6 Effective Ways to (Genuinely) Grow Your Business
The emerging way!
holmag
Everyone has the ambition and drive to own their own business, but not everybody succeed at maintaining that business. According to the latest U.S. Small Business Administration data, there are 31.7 million small businesses in the United States, though, with millions of businesses in the country, some are bound to fail (Lending Tree).
Businesses face many type of challenges that will cause them to fail: finances, lack of manpower or burnout. So we combine a few ideas that we know for sure will help in a successful completion of your first year as a rookie entrepreneur.
Tip 1: Fund your business!
If you do not have capital, your entrepreneurial endeavors will not take off. You need funds to set up your business, handle all the legal matters, and to create/buy your products, depending of the business venture. If you can come up with the seed money on your own, do that otherwise seek financial assistance. You need, emphasis on “need,” funds to boost your business, especially in the marketing department where most of your money will be spent.
Tip 2: Understand your market
Did you research the market you are getting into? Do you already have a list of clients waiting for your to drop products or services? Is there a niche for your business idea? Everyone now owns an online boutique, is a social media specialist, has a physical clothing store, is selling skin care, candles or selling courses. Is your market saturated with contents and businesses? How are you going to stand out from all the other talented and driven individuals just like you? All these are thing you need to think about before jumping ship.
“A smaller, more engaged community who loves and buys your products is better than a large community who barely interacts with you or your business!”
later.com
Tip 3: Too much supply, not enough demand
That is probably one of the main reasons why many business venture fail their first year. Here you are spending all your funds into buying product that you “think” will sell without doing proper market research on the product’s salability. So you have one or two clients buying from you, big whoop! Your business won’t survive on these two customers. You need the mass to get your product and get it fast!
You may get away with digital supply in that category, so technology is on your side. Your lost will only be the time you spent creating products that are not selling online, but with patience, momentum, and excellent social media strategies, you will attract a crowd that will eventually turn into paying customers.
Tip 4: Competition!
Oh so you thought you were the only one with the same ideas! You’re in for a surprise. Many other individuals have the same ideas with a touch of their personalities intertwined into it. You need to keep an eye out for your competitions. If you blindly put yourself in a market without surveying the territory, you may not survive your first year. Think of it as going to someone’s neighborhood and placing your strawberry lemonade stand right across from their regular lemonade stand, while another neighbor move their melon lemonade a couple blocks down. Your market will be appealing if a competitor see room for profit in it.
And it depend on the market too. If you are entering a market with well financed and established businesses, you have to have serious funding and manpower to compete, whereas a much smaller market might give you much more room. Keep your eyes open!
Tip 5: Recruiting workers
If you find yourself in a position where your business is doing well and growing too fast under you, do seek out talented individuals to help carry the torch you set ablaze. But don’t make the mistake of not training them! You need to set up a standard for them to follow or your business will crumble in the first year. Untrained staffs are like wild children. With no rules and policies, they wild do whatever they want, whenever they want. You set the pace, everyone else follows it. Remember, no one care much about your business more than yourself as the founder. Everyone else is here to help it grow and go. If all hell breaks, the only person left is you. Which brings us to the next point.
Tip 6: Cut costs!
The number one reason for the failure of so many young endeavors is finance! You may have bit more than you can chew. Yes it is ok to take risks, but if you cannot afford the damage, don’t invest into unnecessary stuff and people. A good option is to open opportunities for unpaid, or low-paid internship until you can officially start hiring. You may surprise yourself and find a great candidate for your business venture. Be prepare though, to also go though a few unwanted sallys and sams. It is part of the business game.
If you have to do it all by yourself at the beginning, do just that. Don’t stare into your competitor’s light and get lost in the idea of matching their level of success if you cannot afford it yet. Pace yourself and hire only if you desperately have to, not because you need to. Your patience will pay off. And if for some reason, you follow all these tips and still fail, well, my friend get back on the horse and change your approach. Failure is a learning curve! Pick up the pieces and do it again. You may have missed something somewhere.
holmag