admin To grow and transform is the ultimate goal of every business, be it a small-scale business or a large-scale industry, all are striving towards growth. For scalable and profitable growth, a business needs the right resources. There are a lot of factors that affect the breakthrough of a business, some of them are discussed below:
Customer Influx and Retention
If we had to choose one word that signifies the most important factor for business growth, it’s a customer. Customer is what makes a business a business. Without customers there are no sales. Harvey Mackay said it best: No business can stay in business without customers. So, the first component in building a successful business is to know clearly who is the right customer. The right customer is the one who can afford your services and products and also has the need and willingness to pay for the products and services that a company has to offer. Everyone cannot be your customer, so identifying your customers is important.
There are two things: getting new customers and retaining existing ones. The strategies that one can apply for these are vastly different, but the core is the same: customer satisfaction.
To get new customers, the best approach is through marketing and brand awareness. Get the word out. Provide existing customer testimonials, offer exciting deals and incentives to new customers, and even partner with businesses that complement yours.
Retaining existing ones is an equally challenging task but it is, at the same time, worth it. Keep your existing customer base happy with new deals, setting up a loyalty program, and add-on sales.
Social Responsibility
A sustainable business is one that sustains the environment. Businesses that are socially responsible are always more attractive. They get support from the government. At the same time, customers feel more pleased when the brand that they like is socially responsible. When your business adopts policies of social responsibility, you’re affecting your community – and therefore your customers – in a positive way. For example, if you are a fast-food business, then humane treatment of animals will always get you unequivocal support from all the stakeholders when compared to your competitors who are not taking such measures.
These practices may seem costly now, but they will gain you profits over time. For instance, eco-friendly practices can be turned into an opportunity for business growth by offering products and services that promote it as part of your brand image. A good example is the ATM machine. Nowadays, banks do not print out paper receipts after any transaction, thus saving paper.
Marketing
If customers are needed to keep your business going, then marketing is the medium through which your customers will come to know about your business. An aggressive marketing strategy is the key to spread brand awareness and reach out to a vast pool of customers. In the current world of internet and connectivity, marketing seems both easy and difficult. Easy, because of the availability of online tools like Instagram and Facebook which can reach out to masses that were previously, essentially, hidden. Difficult, because, well, how does one start? It is no doubt a gargantuan task. Also, it is something that needs to evolve. It cannot remain a static process. We see companies roll out new TV ads frequently, oftentimes involving recent events. For example, Tide has just released an ad featuring actors from the latest Dr. Strange movie produced by Marvel. Marketing is important, but blindly following Viral marketing hacks or just replicating stuff you see others do is a mindset that can cost you to bleed a lot of money. You need to check strategies that work specifically for your business especially in the field of marketing.
Pillars of The Business
A team is a reflection of how a business owner leads them and treats them. One of the essential factors for running a successful business is getting work done without one person doing all the work. A leader definitely leads from the front, but training and mentoring your team members to work on the company systems will create pillars that will be the building blocks of a successful business. The team and the business should have a common goal and vision towards which they are working, a purposeful team results in the best productivity. Delegating tasks can get really overwhelming but this is one of the most important factors for the breakthrough of any business. The reason behind the growth of a business is its people. A quote by Ratan Tata describes it well, “if you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together”.
Strong Systems
A tried and tested business model that can be followed by the owner and his team members is a must for the company to grow. The team can be trained and mentored to follow systems so that the expansion of the business becomes easier, if the business systems are vague and not automated it becomes difficult to delegate and assess the performance of team members. A business is a fruitful business if it is following the correct business model and systems. One of the major factors affecting the growth of a business is the training of employees to follow systems and not follow instructions. Once they get the hang of the system, they are ready to recruit, retain, train, and mentor new employees for the company.
Thus, out of the many factors that affect a business’ growth, these discussed above have the highest ranking in the list of factors that affect business growth.
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