What 10 growth strategies will help your business succeed? Whether you’re a startup looking to grow or an established company that wants to scale, putting strategies in place to grow will be central.
Why are business growth strategies important?
Business growth strategies are important if you want to take your business to the next level. Writing a strategic business development plan is a good place to start. Your goals or growth opportunities might include improving your product line, reaching new markets or investing in different marketing channels, for example.
4 stages of business growth
There are four stages of business growth – startup, growth, maturity and renewal or decline. Identifying where your business is in the cycle will help you plan for the future and create a suitable business growth strategy.
Startup business
Startup business is the first stage of the business lifecycle and tends to be the riskiest. This is when a business concept becomes a reality. You’ll be finding new customers, taking on employees, building a brand identity, refining your products or services and stabilising your cash flow.
Business growth
Business growth is the second phase. This happens after you’ve established a strong customer base, tangible profits, healthy cash flow and increased market share. It may take a few years to get to this stage, which is marked by increased revenue and rapid growth.
Business maturity
Business maturity is characterised by stability and steady cash flow. A mature business has control over its customer base, so it’s likely to establish a solid market share in its industry. It’s also somewhat protected from the risk of competition. During the maturity stage, you need to continue driving growth and profitability. At this point, the biggest threat to your business is a failure to adapt, evolve and grow.
Business renewal or decline
Business renewal or decline is the final stage of the business life cycle. Since starting your business, market conditions, consumer behaviour and purchasing habits may have changed. Your organisation’s response to these changes will lead to adaptation, evolution or decline.
10 business growth strategies
Here are 10 business growth strategies that can help your company expand, innovate and outperform competitors:
1. Set business growth goals
Setting business goals is essential for any growth strategy. Ensure your goals are measurable, have deadlines and initially focus on short-term periods like months or quarters. This approach allows your team to refine the goal-setting and strategy-planning process rapidly and regularly.
2. Use digital marketing effectively
Using effective digital marketing can help you reach new audiences and nurture relationships along the customer lifecycle without the high costs of traditional advertising. Digital marketing can be used effectively at every stage of the marketing funnel. Common strategies include search engine optimisation (SEO), content marketing, email marketing and social media marketing.
3. Optimise internal systems and processes
Optimising internal systems and processes is vital to business growth. They shape daily operations and significantly impact productivity, profitability and a company’s ability to scale.
4. Adopt more efficient processes by using software
Adopting efficient processes through software automation can reduce the time and effort spent on repetitive tasks. Workflow automation removes human error and increases efficiency.
Tip: Use MYOB’s payroll software to pay your employees. MYOB calculates pay, KiwiSaver contributions, taxes and annual leave so you don’t have to crunch the numbers yourself each pay run. Be assured that your payroll is always accurate and fully compliant with the Inland Revenue’s Payday filing requirements.
5. Focus on customer satisfaction
Focus on customer satisfaction – happy customers tend to buy again and recommend your business, boosting profit and long-term growth.
6. Hire the right people
Hiring the right people for your team is essential. Choose your new people with a robust interview and vetting process while looking for soft skills like respect, loyalty, commitment and adaptability.
7. Become an expert in your industry
Establishing yourself as an expert in your industry can attract customers and increase brand awareness. You’ll also get more opportunities to showcase your business to new audiences.
8. Become an expert on your products and services
Become an expert on your products and services so you can educate your customers — the first step for upselling and cross-selling.
9. Continuously research your market
Continuously researching your market will give you an up-to-date understanding of your opportunities and position to:
Identify potential customers
Learn more about existing customers
Uncover new markets
Analyser competition
Make adjustments to your products and services.
10. Perform competitor research
Competitor research and analysis can help you see how key market players operate — and get ideas for your own market dominance.
Business growth strategy FAQs
What are the best ways to attract new customers?
The best ways to attract new customers include:
Word-of-mouth referrals: People are likely to try a product or service recommended by someone they know and trust.
Discounts and promotions: Offer special offers like free shipping, gifts or discounts on a first purchase.
Partnerships: Partnering with a related business can help you reach new audiences and build relationships. You can work together on cross-promotions, referral systems or marketing each other’s products and services.
Social media: Communicate directly with customers, share updates and build relationships by providing valuable content.
What are the challenges of explosive business growth?
Explosive business growth can come with challenges. It can strain existing resources, systems and personnel, creating operational and quality control issues. If you’re struggling to handle increased volumes, your customer experience is likely to be impacted.
You may also need to expand into new premises or upgrade equipment, which can cause cash flow problems. Managing this growth takes agile leadership and careful planning.
What are the best cost-free methods of growing a business?
The best cost-free — or low-cost — methods of growing a business include:
Adopt a growth mindset: This means believing that you as the business owner and every employee can grow and learn.
Develop a strong culture: A strong company culture encourages loyalty from employees and customers and helps a small business grow.
Leverage word of mouth: Great service will inspire your customers to refer others. You might also consider a program to incentivise referrals.
Take advantage of social media: By sharing content and interacting on these sites, you can boost visibility, showcase products and position your brand. You can often do this at no cost.
Only maintain core operations: Eliminate non-essential processes, systems and tasks and get rid of products or services that are low value to your customers.
Get team members invested: Trust and empower your team with financial information and decisions. When your team is involved and aware of the numbers, they can help make decisions and choices that help you stretch your budgets further.
Tip: Use MYOB’s financial reporting software to involve your team and make better growth decisions. You can tailor reports to deliver exactly the insights you need, knowing you’re working with accurate information. By visualising income, expenses and net profit in simple graphs, you can also track the impact of the growth strategies you’ve put in place.
Business growth strategy – the bottom line
Business growth isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. You’ll need to tailor these strategies to fit your unique circumstances, industry and goals. The key to success lies in continuously adapting, learning and improving. As cloud accounting software, MYOB Business gives you a clear view of your business from any device. This gives you the insights you need to drive business growth. Explore the plans now.
Disclaimer: Information provided in this article is of a general nature and does not consider your personal situation. It does not constitute legal, financial, or other professional advice and should not be relied upon as a statement of law, policy or advice. You should consider whether this information is appropriate to your needs and, if necessary, seek independent advice. This information is only accurate at the time of publication. Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information contained on this webpage, MYOB disclaims, to the extent permitted by law, all liability for the information contained on this webpage or any loss or damage suffered by any person directly or indirectly through relying on this information.