Your Strategy for Business Growth

You came up with the best business idea and got it started. How do you grow exponentially?
Strategy For Business Growth Combine

What Goes Into a Business Growth Strategy

Read on to learn what you need to create a business growth strategy, popular methods, and how to execute a growth plan. Biz growth strategies do not happen in a day. There are different stages in how a business grows organically or in any other way.

Before you choose the best strategy for business growth, you should consider what a good strategy entails. Knowing what your plan covers can help you choose a more successful strategy.

For example, the right growth strategy for a small business will vary significantly from a growth strategy for a massive corporation. Keep the following things in mind when developing your business growth strategy. That way, you can make the most of your time and energy to help achieve better results.

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Why did you want to build a business?

It is ideal to think that if you are about to kickstart a startup business. In case you already have a business, it is beneficial to ponder that question from time to time (maybe, every year).

The simple answer to that question is usually “to make money and live a better life.” However, apart from what a “better life” means for everyone, there are a few things that will help you plan and organize better toward your growth goal. i.e.:

  • Do you plan to build a business, involve your family and make it a family business??
  • Do you build a business to exit after five years by selling it to others for the best possible profit?
  • Going public to be enlisted in the stock exchange market?
business growth why build a business
Strategy For Business Growth Core Competencies

Core Competencies

Another thing to consider is the core competencies of your business. Think about what you do well and what your unique value proposition (UVP) is.

Your UVP is the reason people will choose your business over your competitors. For example, many people choose to shop at Walmart because the store offers some of the lowest prices on a variety of items.

If you don’t know what makes you different, take a look at your competitors. Consider if there are any processes you have or things you sell that you don’t see other businesses doing.

Keep those unique aspects in mind when creating a business strategy for growth. You can lean into your UVP to further help grow your company.

Customer Pain Points

You also need to know what problems your customers have that you can solve and base your product or product line development on these. Consider how you can help their needs.

Ideally, you’d be able to fill needs and solve problems better than your competitors. Maybe you follow a specific process when working with clients, and you individualize your service based on the client’s situation.

If you aren’t sure what your customers struggle with, talk to them. Talk to your current clients about their experience working with you and what they wish you did better.

You can also look at reviews of your competitors to learn what complaints others have that you can solve. Look at the negative reviews and pay attention to any recurring themes.

Strategy For Business Growth Customer Pain Points
Strategy For Business Growth Flexibility

Flexibility

You can develop the perfect growth strategy, but you must be flexible. As time goes on, you might need to change your strategy, such as by using new social media platforms.

Depending on how sales go, you might need to make more significant changes to your strategy. Even if you love the initial plan you create, you need to be willing to move away from it.

That way, you can continue to meet your customers where they are and fulfill their needs. Being flexible can take practice, but it’s an excellent way to stay ahead of your competitors and reach more ideal customers.

Types of Business Growth Strategies

Once you nail down the foundations of your business, you can look into a few business growth strategies. You can use many strategies, and you may do so over the life of your company.

However, not every strategy is for every business. What’s worked for you in the past might not be as successful anymore. The following business growth strategies are all relatively popular and can bring success when you execute them the right way.

Stir the waters and innovate

One of the best growth strategies is market disruption, which is where you enter an existing market. Instead of entering it with a similar product, you create something new and innovative.

Maybe you use a unique business model, such as by selling direct to consumers when your competitors don't. Or perhaps you've found a way to manufacture your products more cheaply, so you pass those savings to your customers.

You might disrupt a market with another type of innovation, such as how Salesforce changed the game with its cloud-based software. There are a lot of routes you can take based on your market, so do some research to see what gaps you can fill.

Think about what your competitors are doing and how you can do a better job. Then, you can turn those ideas into market disruption.

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Strategy For Business Groeth Disrupt

Expand and dominate

Another growth strategy for a business involves selling your existing products in new markets instead of going for a market development strategy. A classic example is opening a new physical store in a second city.

If you have a local store or restaurant, you can open a new location in a neighboring city or in a whole different state. Then, you can access twice as many potential customers to help grow your business.

You can also start attracting a new type of customer. Maybe you're a private piano teacher and primarily work with kids, but you start to offer lessons for adult beginners.

Or you might be able to teach other instruments, such as the violin or flute. You might start offering lessons on those instruments so that you could attract more potential students.

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Strategy For Business Market Penetration

Cleverly spin your products

Maybe you have an idea for a new product or features to add to your current products. Bringing that idea to life allows you to implement product diversification or expansion.

Selling a new product allows you to target customers who wouldn't have bought your existing offers. Maybe you're a graphic designer and primarily offer logo designs.

You could start to sell website design services to help attract people who have logos but want to start an online presence. This can also help you get more sales from your existing clients or customers.

When deciding what products to offer, consider the customer journey. That way, you can come up with a set of products that work with each other to help encourage repeat customers.

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Strategy For Business Product Expansion

Make allies and grow together

The next business growth strategy to try is to create strategic partnerships. You can work with a business that shares many of the same ideal customers as your business.

A popular example is the Doritos Locos Taco that you can get from Taco Bell. Many people who love one brand also love the other, so it's easy to sell that item.

Many product-based businesses could partner with Disney or other brands to license the rights to characters. So if you sell hats, you could start to sell hats with popular Disney characters on them.

Maybe you're a graphic designer and work on a lot of websites. You could start a partnership with a freelance writer, and you could offer a joint package for website design and content or copywriting.

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Strategy For Business Growth Strategic Partners

Think outside the box

Another option for growing your business is to start using new sales channels. For example, you might have an eCommerce store where you sell products on your website.

You could start to sell your products on Amazon as well to reach a larger customer base. Or maybe you pitch your products to retail stores to get shelf space.

Adding new distribution channels can put your business in front of more customers than before. While that won't guarantee more sales, there's a good chance your business will grow.

Just make sure you choose the right channels based on your ideal customers. That way,  you won't waste time or money trying to use a new distribution channel.

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Strategy For Business Growth Channels

Aim for Organic Growth in Business

For many businesses, the ideal strategy for business growth is organic. This means you can get more sales by either lowering your customer acquisition costs or without acquiring another business.

An excellent way to do this is to implement search engine optimization (SEO). As your rankings improve, you may start to get more traffic from search, and you can convert those visitors into paying customers.

If your business relies on advertising, you can spend a lot of money over time. You also may reach a plateau if you decide to stop paying for ads.

However, organic business growth doesn't rely on consistently paid ads to see results. SEO and social media platforms are excellent tools to help you increase your reach to grow your business.

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Strategy For Business Growth Organic

Buy a business instead of building one

If you have a lot of money in the bank, you may consider acquiring other businesses as a growth strategy. You can buy out direct competitors to immediately grow your market share.

An example of this is the recent announcement that Kroger intends to acquire Albertsons so that the two large grocery stores become one. A less direct acquisition that has gone through is Google's purchase of YouTube.

While the two aren't direct competitors, many people use both as search engines, either for any type of content or videos, specifically. A successful acquisition could help you increase your revenue potential significantly, but it's not a viable strategy for many businesses.

You either need plenty of cash to buy another business, or you need access to capital through debt. Be sure to consider your options if you want to look into acquisition.

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Strategy For Business Acquisition

Combine, mix and match

Combining multiple options is often the best business strategy for growth. For one, you don't always know what will be the most successful until you implement a strategy.

Using two different strategies can increase the chances of something working to help grow your business. You can combine two similar strategies, such as market penetration and product expansion.

Another option is to pair organic growth with a strategic partner. Consider which strategies appeal to you and make the most sense for where your business currently is.

Then, you can make sure you choose a set of strategies that will help you reach your goals more easily. The options are endless, and you can even implement a variety of strategies over time.

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Strategy For Business Growth Combine

How to Choose a Strategy for Business Growth?

Now, you’re ready to start business planning to choose a strategy and put it into action. If you have a small business, you may only need to consult yourself regarding your plan. However, you might want to meet with other executives or investors. That way, you can talk about your ideas and come to an agreement on the best way to move forward.

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Research the Market

First, you should research the market to see what your ideal customers need and how you can help them. Consider the biggest problems people have and how you can provide the best solution.

You can also determine if there’s a gap in the market, either at a certain price or in a specific city. To figure this out, do some competitor research and see what other businesses are doing.

Maybe you want to sell online, and you notice your competitors all have nice websites. However, none of them work well on mobile devices, so you make sure your website is mobile-friendly to help attract those shoppers.

As you do market research, write down your findings. Then, you can analyze them in one sitting to help determine the right growth strategy.

Consider Your Finances

Another vital thing to consider is how much money you have to carry out your plan. For example, you’ll need a lot of cash or a large loan for most business acquisitions.

Be sure to review your business budget or start one if you haven’t already. Then, you can see how much money you have and can expect to earn each month.

If you have a very limited budget, you may want to focus on organic growth. You could also find strategic partners to help your business grow.

When you have more money, you might focus on market penetration by opening a new physical store. Of course, you can also look into a loan if necessary, but you’ll want to evaluate your risk tolerance, especially before borrowing a lot of cash.

Set Growth Goals

Once you research the market and review your finances, you can set some SMART goals. These are goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.

Having these goals in mind can help you further narrow down your options when it comes to growth strategies. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, for example, a partnership might work well.

On the other hand, your goal might have to do with increasing profit margins. Going the organic growth route could help you keep costs down while getting more sales.

Try to be as specific and clear as possible with your goals. Instead of setting a goal of higher profit margins, you may set a goal to increase your profit margin to 20% within a year.

Create a Growth Plan

After you figure out some goals, use those to create a basic plan. You can write out and include the complete strategy for growth in your business plan.

Of course, you should determine what growth strategy you’ll use. Then, write the details of how you’ll implement that strategy, including larger tasks and smaller things.

For example, you may decide to start selling on Amazon in addition to your website. You can write the steps you’ll take to make that happen, such as signing up for an Amazon seller account and listing your products.

Be as detailed as you need to, especially if you have a team. That way, you can distribute the plan to any other executives or managers who will help you execute the plan.

Start With One Strategy
Once you figure out a general growth plan, you should start with one strategy. Of course, using multiple strategies can increase the likelihood of you seeing massive results.

However, more strategies can also take more time and money to execute. For now, figure out which strategy will help you meet your goals better than the others.

Then, you can focus your efforts on that one strategy until you start to see results. This is particularly important for small businesses where you’re the only employee or where you have a small team.

If you have a medium-sized business with more employees, you can work on two strategies at a time. However, you don’t want to sacrifice the time you spend working with clients or customers just to try and work on an extra growth strategy.

Monitor Your KPIs

When you set your goals, you may also want to choose some key performance indicators (KPIs). These will help you track your progress toward your goals over time.

Using the example of increasing profit margins, you’ll definitely want to track those. You might also keep track of your average sale price and average order volume.

On the other hand, KPIs for organic growth might include website clicks, social media followers, and email subscribers. Whatever you choose, be sure to review your KPIs at least monthly.

That way, you can figure out if your strategy is working or if you need to change something. If you go too long without tracking your results, you could waste a lot of time and money.

Focus on What Works
After you review your KPIs, you may learn you need to adjust your growth strategy. Consider what marketing tactics have been the most successful and which have been the least successful.

Using organic growth as an example, you may start getting more traffic from SEO. You can lean into that and update older posts so that they can get even more visitors.

But you might also learn that your Instagram page is growing very slowly. In that case, you could choose to post less frequently on the platform so that you don’t waste a ton of time.

Your business growth strategy will almost certainly change. Be willing to try new things to see if they work better than what you’ve been doing as well as prioritize what’s currently bringing more results.

Listen to Customers
Another excellent way to determine which strategy for business growth works the best is to pay attention to your audience. If people are responding well to a new sales channel, for example, you can sell more products through there.

On the other hand, maybe you aren’t getting any sales through retail. It can take time to generate sales in a new way, but if it’s been many months, you may want to get rid of that channel.

Then, you can redirect your efforts toward another strategy that may be more successful. Your customers can be very good at telling you what they do and don’t like, so listen.

You can send a survey to everyone who hires you or buys from you. Use those survey results to determine what your audience likes the most and where you can improve.

What Strategy for Business Growth Will You Choose?

Implementing a strategy for business growth can help you reach your goals. You have multiple options to consider, from market penetration to organic growth. We are business growth consultants and coaches who can help you with your growth strategy and implementation.

Do you need help putting your business strategy into practice?