Most people know that if your company sales are getting slower or if they are declining, a company can easily go bankrupt. But, keep in mind that you can grow your business to fast and easily go out of business as a result. So, you might ask yourself, what is the right amount of growth then? It may look like companies can boost their growth by simply maintaining the status quo of their business, but as you know, a company is either growing or slowly shutting down. How could you make sure that your business is going in the right direction since the alternative is not desirable?
Before considering if you should implement business growth strategies, ask yourself these questions to see if you are good to go:
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- Workforce supply – do you have enough workers and the right types of skills on your team to take on the workload that will be coming if you decide on growing your business?
- Order and service capacity – if your orders or services doubled, could you handle the growth without actually taking steps?
- Internal and external communications – how are you communicating with your employees? And what about your customers, clients, and partners?
- Targeted marketing campaigns – consider higher targeted campaigns in order to grow your business. Find out where your customers spend most of their time at (physically or digitally), and speak to them directly.
- Financial resources – do you have the finances you will need in order to buy additional inventory, equipment, or hire new employees?
If you are sure that you have a positive answer to these questions, here is a list of business growth strategies that will help you:
- Market share penetration – how much of the market do you actually own? If you do not know the exact numbers, with a little investigating, you will be able to come up with a rough idea. You could be able to use this in order to identify weaker competitors who might have bigger market shares that you can start chipping away at.
- Product development – new product development, product line extensions, or product retooling are some ways you can look at in order to expand the product you are offering to your customers and in this way you will be able to boost your sales. Consider what your customers really want, need, and are willing to spend money on.
Source: Michael Kearse
- Being diverse – if you have too many sales with one or two major customers or industries, it might be a good time to consider other companies or industries to partner up with. Keep in mind that you should choose wisely when it comes to targeting specific industries or companies, it is always best to choose the ones that can be profitable for you.
- Merging and acquisitions – did you think about which vendors, competitors, or companies you can merge with or acquire? It is important to look for weaker companies to approach about merging or acquiring them.
- Alternative channels – you might be selling everything you produce through wholesalers, or you might have one retail store. In both cases, you can add the other one you do not offer. Or you could even add an online shopping option to make it more convenient and easier for customers to seek your products or services.
- Reducing or increasing prices – you might think that increasing prices is not a good idea, and it is true that you might lose a customer or two, but one part of that is how well the price is communicated. Most of the times, customers will understand the slight increase in the prices that have not gone up for a long time and your job is to remind them why your company chooses to increase them. On the other side, strategically reducing the prices for specific items or service could help drive market share for a product that gets the customer excited. This will help with selling them something more profitable later on.
Source: martechtoday.com
Conclusion
Considering these growth strategies might help your business to thrive and prosper, as well as boost the number of partners and customers you might have. Do not forget, before implementing these strategies, answer the five questions to be fully prepared.
