In the contemporary world, people are more inclined toward startups and are preferring starting up a business instead of pursuing a 9 to 5 job for their whole life. In fact, there are almost 400 million small businesses currently operating all around the globe. However, due to many uncertainties, many businesses have to shut down. For instance, Yelp data shows that 60% of the businesses that were shut down in the pandemic won't be re-opening.
But now the question arises, at what point, do you think that businesses failed at not surviving the uncertainty of the pandemic. According to us, the answer lies simply in one line, effective implementation of growth strategies.
Strategies are the source that can make or break the future of your business irrespective of its size. Specifying the case of small businesses, strategies play a crucial role in shaping the business. Hence, effective growth strategies need to be identified and implemented to escalate the growth of the business and take your small business to the next level.
Therefore, if you are also a small business owner who wishes to expand your business by implementing some significant growth strategies, then this blog is surely for you. This blog will highlight some of the meticulously researched growth strategies that will assist small businesses to become big.
5 Strategies for SMBs to Escalate Business Growth
Richard Branson correctly quotes that, take care of your employees and they will take care of your business. Employees of any company are one of the crucial pillars defining the success of the company. Especially talking about small businesses that have a limited workforce, it is really essential for them to constantly make employees' experience with the company better. Experience can be enhanced in multiple forms given below
- Keeping employees engaged - Small businesses can enhance their employee experience by constantly keeping them engaged. This can be done by giving them desired recognition or satisfying their basic needs. This will not only make them more productive but will also contribute to retaining them for a longer period of time. This will save up the cost of turnover and enhance productivity which will also assist in increasing the overall profit of the company.
- Focusing on their professional growth - As per Forbes, 26% of the workers are planning to switch their jobs and 80% of the stated portion are quitting because of the lack of career advancement. Hence, it is really crucial for employers to constantly focus on the personal growth of their team. It will assist in retaining them as well as will make them more efficient to attain the business objectives of the company. Multiple upskilling sessions and courses can be introduced to upskill the employees for the growth of the company.
- Enhancing the wellness programs - Employees often come across various mental or physical issues that can assist in impacting their productivity and motivation to give their all to the growth of the company. Hence, it is really crucial for SMBs to constantly work on enhancing the employee wellness program. This can be done by organizing various mental health sessions or health checkup camps that can assist in maintaining the mental and physical wellness of employees. This can further assist in increasing the productivity of the employees and motivating them to contribute to the growth of the company.
In the world of digitalization today, the online presence of your business can really contribute to the growth of the company. It can assist in reaching the audience even at the global level and for small businesses, it can give them huge platforms to pitch their product to the right target audience. Online presence is not only about social media but it also includes the Google ranking. Hence, all the categories of digital marketing need to be considered effectively that can contribute to the growth of the company.
Probing further, given below are some of the effective strategies that can assist in enhancing the online presence of small businesses.
- Start blogging - Publishing high-quality blogs is one of the most creative and effective ways to rank your business on the Search Engine Results Page(SERP). To elaborate, if your audience is engaging with your content by commenting and sharing, it implies that your website is satisfying Google algorithms. Moreover, satisfied google algorithms can assist in ranking your website higher in the SERP.
- Utilize short videos - Every digital platform is now introducing its own version of short videos such as Reels, Youtube Shorts, etc. The main reason is that videos are engaging the audience at a higher rate than any other form of content. Hence, small businesses should also hop on the trend of creating short videos with engaging content to attract, engage and retain their target audience.
- Enhance Email Marketing - With the shortage of monetary resources, small businesses often look for effective ways to get the most ROI with minimal investment. That being the case, email marketing can be a perfect way to directly reach your target audience through various formats of newsletters or games. Moreover, email marketing has one of the highest ROI of all the online platforms. To validate, according to HubSpot, every dollar spent on email marketing can have an ROI of $42.
Small businesses often have limited resources which hinders them to perform every task themselves and with the most efficiency. That is where the role of outsourcing comes into the light and it can help in increasing the efficiency of the company. To define, outsourcing refers to hiring a third party to perform certain required tasks in a company.
Probing further, mentioned below are multiple reasons that many companies prefer to outsource the service rather than hiring full-time employees to perform the required tasks.
- Cost reduction- Hiring full-time employees can cost small businesses higher than outsourcing the service when required. It can save the company money on extra labor costs and the cost of utilities.
- Upscaling of business - Outsourcing can increase the efficiency of the company's product or service without affecting the overall revenue and quality of the product. This can further assist in attracting more customers and increasing the market share of the company which can make small businesses more profitable and scalable in the long run.
- Get work done from experts - No small business knows everything about their field. However, outsourcing services and tasks can assist small businesses to get their task done by experts on a seasonal basis without bearing their full-time labor costs. This can also increase the overall quality of the product or service along with increasing efficiency.
Diversification in the business can be of two types. First, you can introduce new products in the same market and can expand the business. Another form is when you introduce new products in a completely new market which can magnify your consumer base. Business Diversification of both types can assist in increasing the overall profits and revenue of the company.
Below mentioned are some of the benefits for small businesses of diversifying their business.
- Minimize the risk of loss - If you are a small business, you might not be able to bear losses if any product or business did not do well. Hence, by diversifying, you can decrease the risk of losing all your finances by investing in multiple businesses or products and not putting all your eggs in one basket.
- More revenue - When a company has more products in the existing or new market, it can assist in increasing the consumer base. This can further assist in making more sales which implies more profit for the company.
Market segmentation can be one of the most effective growth strategies for businesses because it can assist in segmenting the market and specifically identifying your main target audience. It can assist in understanding the behavior and needs of the consumers which can assist in increasing the efficiency of the business. Understanding various segments of the market can assist in strategically designing market campaigns.
Talking about small businesses, market segmentation can be one of the most powerful growth strategies because it can assist in identifying and targeting potential customers rather than pitching to all the masses. Along with this, segmenting the market on the basis of demography, psychography, behavior, and geography can benefit small businesses in many ways. A few of them are highlighted below:
- Improves performance - Identifying the main target audience and creating products and services according to their needs can assist in improving the overall performance and efficiency of the business.
- Enhances decision making - Segmenting the target audience will give you a clear idea of your customers. This can further assist small businesses in enhancing the decision-making process regarding various matters such as pricing and packaging.
- Expansion in new markets - Subdividing the audience will assist in identifying the key area where your business has not tapped yet. This can assist in expanding your business in the new market area.
To encapsulate, identifying the key strategies and implying them can assist small businesses in expanding their customer base. Furthermore, it can assist in enhancing the overall revenue of the company. Moreover, the above-given strategies can effectively assist your small business by removing the word small from your business and adding the word big in front of it.