Being the owner of a small business is no walk in the park. There’s a lot of things to think about, often meaning that growth becomes an afterthought. However, a lack of growth could lead to a business being overshadowed by competitors, resulting in a higher risk of folding. To ensure you don’t get left behind, we’ve put together our top tips to help you incorporate a growth strategy into your business’s everyday tasks.
As a leading provider of marketing services for UK SMEs, we feel that we’re in a good position to share our wisdom about business growth. Our team of web designers, advertising campaign managers and SEO technicians have helped hundreds of small businesses to grow with their skills and expertise. Read on to discover our best advice for how to grow a small business.
Market Research
Market research is the backbone of formulating a business growth strategy. You need to invest a little time in this, but this will pay off in the long run. Good market research will give you a foundation of knowledge about your target audience and how to capture them. This information will allow you for create a growth strategy that produces real results, rather than wasting time guessing which strategies might work.
If your small business has been around for some time, you probably have a good idea of who your audience are already. However, newer companies may not have enough data to have this information to hand. This is where competitor research comes in.
Finding similar businesses to yours will give you a good indication of what might work for you. Take a look at what your local competitors are doing and see what you can replicate. If they’re running an advert in the local paper, maybe your business should as well. If they’ve got lots of followers on social media, put some effort into your own profiles and see if you can build your own audience. You probably won’t be able to copy all of their techniques, but you should find that researching what your competitors are doing is a good way to start your own growth strategy.
Build An Online Presence
It’s no secret that business owners should be advertising their services online. It’s the best way to generate sales and access more customers in your area. If you’re not already online, or if you think your online presence could be better, you’re in the right place! Search4Local employ a brilliant team of web designers, content writers, digital advertisers, SEO specialists and more. All the work we do is carried out in-house and achieves excellent results. We’ve helped hundreds of UK SMEs to grow their business by creating affordable digital marketing products that work. We’d be happy to do the same for your business, just give us a call to learn more.
Create Your Customer Journey
Growing a business can only happen when your customer base grows and the amount of sales you make increases. Once you’ve worked out how to generate an audience, the next step is to direct them into a purchase. It may seem obvious to you, but it may not be to your client. Users need to be guided in the direction you want them to go. Simple things like a call-to-action (CTA) with a clear instruction, such as ‘contact us’, ‘get a quote’ and ‘buy now’ are an effective and essential part of the user journey.
If there are multiple steps that a user needs to make to reach the end goal, make sure that this journey is clearly mapped out. Everyone that works for your small businesses needs to know this journey like the back of their hand, so that users are guided correctly.
Try to plan for them to take as few steps as possible, as this makes it easier to achieve a sale. For example, if your service requires an initial enquiry, a consultation, a quote and an appointment to complete the sale, you should try to complete all these steps as quickly as possible. If you can, provide a quote and book their appointment during your consultation. This means that the user is guided towards the end sale more efficiently, with less opportunity for the sale to fall through.
Plan For Growth
It’s important to remember that growing a small business into a bigger business comes with some responsibility. If your VAT taxable turnover increases to over £85,000, you must register for VAT with the UK government. This also applies if you or your business is based outside the UK (you never know where growth might take you!) and you’re still supplying goods and services into the country. You can voluntarily register for VAT if your turnover is less than £85,000. You may wish to consider doing this if your plans indicate that your business could grow quickly, as it will save you a task down the line. Failure to register for VAT when you’re required to can lead to a penalty, on top of having to make payments for any VAT sales you’ve made since the date you needed to be registered.
Many small businesses need to seek extra funding at some point during their growth. This funding can be achieved through multiple routes. You could choose to take out a loan, find a government-backed scheme or sell shares of your business to outside investors. The route you choose needs to be right for you and your business.
If you take out a loan, the most important consideration is how the money will be paid back. As long as you can crunch the numbers and work out that the repayments are manageable over the period of time you borrow for, it should be fine. If this isn’t possible, but the prospects for your business look bright, selling shares may be a better way to go. We would recommend seeking support from a financial expert for this step, as these decisions could have a huge impact on the growth of your small business.
Is Your Small Business Ready To Grow?
At Search4Local, we welcome a challenge. We love helping small businesses to grow by supporting their products and services with excellent digital marketing packages. If you’re looking to take the next step for your small business and get seen on line, get in touch with our team today. You’ll be assigned a dedicated account manager who will visit you in person to discuss your business’s needs. From there, we can put together a bespoke campaign using highly successful techniques. Contact Search4Local today to start your journey.
