If you are ready to take your business to the next level, it is important that you plan the process. First of all, you don’t want to upset your existing customers. Second, you will soon find yourself extremely busy, and this means that you will need to start managing your time and resources better. Pay attention to your marketing and branding, and make sure that you take advantage of free advice and business coaching, so you can turn your business around without any holdups and roadblocks.
Rebrand
When you are scaling up your business, it is important that you are aware of the challenges, and the fact that you will start attracting a different type of customer. You should start rebranding your company as soon as possible and invest in your market research. Entering a new market is not a simple decision; you need to familiarize yourself with the existing players in your market and understand your ideal clients and their needs. To find the gap in an existing market, you need to know what is missing from your competitors’ offers.
Automate Your Social Media
If there is one thing that will suffer while you are creating a growth strategy for your business, it is your social media. There are plenty of great tools that will take care of delivering your messages, but this will not replace real connections. You might want to engage with a full-service social media sales funnel agency that will introduce your new brand and communicate with your existing and new customers while you are focusing on making the new business model work.
Get a New Website
Many business owners will also decide to get a new website when they scale up their company. You might want a more serious image, and that means that you will have to create a brand kit that is more suited to the taste and preferences of your new market and the services you offer. No matter if you have a completely new business model, or you are targeting clients with a larger budget, your website will need to reflect that. To get the most conversions out of your marketing, your website will need to be able to generate trust.
Retarget
Retargeting campaigns can be complicated, and you might need a branding expert to help you get started with the process. Just imagine that you raise your prices or reduce them. Your ideal client pool will change, and your marketing messages will need to change with them. What used to be an advantage as a small company might be a disadvantage now, and you will need to get rid of the things that no longer reflect what your company is about.
Build Your Personal Brand
You might think that it might be time to take a step back from showing off your expertise when you grow your business. While this is true generally, and eventually you would like to do less and less, you will still need to invest in your personal brand. The owner of a 300 million turnover company (if that is what you are aiming for) doesn’t drive an old banger. You might want to step up your game and consider taking out a Car Loan so your personal brand reflects your corporate image. Unfortunately, many people still judge you by the clothes you wear and the car you drive, so how you turn up at business meetings will have an influence on your success.
Simplify Your Processes
One of the simplest ways of improving your earning potential is by simplifying your processes and getting rid of the activities that are repeated or unnecessary. No matter which industry you operate in, you might want to familiarize yourself with Lean organizational management, which will give you some amazing tools to optimize your operations, reduce waste, and make your processes more efficient. If every cog of the machine works in sync, you will be able to deliver more value with less effort.
Hire The Right People
Of course, you cannot grow your business without increasing your capacity and your speed of production. This is why you will have to think about increasing your output and hiring qualified people who can help you scale up your business. Choose your future leaders and your production team, so you can focus on the big picture and get rid of the tasks you no longer want to do or those that take up most of your time. Hiring for attitude instead of just looking through a CV might be the best way of finding your next managers who share your work ethics and values.
Continuity Planning
Sooner or later, there will be a time when you simply wish your business ran itself smoothly. That is why you will have to ensure that you have adequate measures in place to keep your operations smooth, even if problems occur. Be prepared for the growing pains in your business, and have a plan to address them. Focus on health and safety, disaster recovery, and backup plans, and you will be able to manage your growth without any major issues or compliance breaches.
Reputation Management
As a larger business, you will have to pay more attention to your reputation, too. Make sure that you check all your online reviews on your sites and external websites, too. Create a customer satisfaction survey, so you can identify development areas and address the issues before they escalate. Maintaining a positive relationship with your employees can also prevent legal issues. If you don’t plan on having your own human resources department, you can outsource this field to ensure you are complying with the latest employment regulations.
Financial Planning
There are many things that can jeopardize your growth, and financial difficulties are among them. If you end up overspending, you might not be able to follow through with your plans and will have to make compromises when it comes to quality or technology. Sit down with a business financial advisor and look through your long term business plan, so you can identify the risks and ensure that you are able to maintain growth and invest money without having to fall behind regular payments.
New Vision and Mission Statement
Once you know what you would like to achieve in your business and how fast you would like to grow, it might be time to create a new mission and vision statement. Without being clear about where you are going and what you would like to achieve, you will never be able to make a detailed roadmap for your business growth. Ensure that your statement considers the views and values of your workforce, your business partners, and your potential customers, as well. This will give you a clear direction.
Business Plan
You should never start restructuring or scaling up your business without a detailed business plan. If you have a previous one, check whether it is still relevant, and change what needs to be changed. In the first few years of business, you might have learned some important lessons that you would like to implement in your next business plan. Create a 5-year plan, and break it down to quarterly goals and targets, so you can follow the path and check in regularly, making sure that you are going the right direction.
Seeking Collaborations
When you grow your business, you should not ignore the potential benefits of teaming up with other companies or organizations. Seek collaboration opportunities, when it comes to finding the right suppliers, reaching new markets, or setting up cross-promotions. Find industries that might have the same target market, but are not competing for your business, and propose strategic partnerships that will take you to the next level in business.
Time Management
If you want to be more efficient and professional in your business, you might also want to improve your time management within the company. Find a way to measure your own productivity, and set clear guidelines or targets for your employees. If you are operating in the digital world, your main challenge might be to get rid of distractions online. Time tracking tools, such as the Pomodoro widget will help you and your employees make the most out of the working day.
Efficiency Tools
Technological improvements are essential for business growth. You will have to map all your processes and identify the areas where you can benefit from the use of efficiency tools. Find the bottlenecks in your business, and eliminate them. For example, if your employees need to wait around for deliveries or parts, you might want to have a closer look at your supply chain. If, however, you are dealing with quality assurance issues, you will need to prevent waste by moving your spot checks to an earlier stage of your process map.
Building a business might have been the hardest thing you had to do. Scaling it up will be equally challenging, and it all starts with a change of your mindset.
