Technology is evolving and this brings a multitude of fantastic opportunities to build your brand and portfolio of clients.

Implementing new ways to market your business can be daunting and scary without the right help.

Growing your business is just like caring for a plant. You need the right soil for your business to take root in, and the right amount of water and sunlight to encourage and nurture growth. You want it to be steady and sustainable so your business not only grows, but thrives.

Here are some strategies that can help break through some of the common barriers to growth that many small businesses experience:

1.    Watch your KPI’s for Growth

Before you embark on any growth strategy, step back and take a look for some key business key performance indicators to help you decide whether you are actually ready for growth. Study your best strategic objectives, Study your conversion rates, and market trends in dashboard form on a regularly basis.

2.    Study your competition

You should be knowledgeable of where you stand against your competition. Elaborate a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis that can help you determine how you compare your products/or services to your competitors and identify areas of opportunity to enhance or exploit your strengths and their weaknesses. This quantitative analysis will give you a good view of any threats to your growth and help you develop your plan and fix any problems might arise. Then, you should conduct a market analysis to find out how your customers view your business. You will also want to identify customers view your competition and what factors would make them buy from you. Look for ways to differentiate your business.

3.    Assess your Business Risk

As a business owner you must always anticipate and manage risk. Look ahead and try to predict variables that could occur that might damage your business growth plans. These could be inventory issues, hiring and training problems, competition, cash flow, or money collections. It’s also worth looking at your sales forecasts and budget. Work through the numbers with your advisor before your business moves to the next phase.

4.    Set Goals

Having clearly defined goals from the start will help your business stay on track as it grows. Your strategic plans for growth should be SMART:

• Specific and Clear
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant and Recorded
• Time-Bound

“Your strategic plan must also contains your market findings and helps inform where you are and where you want to be”.

5.    Craft your business Plan

You need a realistic plan with clear strategies for growth and specific ways to achieve your goals. Have also a backup plan in case things don’t go as expected. You’ll also need enough funds to cover the costs of growth and make sure your business stays afloat.

6.    Build your Team

As your business grows, you’ll find it difficult to be across every small detail. You’ll need to delegate more, and that’s where employees come in. They’ll take over some of the day-to-day tasks in your business so you can focus on the more important work of growing it.

“You probably won’t experience growth right away. Don’t get discouraged. If you keep at it and put in the hard work, you’ll see progress and reap the rewards.”