As a business owner you should always be looking for ways to grow your business.
Why? Without growth your business is at risk of being over taken by your competitors, your staff will start to run out of challenges to keep them motivated, your profits will decline as costs increase, your business will not grow in value and most importantly, you will not be achieving your business potential.
As a professional business coach I follow a 5 step system for achieving growth in the businesses of my clients:
Increase the number of customers that come into your business.
Increase the number of times each customer buys from you.
Increase the amount each customer spends each time they buy from you.
Increase the profit margins on the products and services your customers buy from you.
Build a high performance business model by increasing the effectiveness of every business process to reduce waste and reduce the need for you to be there 24/7.
I have found time and again that if you are able to make small improvements in each of these 5 profit drivers in your business, you will drive massive growth in your bottom line profit and in your business value.
In my business coaching module on this 5 step system I outline 25 ideas you can use today to grow your business:
Develop one or more unique core differentiators to make your business stand out from the crowd
Use the power of the telephone to maximize the value of every customer contact
Systemize your sales process to maximize conversion rates
Use market research to make sure you actually understand your market and your customers
Plan your promotion activities rather than leaving things to the last minute and wasting money
Classify your customers and tailor your sales and marketing strategies to each segment
Find ways to ask you customers to return - sounds easy doesn't it, but do you do it now?
Provide awesome service - always!
Finds ways to nurture your customers and make them feel special
Get customer feedback and use it to improve your service levels
Cross sell from your product range
Upsell products and services once your customer has committed to a purchase
Bundle products and services to create a higher perceived value
Use the smartest merchandising techniques you can find
Never, never, never discount your prices - did I make myself clear there?
Identify your low margin customers and send them packing - preferably send them to your competitors!
Constantly look for waste and inefficiency in your business and find ways to remove or reduce it
Develop a vision for your business and plan to achieve it
Understand the Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats in your business and use this knowledge to build a better business model
Find the time to work on your business rather than getting stuck inside the business every day
Systemize all of your business processes to drive efficiency and leverage your team
Build an effective team
Embrace change
Use the power of synergy to apply all of these business improvement ideas at the same time to turbo charge your business growth
Find a business coach or mentor to keep you committed to a business improvement plan
I hope you can look at this list of 25 ideas and see that none of them are impossible to apply in your business.