A study by Forbes revealed that about 10 percent of small businesses fail in their first year. The same fate befalls about 70 percent of business owners before their fifth year due to cash flow droughts, mismanagement issues, etc. There’s no hard and fast template to champion your business success. It takes a lot of time, discipline, and a great deal of learning and unlearning to get to the top.
Unfortunately, the experiences gathered by successful founders on this journey are rarely shared. Here are five secrets to growing a business fast.
1. Outsource As Much As You Can
A 2018 business survey proves that about 37 percent of small businesses outsource at least one key business process. The percentage grew by 14 percent in the next year, with predictions signaling a massive outsourcing economy by 2030. So, why is this trend gradually gaining ground in today’s business world, especially among startup founders?
Running a startup can be capital intensive, and attracting the necessary funds to afford you the runway until your business starts showing signs of profitability is no easy task. Outsourcing helps startups reduce operational costs. When you outsource a role, you’ll not need to procure the machinery needed to perform that role. That saves you from any additional costs needed to store and maintain the machinery for repetitive use.
As a business owner, you can outsource any role based on your business’s most pressing needs. Finding an outsourcing partner has become easier now than ever. For instance, if your business is in the Kansas area, an online search for HR outsourcing Kansas City can bring viable results for you to choose from. However, it helps to review each company first on trusted review sites.
2. Invest In Employees
Great products are good to have, but great people make great companies. Your business must get the right people to champion its efforts and, even more crucially, ensure your employees have all it takes to bring up their best. It’s tempting to restrict thinking to technology and tools when discussing employee investments. However, the topic transcends having the topic tools.
Employee investments also involve listening to your workforce, understanding their needs, and showing empathy in the best way possible. For instance, a survey showed that about 80 percent of employers who receive flexible work options tend to be more loyal to their employers. In today’s post-pandemic world, affording your employees a work-life balance is not a mere indulgence but a critical factor that improves their outputs and, ultimately, your business’s success.
3. Prioritize Customer Experience
Today’s customers are more informed and have unparalleled access to competitors. For this reason, they tend to have endless expectations of brands, pressurizing companies to outperform or risk losing customers to competitors. Often, startups undertake a target market research before creating their products.
Their research helps you understand your customer’s unique needs so you can tailor your products. But products don’t sell themselves. You need visibility and customer relationship management efforts to drive the demand for your products. For most businesses, that’s the hard part.
The first rule of customer engagement is to listen without overtly listening. Keep an eye on your target market’s posts and understand what drives their interests. It’ll help you personalize your interactions, serving an experience customers can get nowhere but from your business. The experience will keep them returning, improving your retention rate and revenues.
4. Be Nimble
Scalability is an important KPI for today’s businesses. The business world has changed significantly, especially after the coronavirus pandemic. As a business owner, you’ll need to go lean with your efforts, eliminating wasteful operations and resources. The best way to do that is to be light and flexible. It makes you ready to scale up when there is an increasing demand and reduce your offerings when you need to.
5. Leverage Data For Effective Decisions
Data-driven decisions are more accurate than taking wild guesses. Modern business managers need to be conversant with using analytics to predict the future so they can mitigate risks and losses when making decisions.
All in all, managing a business has never been easy, but these tips can make the process a little more manageable.
