Growing a business in today’s economy has many challenges. You need to keep up with shifting consumer behavior and preferences, evolving technology, and an increasingly competitive market.
However, it’s not only possible to survive in your industry—but to thrive and come out ahead. If you want to learn how to grow your business, we’ll show you how to adopt and implement the top 10 strategies to fuel long-term business growth and success.
What is a business growth strategy?
Simply put, a business strategy is just a set of limiting choices you make that focus your company’s efforts to succeed at a chosen goal. While every strategy is designed for some growth, a growth strategy is one where your limiting choices are aggressively focused on capturing more market share or acquiring new customers. Any company must look at revenue, customer, marketing, and product when determining their growth strategy.
Why you need a long-term growth strategy
First and foremost, businesses need to grow and increase their market share and penetration. If you aren’t being intentional about growing over the long haul (even during uncertain economic times), you may unintentionally make short-term decisions that are harmful in the long run. A long-term growth strategy helps you plan your moves more intentionally, even if you are cost-cutting in the immediate future, rather than focusing on growth.
This long term view also provides assurances to your shareholders, letting them know that you are looking to the future regardless of what the present holds.
As your business grows, you’ll likely need additional capital, and investors will hold you accountable to ensure you’re reducing future risk, meeting challenges that lie ahead, and adapting to market changes.
Growth can also help you repay loans, cover your debts, make up for losses, and reduce your future risk. And of course, don’t forget that if you have investors, they want you to grow. A growth strategy is necessary to both please current investors and get new investors.
How to prepare your business growth strategy
A growth strategy takes careful preparation and planning to render success. Consider the following tips when figuring out how to grow a business.
Offer your customers and investors a strong value proposition.
Distinguish what makes your business unique and identify what makes your customers choose your brand over another. Solidify your brand identity and ensure that consumers have a high-quality product or service that appeals to them.
See your business the way your target customers do.
Take a step back and look at your business from your customers’ perspectives. Research your customers and analyze the data you come up with. You can learn about your customers through reviews, surveys, social media comments, email satisfaction queries, or even just getting out there and asking them directly. You want to gauge the overall customer experience, from how often they’re buying to which products you’re selling the most to user experiences on your website and more.
Understand your company operations.
For optimal business growth, you’ll need to identify which areas need the most improvement, whether it’s employee culture or satisfaction, greater revenue streams, or areas with the highest potential for growth.
View your business holistically.
Looking at the long-term vision over short-term gains ensures strategic planning and sustainable development. Doing so will help lay the foundation for success in a dynamic market. Aligning the business owner’s mindset with employees’ is also crucial to achieve long-term growth. Having a holistic view on your business is very important.
Research your competitors and market.
A competitive analysis can help you understand market trends and set the stage for new opportunities within and outside your market. It can also help you identify which areas of your operations can improve and explain why some aren’t working.
Types of business growth strategies
Scaling your business to success will require organic and inorganic growth.
Organic
Organic business growth, or internal growth, uses strategies to scale your business without external resources—that is, by using your own capabilities and resources. For example, your company might look for more efficient ways to be productive and have maximum output in a shorter time.
Here are some examples of organic growth strategies.
1. Expand within or disrupt your market
A business expansion is one way to grow your business and increase market share. For example, you might develop a new product line to help expand your customer base and cater to existing ones. Upselling and cross-selling activities can also maximize sales with your current customers.
2. Expand into a new market
Is there a niche within your market that your competition has overlooked or underserved? Carving out a new niche market might foster increased loyalty and fast-track your organic growth.
3. Remove unprofitable products and services
Every business has products or services that aren’t as profitable as others. It’s a good idea to figure out what’s not working for your business and remove it altogether. That way, you can focus on what is working, increase production, and reserve some of your time and resources for innovation.
4. Develop and/or diversify your products
One of the best ways to expand your customer base and increase your revenue is to develop new products and diversify your offerings. That way, you don’t have all your revenue streams in one basket.
5. Open new sales channels
Small business owners should examine their existing sales channels and identify new ways to meet customer needs. For example, if you have a brick and mortar but don’t have a digital sales platform, it might be time to consider marketing your products online.
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6. Attract and satisfy customers
In today’s business climate, your company must continually find ways to meet and exceed customer expectations. To accomplish this, solicit customer feedback and gain insight into their experiences. Then, come up with a growth and marketing strategy that delivers what your targets are looking for.
7. Recruit and retain employees
Organic growth benefits from a collaborative workforce. Your small business needs the right employees to grow and thrive. Restructure your workforce and promote a positive work culture that reinforces and rewards hard work. Motivate workers with competitive compensation and benefit packages and instill a sense of accomplishment to drive morale.
8. Price your offerings competitively
Pricing strategy is another component of your business growth. The data you uncover when researching your market will dictate how to price your products or services, you may be able to increase or decrease prices depending on competition and supply chain advantages that you have.
Inorganic
Inorganic business growth uses resources, talent, and expertise outside of your company to help the business expand. Inorganic growth can result in more rapid growth of your business, a new customer base, a more capable workforce, and expansion into new markets.
Let’s look at a couple of ways to facilitate inorganic business growth.
9. Enter a strategic partnership
A strategic partnership is when two businesses enter an equally beneficial working relationship to drive growth in each business. The advantages are pooled resources and work talent that can allow a business to grow faster while maximizing that growth.
10. Merge with or acquire another company
A merger and acquisition (M&A) can position your business to access new product offerings or capabilities quickly. An M&A is one of the fastest ways to reach a higher level of business growth, particularly when you pair up with a more recognizable brand. It can also expose you to a new market, industry, or geography.
How to develop your business growth strategy over time
Small business owners should avoid making business decisions based on current events. A long-term, sustained approach can yield lasting results for your business.
With that in mind, here are some things you can do to develop your business growth strategy over time.
Communicate
Develop a listening strategy with open communication amongst your staff. Active listening creates a safe space for your team members to tell you their needs or what might lead to greater workflow efficiency, resulting in increased morale, boosted productivity, higher employee retention, and a motivated workforce that is more driven to help you meet goals.
Implement
Delegate tasks to the team members who are best qualified to carry them out for better outcomes. It may also work to your advantage to entrust more minor decision-making responsibilities to crucial staff you can count on to free up your time and focus.
Adjust
Finally, look at sales data and occasionally assess your delegation and growth plans to ensure they meet expectations. Ensure that your strategies in all areas are scalable and feasible over the long term and refine them as needed.
