Without a growth strategy for your business, it may be difficult for employees and you to know the right direction to take your business.

Setting goals and methods to achieve these goals and working your way towards them will ultimately prove highly beneficial to your business.

Developing a growth strategy outlines to both you and your employees the way forward for your business.

As entrepreneurs and business owners, we are often inclined to just do things:

If they have a positive result great, if not, then we may begin to worry.

A growth strategy helps develop step by step processes that you can follow, ensuring you are not just doing things, but doing the right things for your business to succeed.

Developing a growth strategy takes time and patience but the rewards for your business are very high.

We will look at some ways that you can develop a growth strategy for your business and the benefits that they can provide.

What is a growth strategy?

A growth strategy is a detailed plan outlining your progress over time, this can include KPIs, income and sales targets within a specific time

period.

Each growth strategy is unique to the type of business you have. What you see as growth may not be the same as a competitor. It is up to you to know what constitutes growth for your company.

Steps to develop a growth strategy:

Though each business and its goals are different, there are several steps and strategies that all businesses can employ when generating their growth strategy.

Know your audience:

It is one thing to sell products and services to customers who know you and your products, but to grow, we must often interact with a new client base.

Your business must know its true target audience, where they are, and how to contact them?

What are they looking for in a business like yours? What are their pain points and where can you help?

When you know your audience, you can begin developing your growth strategy and what approach is best for your business.

A new line of products? Increased sales? Additional stores?

The customer is at the heart of every business, so it is essential to have as much of an understanding as possible.

Conduct market research with existing customers.

Use questionnaires, focus groups and other channels of communication to develop your ideal customer persona.

Know your competition:

Knowing your audiences is one of the fundamentals for any part of your business and growth, but you must also know your competition.

You can learn a lot about your industry and what you can offer from your competition. It will also allow you to discover what sets you apart from the competition and what you can change to be unique.

Having a unique value proposition will make you more enviable to your audience.

Conduct competitor research through their website, and social media channels and by visiting their stores.

What are they offering that you are not? Where do you see strengths and weaknesses in the competition, and what marketing channels are they using?

How can you stand out from the competition?

If you can answer some of these questions you can develop strategies that give you a competitive edge and allow for different channels of growth.

Define your goals:

You cannot create a strategy if you do not know your goals. Whether you create 10-year, 5 year or 1-year goals for your business, it’s important to define what success will look like for you.

Start from the end and this will allow you to work backwards.

You can implement the SMART system into your planning.

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Timely

How does this help?

If your business goal by year’s end is to increase online bookings by 40%, what are the incremental steps your business must take over time to achieve this?

• Publish 2 new blog posts per week to increase traffic
• Send an email per week to your email list
• Create new offers to entice customers

These smaller steps done together will work towards your ultimate goal.

They are also easier to plan, implement and measure.

With SMART planning you can delegate tasks to your workforce and you, generating accountability and an understanding of why certain tasks are undertaken.

How do you achieve your goals?

Now that you know what your broader goals are and potential ways of achieving this you must create strategies that can be followed.

If your goal is to publish two blog posts per week

• You can set schedules and deadlines for writing, revision and publication.
• Marketing teams can develop storyboards or topic areas that you will cover and appeal to your audience.
• Develop channels of sharing, email, social media, applications
• Coordinate blogs with other marketing techniques

Each activity compliments one another and ultimately leads to the publication of the blogs and greater awareness of your objectives.

If you are going to work with your email list, then you can:

• Improve the content of the emails
• Use landing pages and offers to expand your email list
• Conduct research on competitors and what they are doing.

Are there areas you can incorporate into your newsletter and emails?

Knowing even your smaller goals expands the scope of what your business can do to achieve these goals.

Use tools and software:

If you are looking to grow your business, it may be prudent to research tools and software that can assist with this growth.

Easy to use booking platforms, automated messaging, task planners, and improved communication can all lend themselves to a successful growth strategy.

If you plan to improve bookings by 40% by year’s end, a simpler online booking process may aid in converting site visitors.

Perhaps you can install an over the phone booking system. A tool which frees up staff time and allows callers to book with the push of a button.

Tools and software which automate many business processes assist in your growth strategy without any unnecessary handholding.

Though there may be an implementation and learning curve, the time saved in the long term is highly beneficial.

Test

Now that you have implemented SMART, you know your major and minor business goals and you have utilised tools and strategies to achieve these goals, it’s time to test.

Launch your short-term strategy goals over several weeks or months.

Not all methods used will work. Perhaps certain departments are lacking resources, or you have been overly optimistic with predictions.

If this is the case and you have properly evaluated each facet.

Change course to meet these objectives.

• Does your staff require training?
• Is the software used outdated?
• What have you learned from these mistakes?
• In the event you have reached your goals, can this method be optimised and used in different departments?
• Can you double down to exceed your goals?

Simplify the Process:

Measurable and actionable goals will drive your growth quicker than broad ideas and plans.

Break down the steps for each department. What are the weekly and monthly KPIs?

Set dates for achieving certain results and measure these over time to see if the combination of effects will ultimately lead you to your final goal?

By simplifying the process your employees can better manage targets and see results. With simplified and actionable tasks, you can follow the SMART system and hold team members accountable for their actions and results.

A successful growth strategy is about managing expectations and achieving goals in a measurable timeframe.

Complicated tasks and broad goals without better planning can lead to undue stress and misguided departments.

Working together:

A successful growth strategy will harmonise your business departments, improve communication and allow for better management across your business.

Identifying your broader goals, arranging methods and strategies to achieve these and modifying as you go, will all lead to success.

Planning and executing a successful growth strategy can seem daunting at times but with planning, patience and collaboration it can be achieved no matter the size of your business.

You must also be open to discussions and critical analysis as you develop and work through your growth strategy.

You can do this both in house and through the use of a professional business coach and consulting firm.

Should you have any questions regarding developing or improving your growth strategy, contact us today.