Small Business Growth Strategies

Entrepreneurs need a lot more than just passion and zeal to make sure their businesses (their babies) grow. It needs determination and smart actions. Here, we are going to explore strategies that can take your "little baby all the way to college".

Like the 7 deadly sins, there are seven deadly business growth strategies that can work like "growth serum" for your business:

• Penetration Pricing: In this strategy you keep your pricing as low as possible (lowest in the market) so that your product/service becomes the obvious choice for the buyer.
• Price Skimming: In case of certain luxury products and niche services, a certain level of pricing (high) needs to be maintained to keep a client filter and stipulate a market for yourself.
• Mass production/Increase outlets: Increasing outlets can help your organization to gain from economies of scale. This means, if you offer more, your cost per unit will be less; hence, more profit.
• Leverage of Tie-up/Alliance: Tie-ups or mutual understandings with other organizations with related production/services can really help in building and developing more business for both the entities. Like a bakery could tie-up with a restaurant. This would bring better sales for the bakery and reduction in cake production cost for the restaurant.
• Generate new Value propositions: Identify new segments that are developing speedily and reach out to them. This way the market will be captured by you before it reaches its peak itself. You place your product or service in the "psyche" of the client. More goodwill and trust factor!
• Internal Efficiency: Keep the in house costs and overheads as low as possible. Don't get me wrong, pay your employees adequately, but maintain the other per-head expenses on the lower side of the graph. More so, make sure that all the available resources are completely tapped. Each resource should be utilized optimally and with efficiency.
• Location of production facilities: In case of product- oriented organizations, make sure that the production happens closer to the source of the low-cost raw material etc. This can help in keeping the transportation cost at a negligible level and, again, keep the cost as low as possible. This can lead to better profit margins.

There are many other strategies that you could try:

• Loyalty programs: You can offer discounts or free bees to your existing clients. You could also give them a commission if they refer you to their contacts and it leads to a sale.
• Staff motivation: Keep your staff as motivated as possible so that they work to the maximum capacity. Performance incentives and a comfortable work atmosphere can have tremendous positive impact on the profitability of any organization. Like, give personalized company t-shirts (with the logo) to all your employees. Brand ambassador-hood at its best!
• Innovation: Innovate new uses for your product or services. This will multiply your market and target clientèle. It can also really add value to your sales pitch.
• Show off: Participate in exhibitions and trade shows. It will involve some investment, but the returns on the investment will be worth it. More so, your organization's visibility will also be enhanced leading to improved market presence. you can also promote your product with bigger brands and increase visibility.

Like I have already said, a small business has no other option but to grow. One does not need immense and huge capitals for that. Just some knowledge, some out of the box thinking and a little daring. Making calculated risks is the way of business.