Your business is like a plant, where the only healthy way forward is to grow. Entrepreneurial growth focuses on that early seed stage where you’re still always reaching for more sunlight and struggling to break free of the soil and leaf out above the competition.
6 entrepreneurial and business growth strategy examples
The delicate details of a business growth strategy can vary greatly depending on industries, products, opportunities, costs, and the current market outlook. That said, there are plenty of proven plans and techniques that define successful strategies for entrepreneurial growth. We’re highlighting a few of our favorites to help you start thinking about how to take your passion to the next level.
1. Add locations
Most businesses can sell more if they’re selling in more places. If your existing customers are hungry, it’s time to make it easier for people to find you. In today’s world, this takes on two flavors:
- If you have physical locations, open another one — whether you run it or adopt a franchise model. This expands your presence in new markets and grows your word-of-mouth advertising. Multiple locations can also make your company more resilient. If you’ve worked in the restaurant industry, you know that fires happen. A brand with two locations doesn’t lose all of its revenue-generating capabilities if disaster strikes and a site goes up in smoke.
- For those digital-only companies (or if your brick-and-mortar operations can support online sales), try expanding into new channels. Instead of just your website, looking into Amazon and eBay. Social selling is now simpler with tools from Facebook and Instagram, where customers can get right to your checkout cart with minimal fuss.
2. Expand service tiers
Head on over to your favorite software or service provider’s pricing page — we recommend this one right here. If they’re a significant player in the space, they’ll almost always give you a series of options to choose from based on your need and service level. Having multiple tiers allows service providers like Zight (formerly CloudApp) to reach a broader set of customers.
3. Diversify your products
If you’re a product company, you can take the same approach as service providers and their tiers by adding more levels or options for your products. This can be expanding your sizes and color options or branching out into related products. Look at your competition to see if they have an additional item that might be pulling away customers — or inversely you could find a gap that no one has covered.
4. Ask customers about their needs
When it comes to expanding your products, service tiers, or even elements like customer service , your existing mailing list is your best tool. Use it to simply and quickly ask your customers directly what they need or what they would like from you. Study their experience.
5. Laser-focus on retention
Right now, more than 27 million Americans are starting or running a new business, and they’re picking up more than $72.3 billion in investments from VCs. If this is a revenue stream you want to target, you need a dedicated customer base.
6. Build a trusted team
Your business growth strategy and success always hinge on your people. Give yourself the best opportunities for smart growth by hiring high-quality people and delegating appropriately. It’s some of the best entrepreneurial growth advice we’ve ever read.
What are your favorite strategies for entrepreneurial growth?
Always ask questions of your audience, even if you think you know the answer. Sometimes, it pays even if they are only going to think about your question and not give you a response right away.