We’ve talked in the past about business solutions that can optimize your normal rate of growth. As you well realize, however, these are long term strategies that require patience and planning. Not bad in and of itself, but sometimes, a quick solution is needed to spark a spontaneous growth spurt for your business that can be parlayed into long term success. It might seem risky to shake things up, but if you play your cards right, these strategies can help get your business out of the doldrums and kick-start your brand with new life.
Objective #1: Sell More
Naturally, selling more of what you’ve got is going to result in growth. How to do it, though? If it were that easy you’d already be selling more product, right? There are a few ways you can tackle this issue, which involve both increasing current customer sales and bringing in new clientele:
First, you can attempt to sell more to your current customers. You could try a hook that will keep them coming back again and again. For instance, if you have a business that sells an upgradeable product, offer one for half off to those that have made a purchase of one of those products at full price. Your customer will then have two of an item that they will need to come back and make continued purchases on, and you can make back the price of the discounted item (plus more) as they buy accessories, upgrades, and customization features.
You could also create a structure where you upsell clients on a service. You create a base level of a service, offered complementary, where you cover just the essentials, and then charge for the additional services that are highly valued by customers. For example, fees for storing more than a particular amount of something, or extra costs associated with using your facility for a longer period, etc. This gets them “in the door” so to speak, by attracting them with the inexpensive base level service, and allows you to make the money through add-ons that might justify a greater cost.
There are also strategies you can employ just to bring in new people to buy what you already have, i.e., increasing your customer base. The methods and procedures developed by sales teams and business coaches over the years might seem endless, but one method that just about every business can employ is providing a product or service so great that it forces other people to talk about and recommend that product/service to others. By tightening up your game, you bring greater value to existing customers, which turns them into walking ads that can bring in new customers for you.
Objective #2: Hire New People
Sometimes the key to growth is in your human resources. Having top talent is of benefit to any organization, and bringing in new people when you’re stagnant can put a fresh set of eyes on the problem that may identify solutions you hadn’t even considered. Plenty of guides on recruiting and attracting talent exist, as well as many services that can help in this regard. However, the process, in a nutshell, comes down to identifying who has the skills for the job, assessing how they will work on a team, and making sure they fit in at your place of business.
There are, of course, methods you can use to attract these people to you, many of which involve gearing your workplace into a challenging and welcoming environment. Recognizing and rewarding good behavior and good work, involving team members in the business process, helping employees further their personal development, and fairly evaluating the output of your workers will all assist in attracting new employees.
Objective #3: Property Acquisition
Now, this could be referring to buying up a competitor to quickly diversify or expand upon what you already have, but it could also be getting new equipment that will help your employees do their job better. If you are even considering the former, you probably have the cash to do so and are ready to get to it. The latter, on the other hand, is something that you might want to try even when you’re experiencing some cash flow stagnation.
Business loans and working capital loans are one solution to the problem, but another that you might want to consider is a merchant cash advance, as it doesn’t require fixed loan repayments. Whatever you decide, bringing in new gear could do wonders for rejuvenating your business, and starting that short-term spark you need to dig yourself out of a slump.