5 Top Tips for Business Growth

Many small firms struggle to achieve significant growth, staying pretty much as they were when the business started. Others move from small time to the big league, often very rapidly. 

So, what is the key to achieving growth?

First and foremost, there is not just one thing that drives growth. Having a great product or service and understanding your target market is not enough. Although this is vitally important, there are many other factors that need to come together to achieve significant growth.

Here are 5 main factors we believe you must get right to achieve business growth;

MINDSET

If you want to grow your business, the most important thing you can do is to embrace a growth mindset. This will allow you to dream big and push the boundaries of your ideas to new levels.

The growth mindset is very different to the 'business as usual' mindset. In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. Instead of judging experiences in terms of failures and successes, frame them in a positive light. You will have challenges and obstacles along the way. Recognise that all of them can help you grow and become a better business owner.

With a growth mindset, people believe that their talents and abilities can be developed over time through experience and mentorship, so they push themselves and go for it.

If you find yourself afraid of challenges, get yourself into a growth mindset and think about the growth potential in following this opportunity, even if it’s out of your comfort zone.

PROCESSES & SYSTEMS

One thing that can often be overlooked is the need to create systems and processes. Building an organised and systemic approach to running the actual business will help prepare you for growth.

Take note of every procedure from the very beginning, recording everything from how files are saved to how big decisions are made. Even when certain actions seem obvious, make a note of the steps and approaches. What is intuitive for one person may not occur to another. By thinking proactively and consistently working on an operations plan, your business will be ready for healthy development.

Having an operations plan will then allow you to look at various types of software to help you become more efficient. You may decide to look for accounting software to keep track of and categorise your revenues and expenses, a CRM system for keeping track of your customers and contacts.

The right software can have a significant impact and there are plenty of systems out there. Make sure you do your research and consider both off-the-shelf systems as well as bespoke options that could work specifically for your business.

PEOPLE

There will be numerous times in a growing business when current staffing levels reach capacity. At this stage, it’s also worth stopping to think: Do you really need to hire someone?

Outsourcing

Most entrepreneurs have great talents but many times they think they can do it all. That can stall the growth of the business. Deciding what tasks to outsource and what to hire an employee for may come down to whether the work lies within your business’s main areas of strength and whether that function is needed on a regular basis.

More small businesses are outsourcing tasks these days because technology has advanced to the point of professionals being able to work from anywhere in the world, coupled with the availability and accessibility of extremely qualified professionals, such as, virtual executive assistants, marketing directors, HR consultants, bookkeepers, IT specialists, and the list goes on.

Outsourcing can save the small business owner the burden of paying overhead associated with payroll taxes and expenses such as health insurance, as well as the space constrictions that growing a company in-house can present.

Hiring

The employees that a business hires are also an important factor when it comes to the growth and success that a business will experience. Naturally, you need to find someone with the right skill set, but that’s just one thing you should look at when evaluating prospective employees.

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins creates a lasting and memorable metaphor by comparing a business to a bus and the leader as a bus driver. They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.

As a small business owner, you will need to identify candidates who not only have the experience and aptitude to do the job, but also who share and endorse your company’s core values. To ensure that you hire the right people, make sure that you develop a structured interview process with both competency and values based questions. You may also want to build in psychometric assessment as part of the process.

LEADERSHIP & COMMUNICATION

There are a lot of things that amount to the success of an organisation, and leadership without a doubt is one of the main reasons. It may sound like a paradox, but a great leader isn’t someone who leads; it’s someone other people want to follow.

In our recent blog on this subject, we looked at what makes somebody want to follow a leader? All of us want to be guided by people we respect, and to gain respect we must be ethical and fair.

Many studies show that trust and confidence in top leadership is the most important factor to employees. Communication is vital between a leader and their employees to gaining trust and confidence.

Good leadership is about mentoring, guiding, coaching and leading from behind. In doing so you give people the opportunity to develop, innovate and contribute to the success of the overall organisation.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

How much importance do you give to customer service and what do you do to achieve higher satisfaction levels? Many small business owners still fail to comprehend the importance of customer service in the growth of their companies. For them, customer satisfaction is all about delivering quality. Indeed, it is about quality, but it so also about other things.

The feelings and the experience which customers have are just as important. One happy customer can provide many referrals, generate more business for you and, eventually, pave the way for growth of your company. One sad customer can switch to your competitors, badmouth your business or encourage others not to buy from you.

Most businesses these days are not unique. Customers can purchase a product or service from many places. The only way to get customers buying from you repeatedly and spreading the word about your business is to provide exceptional customer service. Delivering consistent, accurate and positive customer service goes a long way in growing your business.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this article and we wish you every success in achieving business growth.

If you would like to guest blog for us or would like to discuss a recruitment and staffing challenge, please contact Keeley Edge on 0844 5044666 or keeley@key-appointments.co.uk

www.key-appointments.co.uk