Published on February 16th, 2017 | by Guest

4 Ways for Small Businesses to Get Their Foot in the Door

By definition, a small business is a privately owned organization where the number of employees doesn’t exceed a maximum of 1500 individuals, while the upper limit of annual receipts forbids having more than $21.0 million in the bank. In comparison to industry moguls, however, these are small figures. And, if catapulting to the top is your end objective, a small business owner should think big.

Unfortunately, business growth never comes overnight and neither does recognition. But, there are hacks that may help you get your foot in the door and prepare your aspiring business for climbing the corporate ladder.

1. Define, Plan & Go

After hiring the right staff for the job, strategic thinking is the first step towards eventual growth. In general, this implies both data-based planning and clear vision. Define your goals, make sure that they are achievable and start devising a development plan. From start to finish, this process should be perceived as a sustainable project.

Employ Project Management to Streamline Operations

While goal-defining is vital for boosting morale and inspiring productivity, project management is crucial for keeping things consistent. Regardless of what your next move is, you’ll need your team to be similar to a well-oiled machine and your operations to run smoothly. In such a scenario, project management is a brilliant organizational structure. When empowered with a suitable set of tools, this management technique can execute any business growth strategy, regardless of whether it focuses on volume, market, revenue, or ideas and products.

2. Research, Analyse & Stay Informed

Long before you put any of your plans into action, you need to make sure that they are realistic and can be realized efficiently. Being successful means being knowledge-centred and making savvy decisions that are based on research and calculations. Employ automation for analysis and learn everything there is to be learned about your market, competition, and customers.

Stay in the Loop with Your Market and Competitors

Whether you’re still a rookie or trying to start your business anew, you won’t be able to accomplish anything significant without offering something unique. In order to define your unique selling point, however, you have to know who your competitors’ are. Market analysis tools will help you dissect their operations and websites, thus keeping you in the loop with what’s hot in your market and with what might be in the future.

Get Familiar with Your Audience

Then, you’ll need to get familiar with your target audience. Customer relationship management software systems will assist you in finding the best way to approach your existing clientele, while customer acquisition strategies will improve your chances for generating hot leads that always convert.

3. Find Your Voice & Spread Your Message

Once you know what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to, the next step is finding the most effective way of making your offer irresistible. Branding and marketing go hand in hand, but each is an undertaking in its own right. Their mutual goal, however, is to provide a delightful customer experience.

Define Your Brand Identity

When it comes to defining your brand identity, you’ll need to think about your visual appearance (image), the way you communicate with your audience (voice) and your company culture (internal and external relationships). In a nutshell, an impactful brand is a combination between what audiences emotionally respond to in terms of both products and overall value and what represents you as an authority in the field and a visionary figure. In other words, use your expertise to display your uniqueness.

Develop a Marketing Strategy

Though reflective of your brand, marketing strategies are less complicated to define, execute and measure. Omni-channeling is the last word of what’s considered fashionable and effective in the advertising arena and it suggests conveying your message across all viable channels.

Focus on digital marketing first, provide high-quality content that your audience will find helpful and entice with creative campaigns for them to engage in. Always market on the social media your target audience uses the most, invite them to visit your website and build your email list there.

4. Improve, Innovate & Scale

If done properly, all of this will be enough to ensure you a spot in your marketplace and keep your business afloat. From there on, you can devise a number of growth strategies that will enable you to scale gradually, until you eventually skyrocket your small business to the top.

Narrow Down to a Niche Market

Defining a niche market is a clever move for both those who stride slowly within their core markets and those who are trying to grow further. It’s a simple narrowing technique that allows you to specialize in just one part of the market you’re already a part of, thus guaranteeing a steady customer base. If you’re in the interior design business, for instance, focus on home offices.

Expand Your Market Reach

Alternatively, you can start spreading. This process won’t move you beyond the boundaries of your market, but expand your reach instead. Revisit your budget strategy and see if there are any means for opening stores in new locations. Exporting to foreign or international markets is another move which is worth considering.

Upgrade Your Offer

Finally, you can leave exponential growth for later and concentrate on your products and services for now. The road to market success is paved with innovation, which means your offer will have to keep improving at a steady pace. Think about various ways in which your customers can use your products – for example, mason jars can be both practical and purely decorative.

In case your products cannot be used in more ways than one, diversify your offer. Those who buy jars for pickling need bottles and canning tools too, hence it is a good idea to include those in your seasonal offer as well.

Conclusion

Whichever direction you take, tread steadily but carefully. Stay consistent in your endeavours, reduce risk to a minimum and be prepared to implement changes if things go wrong. When business growth is in case, there’s no such thing as a “secret recipe”. You’ll have to acquire all the right ingredients on your own and find that magic condiment that binds them all together. Good luck!

Author Bio:

Robin is a Technical Support Executive with a combined experience of 6 years. He is well acquainted with various Knowledge base tools and is currently associated with ProProfs. In his free time, Robin enjoys reading and traveling.

Tags: businesses, door, foot, small business, ways