Entrepreneurship is beautiful because of the diversity of opinions, motivations, and styles of execution.
And all entrepreneurs quantify success in many different ways.
You may have started a business for a number of reasons including freedom, passion, status, self-realization, and of course to make money.
Often times, these reasons go in tandem with each other.
So how to make your small business more successful?
There’s no shortcut secret to this.
And if anyone tells you that this one thing alone will make your business successful…
Chances are they are WRONG.
However, over the course of my time helping businesses grow, I’ve picked up a few things here and there.
And these things, with the right focus and mindset, do indeed help your business grow.
You don’t have to take my word for it.
You can see the list of small and large businesses we’ve helped grow.
Now if you’re convinced that you have a business that will be successful. Continue reading to find out ways you can help it along the way.
1. Focus on Customer Acquisition to Make a Business Successful
Many people tend to focus on making things right. Or setting up the processes. Accounting. Finance. Operations.
But at the end of the day, one activity trumps all on the road to building a successful business.
That activity is SALES.
Focus on sales as this alone is an important part of hacking your growth to success.
2. Focus on Customer Service to Scale a Small Business
It goes without saying.
You want to acquire customers and then you want to keep these customers happy.
Happy customers mean repeat business and repeat business is only second to new business when it comes to growth.
One simply can not ignore customer service as it is the single most important factor in retaining customers.
3. Build Word of Mouth for Your Business
Imagine going back to the last Canada day BBQ you went to.
Now imagine the people that were there. I bet if you think about it, you can probably identify at least a few of them who own businesses. Or work at a company. Or have friends who own businesses. These people can be your number #1 sales team.
They just don’t know it yet. But at some point in the future, someone they know will be looking for a product or service your business provides. Make sure these people know about you and reap the rewards of free clients for the rest of your life.
Buzz marketing campaigns can be a powerful way to promote your business, as it relies on the recommendations and experiences of satisfied customers to attract new business.
4. Expand Your Marketing Efforts
Marketing is the leading revenue growth generator at 37.5% of companies surveyed.
You can find the results here in a report by Deloitte and the Wall Street Journal.
In simpler words, most companies report that their marketing efforts are the biggest reason for their growth.
If you are not actively marketing yourself, or not investing in eCommerce digital marketing services then you are literally leaving money on the table.
5. Build Your Online Presence
It’s the 21st century and your first impression is almost always your website. You can scale your Shopify sales by being proactive in maintaining your website’s performance.
Followed by your social media channels, your blog posts, your YouTube videos.
All of these factors contribute to your business’s reputation as an authority in your industry.
It is essential to first realize this. And secondly, do something about it!
6. Cut Your Business Costs
You don’t say! ????
Look. There’s really only 2 ways to grow your business in profitability.
Increase your revenue. Or decrease your costs.
I like to do an exercise every 3 months where I look back at all my costs and really assess where I could have saved money or eliminated an expenditure.
I guarantee you that if you do try this exercise, you are likely to find many areas where, with a bit of thinking and planning, you could have avoided costs.
7. Welcome Changes in Your Current Situation and Update Your Plans
Business is not a straight road.
Along the way, there are potholes, mountains, hills, steep declines, and natural disasters.
The key to keeping ahead of these issues is to plan, execute, update plans, execute updates plans, and so on.
When things change, it’s important to adapt.
And adaptation starts at the grassroots levels.
Change your plans as and when needed.
Heck.. look at your plans every few months and then create a more current picture of where you stand.
And then change your plans accordingly.
This is the holy grail of sustainable growth in businesses today.
8. Stronger Together
No, I am not saying you’re an Ape.
You are in a sea of small businesses. And let’s just say that each small business is an Ape.
And for the sake of visualization, each large corporation is a human being.
If you’ve watched the planet of the apes, you would have remembered this scene.
Apes heavily outnumbered the humans, but could never get an advantage over them.
UNTIL… one of the Apes convinced all apes to work together.
At that point, humans had their work cut out for them.
So what I am trying to say is to realize the value of a small business community.
And contribute to it to build a stronger community for all the other businesses around you.
Referrals, focus groups, and masterminds are only some of the things you can do to help yourself and other small businesses succeed.
To conclude, success is not built overnight. With the right mindset, attitude, work ethic, and smart implementations, you can make it look like an overnight success in the future.
Keep Calm and Carry on Improving!
Liked what you read?
Orion helps small businesses achieve exponential growth through digital marketing services.
We use a proven, battle-tested system to predictably generate high-quality leads and keep your sales pipeline full with wallet-out, ready-to-buy customers.
If you’re interested to see how we can do the same for your business, sign up for a FREE strategy call. It’s 30 minutes with no obligations and we will show you exactly how our system can help your business grow!
