Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

By Elena Stewart

One goal of a small business owner or entrepreneur should always be to find new ways to grow. Businesses without growth may fall behind. If you find your business at a stalling point, it is likely time to adjust your growth strategy. Here, Succeeding In Small Business shares a few ways you start implementing changes.

1) Consistently evaluate your marketing strategy

Marketing is a constantly evolving concept. As you develop new strategies, make time to monitor them constantly and prepare to adjust aspects that do not appear to work. For example, if you create an email marketing campaign, download email marketing management software so you can track which emails drive traffic to your website.

If you are managing your own website, keep careful tabs on it to ensure that everything is working properly and there are no bugs. You can learn more about common code problems that could be causing your issues and troubleshoot them with the provided solutions.

Over time you will notice trends that can help you better assess your marketing efforts. Remember to constantly keep customer feedback at the top of your priorities. Listening to your customers helps you nurture relationships and better understand their needs.

2) Get involved with your community

A great way to network for your business is to get involved in your community. You can do this both digitally and in person. Attend networking events and talk to local businesses about potential collaborations. You can partner up with another company on a project that provides both of you with cross-promotion. Consider doing charity work as well. You can give back and create a positive brand reputation that may attract more customers.

3) Make sure your business structure works for you

One of the first steps you make as a business owner is to choose a business structure. Many small business owners start by registering as a limited liability company (LLC). However, as you make adjustments and the company expands, you may need to evaluate your structure.

You can start by looking into the other options. For example, as BBCIncorp explains, an S corporation status comes with many advantages, including pass-through taxation and the ability to claim losses as tax deductions. When setting up an S corporation, you can even avoid paying lawyer fees and register yourself online using a formation service.

4) Use automation to optimize processes

When you evaluate operations in the company, you may see areas that need improvement. One way to make your daily operations more cohesive is to develop a business process management (BPM) strategy. TechTarget notes that this helps in automating your business processes that are taking too much time and manpower. Automation helps you optimize processes and workflows by using data to discover, validate, and improve workflows that benefit your entire business. (You can click here for more info.)

You’ll also be able to analyze workflow to see how staff and systems are working. Once you have a BPM framework, remember to keep a constant eye on it to ensure it remains effective, and make improvements when you must.

5) Offer discounts and freebies

Spectrio reports that coupons and discounts are a great way to get consumers to spend more. You can offer simple online sales or create a promotion that allows customers to get more for less. If you sell a recurring product or service, you could even create a tiered-pricing system that allows them to pay less for purchasing in bulk. During the analytics process, take a look at the items that sell the fastest and use those to create your promotions.

Start making steps towards growth

Once you reconsider your business structure, implement the right growth strategies, and use automation to optimize and improve processes, you will likely see changes quickly. It is important to stay flexible during that time to ensure any major adjustments do not derail your goals. As any business does, you’ll have ups and downs, but with adequate preparation, you can always get back on track.

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Elena Stewart made the jump from a corporate job she wasn’t entirely happy with to running her own business that gives her the financial freedom and flexible lifestyle she’s always wanted. As a life coach, she now gets the happiness of helping others get to the places that might seem out of reach.