Growth can occur at different points, such as when a business generates more revenue, increases its customer base or produces new products. To sustain business growth and overall success, every company has to make certain strategic decisions that can help cope with unpredictable changes in customer loyalty and market conditions.
What is a Business Growth Strategy?
A growth strategy is the approach or practices you adopt to expand your business. Generally, industry and target market considerations help determine the right growth strategies for business owners. Depending on your type of company, you can develop a growth strategy with components such as:
- Expanding to new locations
- Acquiring new customers
- Franchising
- Expanding product lines
- Multiplatform sales
Regardless of the industry or target market, new customer acquisition plays a massive role in accelerating growth for most start-ups.
4 Time-Tested Steps to Grow Your Company
Whether you’re looking to grow your revenue or customer base in the county, here’s a look at 4 key steps to incorporate into your overall strategy.
Step 1: Determine What You Want to Grow
Your business plan should specify its intended areas of growth. There are various possibilities, such as adding new business locations, increasing revenue or profit, or creating new products/services.
Step 2: Market and Industry Research
Researching your industry and target market allows you to ascertain the feasibility of and justify your growth objectives. For this, consider conducting surveys involving existing customers and prospects. Also, study existing industry data. Your findings will shape your growth goals and expectations and help establish accurate timelines and budgets for your project.
Step 3: Set Realistic, Quantifiable Growth Goals
Use your industry and consumer research findings to specify your growth goals. For example, you can state, “to increase revenue by 25% quarter-over-quarter for the next three years.”
Step 4: Create Your Action Plan
To bring your team on board and streamline implementation, create and share a detailed growth strategy plan. The document should specify all project deliverables, actions, timelines and required resources like software, technology, services, and teams.
Viable Growth Strategies for Santa Barbara County Start-ups
If you have a new business in Santa Barbara County, you can try any of these strategies to grow it:
- Viral loops: This potentially self-sustainable approach starts with one satisfied user offered an incentive to share your new product with others. As each subsequent incentivized user does the same, your customer base and sales increase.
- Milestone referrals: This is similar to viral loops, only that users are offered an incentive after achieving a specific milestone, such as a certain number of referrals.
- Differentiating: With this approach, you conquer a new market by being different. For example, a subscription-based streaming service can differentiate itself from others by offering better or discounted ad-free experiences.
- World-of-mouth (WoM): You need social proof and a good brand reputation to grow your business by WoM.
Other viable strategies include:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Acquiring other established companies
- Increasing your social media exposure
The Secret to Growing Your Small Business
Operating environments and consumer preferences are constantly changing everywhere. This 4-step guide helps identify why small businesses often need sustainable revenue/customer growth plans to succeed. To explore more viable growth strategies for Santa Barbara County start-ups, contact us now at Economic Development Collaborative.
