Every entrepreneur dreams of owning a business that continuously grows due to financial success. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have been the key examples who have achieved this in the 21st century, amongst various others. But it’s not as easy as it looks – if it was, everyone would be a Founder or CEO!
It’s important to get key processes in place and plans solidified to create a solid foundation for growth. Below we’ve rounded up three top tips that can help you on the path to success.
- Diversify your products or services
One huge way you can limit your growth potential is by sticking to one product or service – for example, strictly sticking to winter wear for a clothing brand or offering just one area of marketing as a digital marketing agency.
Although you may draw customers in by being a specialist in one area, this will only appeal to a limited pool of people. By adding additional products and services, you can attract a broader audience. The added benefit of this is that people can use multiple products or services from you, which can increase the chances of cross-selling and therefore increase revenue. This means you can further scale the business and grow sustainably over time.
- Get organised
One of the key ‘friction points’ during the growth process is upskilling new team members. This takes a lot of time from existing members of the team – very often just yourself if you’re a startup – meaning you can’t focus on important work.
Get organized by noting down key processes as you are doing them so that new team members can refer to them whenever needed, rather than continuously asking questions if something wasn’t clear when explaining in person. Once you start to build teams and they become specialists in their niche, make sure all department leaders are noting down processes to allow you to expand with as little difficulty as possible.
You should also have a detailed business plan in place with financial projections over the next three years. Consider setting business value goals – you can track if you are on target by using free business valuation calculators available online.
- Focus your efforts on marketing
Marketing can seem like a lot of money when you’re first starting out, but it doesn’t have to be. Even simply having a presence on social media can bring in customers. Once you have secured funds to allow for marketing investment, make sure you have a well-built site as well as focusing on SEO efforts.
If you’re a local cafe only looking for customers and orders in the local area, focus your efforts on local SEO, such as optimizing your Google My Business profile. Fill in as much detail as possible and add a wide variety of photos. You should also encourage customers to leave reviews to push yourself to the top of local listings.
In conclusion…
These are just a few key steps that budding entrepreneurs can take to ensure they are on the path to success. If you can get all these in place when you are first starting out, you are miles ahead of others who just want to see financial gain from the get-go without detailed plans noted down!