Want your Business to Grow? You must do these Five Things

Small businesses are a huge undertaking. New companies are emerging every day led by entrepreneurs with big hopes, dreams, ambitions, and intentions.

In Canada alone, according to the Government’s website, as of December 2018 there were 1.2 million employer businesses across the nation. “Of these,” says the site, “1.18 million (97.9 percent) were small businesses, 22,266 (1.9 percent) were medium-sized businesses and 3,010 (0.2 percent) were large businesses.”

While many new companies succeed, it’s also true that many do not. This can be attributed to a number of factors. So how do you position your new company so it has the most optimal opportunity to thrive? Well, business owners and leaders say that there are a number of factors that you need to consider. Nothing is guaranteed, but there are five things you need to do to place your business in the most advantageous position for growth. They are:

Know what your market wants, and serve its needs more effectively than anyone else.

To be sure, there is lots of competition out there for every new company. That’s why you have to do what you do in a way that draws customers to your company and creates loyalty. When you do that, there’s a cumulative effect that often creates business growth.

According to Canadian business leader George Scorsis, to be of service and create a successful business requires that you speak directly to your target customers.

The goal, says George Scorsis, is to devise strategies and execute a plan to excite consumers and surpass the competition.

Set growth goals and stick with them:

This is where it literally pays to not only watch but also proactively grow the numbers. Any new business is going to have some projections for its first, second and even third years. But you can never assume that you’ll reach them simply by being open. The philosophy of “If you build it, they will come” really only works in the movies. Try breaking down your annual marketing goals into monthly targets, then do whatever it takes to achieve them. If you’re lucky, your business might do well without any help — for a while — but rest assured, you will have slow periods and you do need to be ready for them. This means looking at your marketing activities from month to month and exploring strategic opportunities for bringing in new customers.

Be a relentless salesperson:

Do you think that having a cool name, product, service, or Logo design will make people want to do business with you? Think again. There’s way too much competition, and they’re already talking to your contacts and customers. No matter what your company provides, don’t ever forget that you’re still in the business of sales.

According to forbes.com’s Young Entrepreneurs Council, “New business owners lacking the ability to effectively get their message out to potential customers are doomed to failure. Successful entrepreneurs are experts at communicating who they are, what they do, and how their product or service will make potential customer’s lives better. If sales and marketing are not your strong suit, hire someone to do it for you.”

Strategically leverage all sales channels:

We live in a time in which all sorts of products are available to end-users in a wide and diverse variety of ways. Let’s say for example that you own a walk-in business, maybe a store, a restaurant or a service provider that interacts with customers face-to-face. You know from observing your ever-present competitors that they’re using other channels to grow business. You need to be doing the same. You likely have a company website, but are you using it to grow your business? If not, start doing it today.

“The internet has opened up other channels for businesses to reach their customers and sell their products,” writes Martin Luenendock. “In fact, this has been greatly beneficial for small businesses and entrepreneurs, since they were provided a platform where they can have a chance of competing against more established brands.”

Build customer goodwill by practicing social entrepreneurship:

Do you give back to your community or support worthy causes? In the old days, this meant sponsoring a local baseball team or hockey club and putting your company name on players’ jerseys. Today, social entrepreneurship means so much more. Many of today’s entrepreneurs are committed to making their communities — and even the world — a better place, so they engage in a variety of activities to help charities they deem worthy. And many customers today actively seek to do business with companies that share their altruistic philosophy.

For example, during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, a popular restaurant in Santa Fe, NM, received media attention when, after it was forced to close its doors, it redirected its energies to feeding first responders free of charge. The gesture came from a place of authenticity and the owner truly cared about the people in his community. This simple gesture created a groundswell of goodwill.