Small Business Growth Strategies (Part 1)

In today’s economy it isn’t enough to just maintain your share of the market.

Many big businesses are reassessing their financial health and exploring additional avenues to grow revenues.

There are a variety of methods to determine growth. Small businesses may take a page from their books and use these as a crucial step to assure that money isn’t left on the table. In today’s economy it isn’t enough to just maintain your share of the market. Just maintaining could lead to a lack of action, which could become lost sales and revenue.

Consider the following strategies.

Organic Growth
Look at the category your business operates in. Determine whether or not your business is on track with the benchmark growth rate of the category. If it isn’t growing at the same rate of the category, then review each product’s share and reassess your product mix.

Market Share
Measure your volume increases (or decreases) by comparing your share with that of the lead competitors. If a product is losing share, seek out the source of that loss. Sometimes, a small correction can make a product earn more revenues.

Lack of Action
Measure the lost volume if you take no action in protecting your various products/services within the category. There is a cost to inaction and you need to determine if you can stomach that.

Please consider using the above assessments as part of long-term planning. This would involve using a minimum of three years of sales and other proprietary data to effectively project growth opportunity.

Today’s marketplace is very competitive. In countless circumstances, categories are not growing and/or showing marginal growth. Many businesses are looking to steal share from a vulnerable competitor to grow. Small-business owners must consider all avenues that have the potential to yield growth.

Competition should be considered from any entity—brick and mortar or online. This should include companies that are smaller and larger than your business. Assess your business holistically, including the back-end operation where improvements could deliver more efficient ways to operate (and save money). It also means evaluating the performance of your employees. While it is always hard to be critical of performance, you must galvanize employees to step in the same direction you are heading. Nothing is guaranteed, but a well thought out plan of action does provide a road map for success in the future.

This is Part 1 of a two-part series.

Adele Lassere is a marketing/advertising consultant with 20+ years of experience, freelance writer, and author of “Elements of Buying: A How To Reference Guide on Advertising for Business Owners”; available at Amazon.com. Adele was listed as one of Black Enterprise’s 2011 Top Execs in Marketing & Advertising and Black Enterprise’s 2013 Top Women Executives in Advertising & Marketing. Contact: [email protected]