Women's Life Link Be Well, Be Happy, Be YOU!
Once you have a firm grip on your income and what you need to keep your small business running, you’ll have a clearer idea of your potential for the future. Of course, building and growing a small business begins before you even open your doors and should continue from there in many small ways. Doing marketing campaigns are larger efforts can be done periodically to build momentum. Remember, growing your business will require your full attention and some things you may not have considered. Check out these smart ways to speed up small business growth.
Use Sales Funnels
There has been a lot of talk in the last few years about sales funnels. Truthfully, it has become more of a “must-do”, rather than a luxury sales technique. A sales funnel helps to take potential customers on a journey to purchase from you. It enables them to get to know you and your business before they invest larger sums of money. Customers stop along the way and have the opportunity to receive smaller tastes of your prime products and services.
Furthermore, this is usually done through automation that you set up and can watch with minimal time and effort. This automation gives you time to spend elsewhere in your business or with current customers and clients. If you are new to sales funnels, I recommend getting some help to set up your first one. You can glean from tutorials, books, and, of course, a business consultant or coach.
Look for New Opportunities
You have, at your disposal, endless information and technology with which to grow your business. A part of this growth comes from always looking out for new opportunities and potential new markets. Of course, you can always expand your offerings in the same market, but you can also explore new ones.
Understand your market demographics well and start looking outside the box for unique opportunities to meet needs. Consider doing some surveys or market research within your customer base to get a deeper understanding of who your ideal customers are. Listen and learn from them.
Grow an Email List
If you are actively growing your business and don’t already have an email list, I highly recommend to start one immediately. I spent years without one at the beginning of my entrepreneurship and regretted it. Imagine for a moment that all of your social media accounts disappeared. How would you contact the customers you have earned there?
An active email list allows you to stay in contact with your current customers and potentials alike. You can build your list from your website, social media, and even live events. The key to getting people to sign up to receive email from you is having a kickass gift or freebie for doing so. This is the top of your sales funnel that evokes interest and some type of connection. You can start with free or paid email collection services or invest in software like ConvertKit.
Add Staff Successfully
If you intend to grow your small business to the point you can’t do everything yourself, you want to hire efficiently and effectively. Beyond hiring your first cousin’s boyfriend’s neighbor to help you out, you’ll need to get a little more organized. Effective hiring practices often start with implementing AI in HR. This is even if you are technically the HR department yourself.
Hiring sites use this technology to weed out candidates for you so you can hire right the first time. You may know this from when you applied for jobs. The matching process is a complex program that puts potentials in front of you. That said, I do still believe in going with your gut, as well, to hire people you will trust with your business. People can look and sound fabulous on paper but be missing the X-factor you want and need.
Earn Customer Loyalty
Coffee shops give you a card that they stamp or scan every time you visit. Many online stores give you a discount after you purchase from them. These techniques are designed to garner loyalty and greater awareness. First, your outstanding products and service will bring customers back over and over again. However, when you add extra incentive for their loyalty, things will grow even faster. You may also find that with a loyalty program, your existing customers refer their friends and family to you more frequently. Be creative and see what you come up with that fits your industry and brand.
