise or simply get help with a single task.

 

However, you can’t simply leave it up to the people that you outsource your work to to define your company processes from scratch and expect them to match your standards. Instead, give them a framework within which they can operate. Also, accept that as you delegate duties, you will make mistakes. These mistakes should be used as a stepping stone and not bring you down.

 

 

Automate Tasks To Grow A Small Business

 

As you improve processes, you should also see the tasks within your business that should be automated. Automation can help grow a small business by reducing the time that will eventually need to be spent on that task. Business reporting could be done on spreadsheets instead of paper for instance. Do this by identifying tasks that can be automated from your weekly tasks.

 

 

Calculate Risks

 

grow a small business

 

Entrepreneurs are naturally risk-takers. The difference between the succeeding and failing for an entrepreneur may, however, lie in the kind of risks they choose to take.

 

If a business owner takes a calculated risk, they are likely to benefit from the risk and experience business growth. A reckless risk, however, will result in pitfalls that the company may not be able to recover from.

 

As a business owner, figure out how every decision you make may affect your small business. Have a contingency plan by figuring out the worst-case scenario. Use professional advice from auditors, lawyers, insurance agencies, accountants, and banks. This collaborative effort may save your business from an impending disaster.

 

 

Prove Your Expertise To Your Clients

 

As a small business, you are probably still in the stage where you need to amass and grow your client base and establish yourself as an authority in your backyard. Woo your clients by sending out useful news-letters, posting blogs, and publishing content on publications. Establishing your presence by letting customers know that you know what you are doing. While trust cannot be bought, you can build it over time. Have information out about who you are and what you do, on social sites, and you will make it in the business world.

 

 

Make Use Of Legitimate SEO Techniques

 

SEO is not as complex or confusing as it may look at first glance. Once you understand the fundamental principles of SEO, you will understand the current search algorithms of Google and succeed at enhancing your business visibility on Google.

 

Business owners can make use of other Google products such as Google My Business to help improve the probability of appearing in local searches.

 

 

Evaluate Financing Options

 

Business owners know that when you need to grow small business, capital does not come easy. Many businesses are not self-funded, and this means that you will have to assess the kind of capital you need and who will help you get it. You need to keep your eyes out to the possibilities of expansion and growth to scale out on your business.

 

 

Create an Effective Sales Funnel

 

Smart marketers know the importance of building effective sales funnels, in order to grow a small business. You have to ensure that you draw in the customer right from the awareness phase as this will lead them to become interested in your products and eventually buying and re-buying from you. An effective sales funnel’s abilities cannot be underestimated as it will help you make significant leaps in business.

 

 

marketing and sales funnel

 

 

In Conclusion

 

Growing your small business and making it scale up does not have to be a herculean task anymore. While taking conscious steps to grow a small business as highlighted above, you will be sure to advance to higher levels where success awaits you. Establish a presence among your clients, plan your day, perform core tasks, learn and implement SEO, evaluate your financing options and you will set your company on the path of greatness.

 

 

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