When you launched your company, your objective was probably just to stay in business in the first place. You might not have even looked to turn a profit in those early months although that would certainly have been part of the long-term plan.
Once you’ve established yourself, however, you need to start thinking about how to expand and increase your revenue. Every business is different, and the precise steps and guidelines for expansion will not be quite the same for any company, but there are a few generalities that are useful to keep in mind.
Why Growth?
Maybe you don’t want the headaches of expanding, adding employees, or making things more complicated. Maybe your object is to stay small. Perhaps there’s a limit to your capacity, especially if you’re a one-person enterprise.
That’s all very well, but every business has to think about remaining relevant and adapting to the times. You also have to keep up with rising prices and the cost of living. If you’re a sole proprietor and determined to remain that way, then of course you can’t double your business year over year or even increase by a certain percentage indefinitely.
However, what you don’t want to happen either is to look around after five, 10, or 30 years and realize that you’ve become irrelevant. Maybe growth doesn’t necessarily mean major expansion, but you still need to have a growth mindset in order to stay on top of your game.
Improve Processes
If you’ve ever loved a certain business and then watched it struggle with growing pains, it’s entirely possible that the company didn’t update its processes in order to cope with its expansion.
As you expand, it becomes more and more important to do things as efficiently as possible. In some cases, this can mean hiring more employees and purchasing software or other tools to help them do their job more effectively. In other situations, it can be even more complex.
This might be the case if you’re expanding into other regions and there are additional regulations to consider alongside your need to become more efficient.
Fleet management is one area where this could be the case. If you operate a government fleet in California, you need to be compliant with the smog check requirements. Telematics is an excellent way to help save money and increase vehicle uptime by reducing how long smog checks take.
Telematics can also help your fleet operate more efficiently in a number of other different ways. Talking to others in your industry as you expand can help you get a sense of the challenges you may face and how to meet them.
Risks And Backup Plans
One of the must know tips for starting a business is that expansion is never risk-free. The same goes for growing your business. But neither is keeping things just as they are, so that risk is no reason to avoid growth. However, the risks that you take should be carefully calculated.
In addition, you should have backup plans in place in case things take a turn you don’t anticipate. In fact, contingency plans for a few of the most likely worst-case scenarios are important in any business and not just when you’re looking toward expansion.
If you are a one-person business, you may be able to adapt more quickly when things don’t go to plan, but all of the responsibility also rests on your shoulders. If you have business partners, you can talk about these contingency plans together, but this is something you can potentially involve your employees in as well.
Increasing Customer Retention
One of the best ways to grow your enterprise is by increasing customer retention. Gaining new customers is also important, of course, but keeping the ones you already have is less costly, and the efforts you expend in this direction can help keep new ones as well. There are a number of different ways you can do this. The best approach will vary depending on the industry you’re in and your particular brand.
Engaging customers on social media has the dual effect of increasing loyalty and also making yourself more visible to potential customers. Creating an email campaign is another option for engaging your customers and keeping your brand visible.
Sometimes back to the basics is the best. Good customer service is vital. This includes following through in the way that you say you will and being responsive to any problems. Although it isn’t right for every company, loyalty programs can be a great way to reward your regulars while also gathering valuable data that will help you better understand their needs and behavior.
