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How to Grow Your Small Business
For a year and a half my hubby called blogging my hobby rather than my business. He had a point, it was taking money (his) rather than making money. Now that I’m making money, even he is starting to consider this a small business. It must be a relief to him that I can at least cover my own expenses now.
The truth is, without my husband’s financial backing, my small blogging business wouldn’t exist.
Great advice for small business owners in the contributed post below.
The Three Things Every Small Biz Needs If It Is to Grow
Small businesses are precarious things. One day they can garner enough profit to see their expenses paid for for a week, the next they could make absolutely no profit at all.
One moment everything could seem on the up in regards to them, one bad business move later they could be floundering or even on the verge of closure. Yes, small businesses and startups always have sat and always will sit dangerously on the edge of success and failure.
But, you can give your small biz the very best chance of growing, maybe even growing into a renowned market leader, by providing it with everything it needs to do so. Three of these things can be found if you just read on.
1. Financial backing
Every business, no matter its size, needs to be backed financially. But small businesses, if they are to grow and make it past their startup status, need to be financed more than most.
They need to be financially backed simply because they have not yet made the money through profits that are needed to give them a steady footing in their market.
What’s more, they have not yet got the reputation or capital to ask for favors or to be able to indulge in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending.
So, your small business needs to find financial backing, and it needs to find it fast.
Options to take in regards to this include:
- taking out business loans online, which will allow you to circumvent the tighter lending regulations enforced by banks today
- finding an investor in your market, which will allow you the chance to sacrifice a share in your business in exchange for a cash injection that will not have to be paid back; and
- dipping into your own savings, which will allow you to be financed without having to pay any cash back or sign anything over to an external force as a result.
2. Timing
Timing is everything in the world of business, and your small business is going to need it.
- It’s going to need timing in regards to knowing what works and how long it works in relation to its market.
- It’s going to need timing in regards to knowing the lifecycle of its market and its produce.
- It’s going to need timing in regards to knowing when and when not to outsource a task.
- And it’s going to need timing in regards to understanding the importance of tapping into new ventures and, even more importantly, when to tap into them.
Yes, timing is everything in business, and your small biz needs it in bucket loads.
3. A strategy
Similarly, your small business needs to be strategic with everything it does and needs to have a strong strategy to work from if it is to grow into the big business it can be.
If it doesn’t, simply, it will neither be able to do the work it needs to do in order to grow or be seen as a genuine, bonafide business in its market, something that will ultimately hold it back from growing.
When it comes to choosing what strategy to adopt primarily with your business, make sure to consider the one known as the ‘fast follower’.
What this strategy entails is you identifying a current customer interest that is already on the up and burgeoning, and then tapping into this interest yourself.
Yes, we’d all like to come up with our own ideas, but sometimes, at first, it’s better to hang on to the coat strings of others!
Ooh… I absolutely love the “fast follower” approach in idea 3.
Right now, small business owners in Cape Town (my home town) are working out how they can help out the community while also capitalizing on the terrible drought we’re experiencing.
Sales of wellpoints and boreholes have gone up astronomically. As drastically as sales of swimming pools have gone down. There’s an explosion of related industries – water testing and purifying, water filters, desalination, bottled water, dry loos, composting toilets, etc.
As a blogger I know I should be considering doing something or saying something too.
- Maybe I should start a movement of some sort? I’ve joined communities (like Smile Water Warriors) but I haven’t started one.
- Perhaps I could research all water service providers mentioned above and publish a directory that allows for reviews?
If you have any brilliant ideas for me, let me know. How can my business make a difference?