It is recognized that the world of small business is a highly competitive one. Simply navigating through the first years of trading can be a challenge in itself as it is estimated that around 20% of start-up businesses fail in their first year of trading. There is a wide range of reasons behind these failures, but common reasons include producing a product or service that is not sufficiently in demand or cannot beat the offerings of competitor’s products. If your company has successfully passed the first few years of trading and is starting to generate meaningful streams of revenue, the next logical step is to look for ways to achieve greater levels of growth. Growth in business is a vital component of the longevity of any company and this article explains three distinct strategies that can be adopted to achieve this.
Use data-driven decision making
One way to make intelligent decisions in business that can shape the direction and growth of a start-up is to harness the power of data. A firm can look at a wide range of issues such as customer behavior and purchase trends or patterns relating to revenue streams. By using analytics software packages, this data can come from several sources and can be combined to produce insights into a range of topics. It can help to indicate which product lines are becoming the most profitable and where they may be opportunities to tap into other markets based on statistics relating to consumer behavior. Here are some of the best analytics packages that are on the market today and are suitable for a wide range of start-up firms who are seeking to achieve growth.
Customer loyalty programs
It is of paramount importance to offer your existing customer base a range of loyalty plans and programs. Companies do this to secure repeat customers from their existing clients and to reduce the likelihood of customer churn. Some examples of effective customer loyalty programs include the use of discounts on a subsequent purchase or a loyalty scheme that is points based. With a points-based customer loyalty scheme, the customer gains a certain number of points with every transaction. Over time and with repeat purchases these points accumulate until they reach a point where they can be used as currency against a further purchase.
Attend trade shows
A wide range of business-to-business start-up firms choose to attend trade shows. For example, companies such as civil engineering firms in St. Louis will go to local or regional trade shows in the field of construction and architecture. By visiting these shows or by having a stand at the venues these companies will be able to undertake valuable networking exercises with other key industry players. In the B2B industry and especially in the field of civil engineering, contracts are often highly lucrative and may take months or even years to complete. By improving the visibility of your start-up firm at such events it can be possible to get word-of-mouth referrals from other businesses or gain vital industry-specific connections that lead to success in securing new contracts for work.
