How Well Are You Growing Your Business?

Julie Starr • Jun 30, 2020



When starting a business, it’s easy to feel a little intimidated and confused. The modern world has never been more fast-paced and competitive. More often than not you can end up left wondering where to even start when it comes to growing your business . Well, don’t worry! Here are some tried and tested ways to help your business expand and to reach your customers effectively. 

To grow your business and succeed in the crazy world of business you need to ensure you are in the right place to take on the role of business owner. As well as being careful and looking after the growth of your business, you need to take care of your own personal growth as well. Your personal growth is very important, focus on your human design and make sure you don’t burn out while running your business. Make sure you have a strong unit around you to lean on as and when needed.

Stay focused

It’s pretty easy when starting a business to lose focus in the face of your ambition. You might want to change the world right away, but the important thing to do is to start simple. Pick a single product or service and dedicate your time and energy to marketing, selling, and promoting it. Too many businesses throw themselves from one idea to another without actually spending the right amount of time on each one. Eventually, you’ll want to expand, but to begin with, you’d do better to lay a solid foundation in one place. 

Identify your market

Let’s say you’ve got that one perfect product or service. Who are you selling it to? Are you targeting general consumers or big business? Men or women? Teenagers or senior citizens? These are the first questions you should be asking yourself but don’t stop there. You should endeavor to create such an individual and clear picture of your target customer that you could pick them out of a line-up. That way, you don’t waste your time chasing after customers who will never have an interest in what you’re offering. Instead, you can focus on the demographic who already have a need for your business, even if they don’t know it yet.

Outsource

If you want to expand your business quickly without putting too much pressure on yourself and your employees then outsourcing is often the best option. It gives you the benefit of other people’s expertise and lets you focus your attention on the things where your skills really lie. From ensuring China quality control in the manufacturing of your products to creating organic SEO online, it’s often best to leave things in the hands of the experts. That way, you know your business is always in the right hands.

Never stop looking forward

The real key to any successful new business is always to have one eye on the horizon. You need to be able to be aware of what’s coming. What shifts in the market are coming? What new services and technologies are changing the way you do business? Are there new ways to connect with customers and clients? Business sustainability is one of those shifts that continually influence the business landscape. Also, adaptability is one of the most important tools in any business owner’s arsenal. The ability to shift directions at the drop of a hat could mean the difference between sinking and swimming. As long as you make sure the foundations of your business are sturdy, you need to be ready to shift in any direction if the wind seems to be moving that way.

One thing that you have to remember is that the growth of your business should always be sustainable. If you’re not growing your business organically, then you run the risk of the whole thing collapsing under its own weight.

Things to Consider When Creating a New Product

By Julie Starr • 04 May, 2024
If you're thinking about creating a new product for your business there's a lot you need to keep at the forefront of your thoughts. When you have a new idea it can be exciting and you want to jump right in and test whether or not it will bring in some much-needed capital into your business. However, before you forge your head you need to put some brakes on your ideas. This is because you're going to need to go through a few steps to make sure that you are not wasting your time. Here's a look at the things you should do when you want to create a new product. Do Market Research Market research is the first thing you're going to need to do. No matter how great the idea you may have, if there is no demand for it then you're wasting your time and your business capital. You want to do market research to see whether people will be willing to buy your product. Once you have validated that there are customers for it you can move on to the next step. Unique Selling Proposition In the next stage of the entire process, you're going to look at the unique selling propositions of your product. How is it different from what is already out there? Why should someone buy it as opposed to another product? You have to make sure that you have some kind of innovative features that are superior in quality that will catch your customers' eyes and get them to reach into their wallets. Product Design and Development The next thing you're going to do is to make sure that you put a design and developmental system in place. This is the only way that you're going to end up with a high-quality product to put on the market. You may have to get other people to assist you or select the employees that are skilled to help create the product. If you have to do the creation of a product that requires a lab, you can use lab facilities that are located in your area. In some cases, you might have to get manufacturing help from outside of the country but with all the communication technology available this should be a breeze. Do a Cost Analysis You're going to need to do a cost analysis of the product that you are creating. You don't want to have to empty your company's piggy bank to create a product. You need to make sure that you are going to make enough of a profit based on what you will be spending to actually create the product in the first place. You don't want to shoot yourself in the foot. It's up to you to make sure that you're going to get back every penny that you are spending and then some. The type of products that you are creating should create a sense of excitement in your existing customer base. You do a survey and find out if excitement is bubbling up in them to see a new product. This can gauge how successful it will be.

6 Effective Ways To Offer Value To Customers

By Julie Starr • 02 May, 2024
Understanding that acquiring new customers can cost up to five times more than retaining them empowers you to make strategic decisions. If you're not offering value to your customers, you won't be able to retain existing ones or attract new ones. In a world where there are seemingly a million customers all offering the same thing, standing out above the noise and offering value to your customers can boost retention. Look At What You Do Well To offer value and identify the reasons why people do business with you or what makes them choose you, take pride in what you do well. Where do you excel? What entices people? What are you most proud of? It is in these areas that you find value and get a better idea of what customers want and expect. Improve Your Brand Image and Perception How people see and perceive your brand will show them what you have to offer and can be a great way to help people connect with your brand. Be clear about who you are and what you represent. It might be that your whole company is built on sustainability, and if people know this and can align with your beliefs, then you can develop a relationship with them based on mutual goals and ideals. Take some time to see what your brand perception is and what message you are putting out there about who you are, and if it doesn't wholly represent you, then you can work on changing this so the message is clear and representative of what the company is about. This can be a great way to offer people value and something another brand provides. Improved Quality The quality of what you should always be top-notch, but you can still go a little extra. It doesn't matter if you're selling whole podcasts, parts, repairs, or services; the level of quality received by the customers for the price point will often play a massive factor in whether or not they will make another purchase or become a regular customer. Even if you don't offer anything else that seems exemplary, if people are more than satisfied with the output level, you can guarantee they will definitely be back. So whether you upgrade the quality of your ingredients for food and drink-based products, offer additional content or support for your services, or outsource to machine shops for fabrication requirements, improve the quality of what you do to give you that edge over competitors. Provide A Positive Experience Value isn't always about something you offer for a price point; it's about the experience as a whole and, oftentimes, the things you don't do. By providing all customers with a positive experience , you can leave a lasting impression in their minds that they really enjoyed their contact with your company. This will help to ensure they come back to you time and again, feeling they have received a good service and this is of value to them. Many customers want to know their business is appreciated, and you can do this by ensuring that each and every interaction with your company is a smooth, positive one that requires little to no effort with a good payoff at the end of the transaction. Quality Over Price Sure, you can go out there and undercut your competitors, but this tactic isn't always the best, nor does it work for everyone. However, what you can do is emphasize the quality of the product and justify its price point. Even if it's slightly more expensive than your competitors, you can win people over by showing exactly what they're getting for their money and why it's worth its price tag. Don't be tempted to hike the price point up to give it an air of superior quality. You still need to be pricing realistically; however, by focusing on the benefits of the value of what you're offering over the price, you can show people lie in purchasing from you. Educate customers By offering tutorials, demonstrations, trial products or services, FAQs, and practical assistance, you not only offer a good value product or service but also give customers a chance to learn more about you, what you do, what you stand for, and what your company is all about.  This, in turn, along with good customer service and knowledgeable representatives, will offer your customers value as they will be able to understand your product or service better and know you're investing in our product and that you care about their experience. There are many ways to offer value to customers besides discounts or freebies. Any of these options can directly benefit your business and require little outlay.
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