During the initial period, small business owners are focused on making their businesses survive. However, as difficult as these times are, savvy owners also know that it is important to chart the expansion of the business to boost the stability of its financial future. Transforming a small business into a large enterprise is not the easiest of tasks, and entrepreneurs need to know what strategies they can productively employ to be successful.
Focus on Retaining Customers
Every customer is an asset to be prized, and you should always go all out to retain them. You should set up your CRM system to track all your customers and keep on engaging with them so that they continue to maintain their relationship with the business. Customers who have bought your products and services need less of an effort to sell compared to new prospects. According to https://www.forbes.com, it can cost five times as much to acquire a new customer in comparison to retaining an existing one. However, it does not mean that you don’t chase new customers actively.
Try to Dominate a Niche, Recommends Gary Saitowitz
A very effective way of scaling up your business, especially when you do not want to add new products or services to your catalog or expand into new markets, is to occupy a specific niche and focus on serving it in a way that outranks the limited competition in it. By adopting this technique, you can become a large player in a small specialty rather than trying to beat stiff competition in a field that is large and popular. If you think finding a niche is difficult, all you need to do is to scrutinize a large market and identify segments whose needs are not being met by the current players simply because they are keen on chasing volumes. For your strategy to be successful, the niche you identify to focus on should have the potential for sustainable growth, says Gary Saitowitz.
Develop Franchising Opportunities
If you have managed to craft a successful business model that is yielding consistently profitable results but you do not have the deep pockets required to embark on a rapid expansion spree, franchising your business can be a good way of scaling up quickly. The requirements for franchising your business, according to https://www.entrepreneur.com, are that the business model should be scalable, easily duplicatable across locations, the product should have good demand, and the franchise model must have demonstrated profitability. To create a successful franchise, you will need to establish a foolproof method for licensing your business model, proprietary processes, and your brand name. It means that your franchisees do not need to reinvent the wheel and can take advantage of your brand’s goodwill and market recognition while enjoying handholding for marketing, promotion, and publicity on a shared-cost basis.
Conclusion
In addition to the methods described here, there are many more techniques to expand your business. However, you should not attempt to do too many things at the same time, but instead, take a hard look at both the market and your resources and decide on an appropriate growth strategy.
