Tag: growing your business

Taking Your Business National

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A real sure sign of growth in any business is when you are finally able to take it on to a national level, and if you are currently looking at this in your business you are probably pretty happy with it. Of course, as with anything else, there are going to be a number of challenges too, and you need to make sure that you are going to find a way to live up to these if you want to make it all worthwhile and bring about the best results you possibly can. In this post, we are going to look at a few of the concerns you will want to try and get on top of when you are taking your business on to a national level. As long as you have thought about some of the following, you will probably be in a better position and feel considerably more ready to make it happen for real.

Operating As A Network

One of the first things to get your head around is that you will need to make sure you are operating your business as a network, rather than a number of individual businesses. Your locations are nodes on a web, not separate, and the sooner you start treating them as such, the sooner you will be able to really take your business where it needs to go. There are a lot of ways in which you might need to do this, whether that means using the likes of Jayde Transport to help transport goods from one place to another, or ensuring that you keep the lines of communication open between locations. As long as you think like a network, your business will act like one, and you should find that this leads to considerably more success in the long run.

Keeping True

A real challenge here is trying to keep your business true to its actual original intentions and ways of being in such a way that you still feel you are running the same business overall. In order to do this, you need to just be as clear as you possibly can be about what your business stands for, and that means writing it down and making it clear. For a lot of businesses, that essentially takes the guise of a style guide, and you might want to think about producing one yourself so that all arms of your business are operating in the appropriate manner similar to each other. Do that, and you will find that taking your business national is not going to get in the way.

A Strong Base

Finally, it’s important not to underestimate the value of a strong base. Because you never know quite what is going to happen when you expand, you at least need to be confident in the base that your business has, so that you can be sure that you always have that to fall back on in the worst case scenario. Focus on that, and you will feel considerably safer on the whole.

Are You Getting In The Way Of Your Own Business Growth?

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There’s a solid argument for keeping your small business small. It makes the day to day operation of your enterprise more manageable, it affords you greater oversight over quality control, it invariably allows you to provide a more intimate level of customer service and enables you to spend more time doing what you love and what you’re great at. In today’s fast paced and ever changing business landscape, however, the ambitious entrepreneur may well have growth on their mind. After all, a small business means small profits, small profits mean small wages and small wages mean stunted entrepreneurial progression. But if you have your sights set on growth there may be one significant obstacle getting in the way of it…

You!

As passionate as you may be, as much as you may care deeply about your every employee and every customer, and as dedicated, determined and resourceful as you are, it’s entirely possible for a well meaning entrepreneur to impede their own business’ growth. As yourself some of these searching questions to see if you’re really the one getting in the way of your business’ growth…

Are you trying to run before you can walk?

Does your reach exceed your grasp? Are you trying to grow your business without the proper infrastructure? Are you investing a surge of effort, time and capital into marketing to draw in new customers when you can barely keep up with the ones that you have? If you don’t keep a close eye on your resource allocation and cash flow management your business may end up tripping over its own feet. In order to facilitate sustainable growth you have to be able to walk before you can run.

Is it your way or the highway?

Your passion, determination, single mindedness and drive are all part of what makes you a great entrepreneur… But even you have your limits. While your business is, and should be, an extension of you, built around the values and ideals that matter to you, when it’s either your way or the highway, you run the risk of stagnation. You recruited your employees for their skills, intelligence and savvy and in some cases they may be better placed than you to identify areas for change and improvement within your enterprise. If you don’t give them an open forum in which to air their ideas, they will feel less empowered and your business may suffer.

Do you eschew outsourced assistance?

When you have established a way of operating that works for you, it can lead you to become resistant to outside perspectives, but this may also be detrimental to your business. Moreover, it can cause you to divert a great deal of capital, time effort and resources into functions that may be better fulfilled elsewhere. Historically, outsourcing to providers of Managed IT Services, HR service providers and marketing agencies has been beneficial to small businesses. It has allowed them to find custom solutions that are entirely scalable to their growth ensuring that there is no waste in capital or resources. 

Finally… Do you get skittish when it comes to capital investments?

It’s only natural for entrepreneurs to keep a close eye on their bottom line and when they have expansion in mind, it’s understandable that they might be wary of margin erosion. However, this cannot make them resistant to capital investments like new equipment, software and even premises. It may take a while for them to start paying for themselves but if you give them time they will prove a vital part of your operation’s growth.

A Guide To Spreading Your Brand

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Achieving success is difficult in such a competitive business landscape. Whilst it’s easier than ever to start a business in this modern age of the internet, that means you’ve got more competitors out there than ever. So what can you do to compete? How can you spread your brand so that you manage to secure potential customers from your target market before your competitors? Here’s a helpful guide to spreading your brand that might just help you reel in the sales you deserve.

Listen to the consumer.

If you want to create a great brand then you need to focus on the people who will buy into that brand: the consumer. It’s not just about what you and your team at the company think makes a visually appealing and accessible brand; you need to find out what consumers are looking for in the next best business. Fill a gap in the market and solve a problem that isn’t yet being solved. Think about what the average consumer wants from a business in your industry and not simply what you want to offer. Most importantly, you need to listen to your existing customers and address their concerns. It’s the mark of a great brand when you’re constantly working to improve and become the company your customers want.

Reach customers in new locations.

One of the best ways to spread your brand is to reach customers in new locations. This has always been the case for any organization wishing to branch out from local to national or national to global and it’s still the case today. Even in the age of digital marketing (which we’ll discuss later), there’s still a place for the old methods of brand awareness. People resonate well with brands in their area. Opening up new premises in a location which is popular with your clients might be a way to better target a portion of your potential market and reel in brand new customers. It helps to expand operations to new places too; you can conduct research into new places more easily.

Of course, opening new branches is only one way to reach customers in new locations. You could think about smaller ways to make an impact on potential customers in the real world. You could even look into tradeshow displays as a captivating way to showcase your brand. Whether you’re promoting your company in a shopping mall or a business convention, don’t underestimate the power of placing an enticing piece of brand imagery in a physical location. The traditional forms of marketing still have some influential power over consumers in all manner of markets. We don’t spend all of our time locked in our rooms and browsing the internet; some people still venture out into the real world.

Improve your digital marketing campaign.

One final way to spread your brand that’s been briefly mentioned already is digital marketing. There’s no denying how important it is for your brand to have an online presence in the modern age. People use the internet for so much of their shopping, whether that involves luxury purchases or simply getting their groceries delivered directly to their homes on a weekly basis. If your business isn’t utilizing the internet then it’s missing an opportunity to spread its brand in a cost-effective but efficient manner. You need to make sure you optimize your website’s content with relevant keywords and responsive design so as to ensure it ranks well on search engines, for example.

Smart Ways to Grow your Business: The Power of Backlinks

Scott Asai2 Comments

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It is a known fact that backlinks are directly related to the amount of traffic that you have on your website. The more authoritative sites that you have linking to your site, the better rankings you’ll have and ultimately, the more traffic you’ll get. Quality backlinks should be your first focus. You may feel as though backlinks are hard to get, but they shouldn’t be and there are plenty of ways for you to earn backlinks so that you can benefit from everything that they have to offer.

Take Skip The Line Backlinks for example. They are able to offer you a huge range of backlink and SEO services, so you don’t have to build your links manually and risk low-quality alternatives.

Backlinks on Your Own Site

If you want to get the best result out of your site then you will need to use the right anchor text when linking on your site. You will want to have your own keyword and anchor text but you don’t want to have the keyword alone. The Google Penguin update targets those who do this and for that reason, you’ll only see a ranking increase over the short-term.

Backlinks on Other Sites

High authority backlinks are very important but they are also very tricky. You have to make sure that the link that you have can provide value to another site as well. It’s true that you can’t control what text another company will use, but you can still hope for the best by getting press in sites that are well-read. For example, you could ask the leaders in your company to post on guest-sites and when you have a company announcement, you can even send a press-release to other sites that are relevant and even popular with bloggers. This is one of the best ways for you to grow your business, but you need to show people why your post will benefit the readers of that site, and in exchange, you’ll get a backlink.

If you have an email list or if you have some social media pages then it’s important that you post on these accounts. It’s also important that you include links to other companies when your content talks about them or even other influencers.

Growing your Business

Ultimately, the best way for you to get backlinks would be for you to create high-quality content and to connect with other businesses. If you do this however, there is no guarantee that you will be able to get the best result out of your backlinks because you can’t predict how they will link to you or even if they will altogether. For this reason, it helps to choose a reputable company who is experienced in backlink building so that they can help you through the whole process.

Backlinks really are one of the best ways for you to establish your business online and it could be the ticket you need to ensure your own success. Building a business has never been easier, and you’d be surprised at how much it could make a difference to your own site traffic.

How To Ensure Your Business Continues To Grow In Success

Scott Asai3 Comments

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As a business owner, you may be looking back on your company’s year through 2017 and feel extremely accomplished with all that you have achieved. It quite possibly could have been your most successful year yet, and you’re thinking “what could go wrong?”

Unfortunately, the answer that follows this question is quite an intense list. Your profit numbers could fall significantly, you could be met by a new competitor that is causing your footfall statistics to plummet, or your services may just drop in demand. Though these examples are not exhaustive, you want to keep your company striving forward – rather than bathing in your current success – to ensure you don’t find yourselves taking a bumpy fall back down the ladder you fought so hard to climb. Here are some sectors of your business that should not be neglected, to ensure your current success is sustainable and able to have continued growth.

Outsource

Keeping outgoings at a minimum is a good way of ensuring a contingency fund of profit should any problems arise. A lot of companies are currently turning to outsourcing for certain services – like customer response, marketing, and accounts – for a very good reason.  Not only will those services be carried out by industry professionals using top of the range equipment and software, but the cost of the service is considerably less when compared to hiring, training up your own staff, and investing in the equipment needed to carry out the job efficiently. It also frees up a considerable amount of your’s and your employees’ time to focus on the core of the business – your product and customer service.

Brand and Customer Service

When it comes to your brand and customer service, both should be under constant scrutiny to ensure you are giving out the best possible service and impression of your business. Your brand is what people will say about your business when you are not there – this is the word of mouth of your business – so you want to ensure this is always as positive and full of recommendation as possible. The top way of ensuring this positivity is making sure your customer service is impeccable. Investing some time in listening to your customer feedback, and making your customers feel like an essential asset to your business, will be invaluable to your success.  

Returning Footfall

Keeping track of your daily footfall, and ensuring you’re always on top of any searches through a company like 180fusion, is a good way of practically guaranteeing your company continues to bring in the growth it deserves. However, it’s sustaining that growth which is imperative. Having a loyal fanbase, who continually chooses your service over competitors, is really the big key to continued success. You can encourage this returning footfall by giving something back to those who support you. This can either be through a loyalty scheme – where so much spent equals to so many points, or you could offer ‘loyal customer only’ discounts through your email subscription service. Either way, customers like to know they will be rewarded for their loyalty and are more likely to recommend you highly to a friend.

Hopefully, this has given you a few ideas of how you can maximize your current success for the year of 2018.