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By James Daniels

One of the key challenges of any small business owner is simply to survive the first few years of trading. It is a sobering fact that approximately 20 oercebt of businesses fail in their first year and this rises to 50 percent over five years. Navigating a business through the early stages of its life can be an incredibly challenging process. There must be a clear understanding of the target market that the business is seeking to gain a share in, and the product or service offered must have suitable demand from this market.

In addition, the product or service must be suitably differentiated from the offerings of close competitors in the marketplace to help ensure that price wars do not ensue, or customers stick with their existing supplier. Once a business has begun to navigate its way through the marketplace and generate increasing levels of revenue the next step is to consider how to effectively grow the business. This article explains three distinct ways in which business growth can be achieved.

Consider the organizational structure

Every business needs a suitable organizational structure. As an organization grows, it needs to incorporate a suitable hierarchy that works in the real world and a structure that helps to both retain staff and attract new employees. It follows that a primary consideration of a business that is beyond its initial stages of operation is to thoroughly consider organizational structure types and decide on a structure that allows the organization to thrive.

Many business leaders recognize that the structure of an organization plays just as vital a part in the long-term growth of a business as the product or service itself. For example, flat structures can be effective in creative companies which are characterized by “self-starter” employees who relish responsibility and like to have more freedom over tasks and projects. Finding a structure that harmonizes with the business’s functioning and its overall goals is an important way to ensure long-term growth.

Expand the teams

It follows that a growing business will inevitably need increasing levels of staff to keep up with additional orders and work undertaken for clients. However, it is important to recognize that it is of paramount importance to hire staff that add value to the organization, especially in the companies’ early stages of growth.

Increasing staffing levels come with increased costs in the form of salaries so a business must ensure that staff are hired who will deliver on the organization’s needs. New staff should ideally be self-starters who can think critically and identify opportunities for improved ways of working. Having a team of “yes men” will be detrimental to the success and culture of a firm, so free-thinking staff are integral to continued business success.

Unlock the power of social media

Harnessing the power of social media can be a highly effective way to grow any small business. In the early stages of business growth, building a brand and the recognition of that brand in the eyes of the wider public is a key activity. Effective social media promotional strategies can help to do this and have the distinct benefit of being low-cost forms of promotion and PR. Creating short, polished, and memorable campaigns on channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, with links back to the company website, can help boost customer awareness dramatically.

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James Daniels is a freelance writer, business enthusiast, a bit of a tech buff, and an overall geek. He is also an avid reader, who can while away hours reading and knowing about the latest gadgets and tech, whilst offering views and opinions on these topics.