How to grow a small business in the current economic crisis

How to grow a small business

We offer innovative solutions in order to help you reach your objectives within all levels of your business!

Step 1: Gain more market shares

Growing a business requires money. You have multiple ways to grow.
Here are the three most common way:

1) By acquiring your competitor (and their customers).
2) By providing much better product and service quality for the same price.
3) By organic growth through strong customer referral.

Step 2: Create more time to focus on new revenue opportunities

Small businesses are often tied to their administrative and operation routine therefore invest little time in finding ways to improve their sales figures. Here are three time consuming tasks which can be automated:

1) Taking orders – By letting your customers do it online, at any time of the day using a website.
2) Data entry of sales orders, inventory deliviery, invoicing and payments into your accounting system – By using an ERP.
3) Follow-up on delivered goods, rate the customer’s satisfaction and propose related items/ services they might enjoy through automated emails – By using an email automation software that’s part of your ERP.

Step 3: Streamline your operations

Managing a small business can often become chaotic without a clear definition of your process. This is why documenting your processes and communicating them to your employees do not interrupt you too often. This is often the case when issues arise, such as when your customer asks for a discount, request a refund or a replacement. There are three areas which you should spend time documenting:

1) Your sales terms and conditions, including delivery, refunds, replacements, warranties and responsibility.
2) Your purchase terms and conditions, to prevent quality, price, quantity and delay issues relating to your suppliers.
3) Your vision for the company, each employee and their expected behaviour at your office.

Step 4: Find ways to profile your customers in order to upsell your goods and services

It is a well known fact that selling to an existing satisfied customer is much easier than acquiring a new one. This is why looking for ways to upsell to your existing customers is not only a great wy to grow but also a safe, cheaper option too. It is said that 50% of your time should be devoted to upselling to existing customers and the remaining on finding new ones.

Step 5: Keeping track of the business figures

A small business cannot afford to have employees, vendors and partners that do not meet their vision. This is why every second of every working hour should be focussed on encouraging your team, providing them assistance when need be. It is often very difficult to have a clear vision of all your activities. It is also difficult to see how your marketing’s results affect your sales pipeline and your inventory. All of these factors play an important role on your cash.

Here are five performance indicators worth tracking:

1) Number of people called this week v/s last week
2) Number of estimates created v/s last week
3) Number of sales orders taken v/s last week
4) Number of sales orders pending delivery
5) Number of invoices pending payment