Growth is a core objective for any business owner, yet only about a third of small businesses make it past the first 10 years, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Just getting a business off the ground requires a Herculean effort. Growing it further demands a clear set of long-term business goals that are facilitated through low-cost, high-yield expansion efforts.
A core reason business owners struggle to expand their operations is that they don't always know where to look for methods that cost-effectively grow their customer base while scaling up the output of their products and services. Many factors certainly have to be considered: Marketing capabilities; the bandwidth of your current sales funnel; the size, knowledge, and expertise of your staff; your ability to find new potential customers; your technological resources and so on.
But while the specific growth mechanisms for every business will depend on the industry it's in and the nature of its customers, there are several common-sense steps that can substantially improve any business's expansion efforts.
For example, a well-conceptualized social media strategy is a cheap and effective way to engage new and existing customers. Email marketing lets you segment your potential customers based on their location, demographics and even more crucially, their interests. This is to say nothing of the power of building brand loyalty and relying on returning customers as a steady, recurring source of revenue.
Simply put, there are low-cost strategies to grow your business at every corner. It's just a matter of knowing them when you see them and understanding how they can facilitate new opportunities.
