How to make your start-up business succeed and grow, 5 tips
Starting a new business is a very exciting time because you’re brining the idea you have great passion about into existence to become your main source of income. However, the worry of it not succeeding can be stressful, that’s why you need to ensure you have appropriate strategies in place from the very beginning to help guide your start-up business to success. This blog looks at what you can do to help your business thrive as well as tips to make your business grow once you’ve built up a solid customer base.
Conduct market research
Before you launch your business, it’s essential to conduct market research to determine if there’s a real need for your product or service, who your target audience is, and what the competition in the area is like. This is essential, as there’s no point in investing heavily into a business idea that doesn’t have a place in a market/isn’t a product which is going to fill consumers’ needs. By conducting market research you can locate gaps in a market, look a what it is the competition is doing well and isn’t succeeding at, then create a plan to fill the gaps that they currently don’t provide your ideal consumer with. By doing detailed research you’ll quickly be able to identify who the ideal target audience is for your business and by keeping that at the heart of your search, it will make your life a lot easier in knowing the best way to advertise your product or service.
Develop a solid business plan
Your business plan should outline the mission statement, your goals, strategies, financial projections, and the other important details related to your business. It’s absolutely vital that you have a comprehensive understanding of your business and exactly what it is you want to achieve. This is because the mission and goals of your business drive your success. They give you a target to aim for and something to work towards, this is a great way of keeping you on track and allowing you to remain fully focused on long term goals. This should provide great motivation for you to strive forwards in making your idea a success story.
Build a strong brand
Your brand is how customers and consumers will identify and remember your business, so you need to ensure that you develop a strong brand that represents your business values and delivers the message you want your target audience to receive. This includes designing and creating your own unique logo with a particular colour scheme, that you know will be recognisable and definitely not confused with other businesses. You want people to be able to associate your logo with the exact product or service you’re selling, a large amount of brand exposure will be the quickest way to make your target audience aware of your brand. You may want to invest in corporate clothing and/or vehicle signage to provide your business with walking advertisement, especially if you will be working in and around the location of your target market.
Focus on customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is key to the success of any business, therefore absolutely make sure that you’re providing a high-quality product or service that will be demanded by consumers. You must also ensure that the customer experience/interaction with your product/service is a good one, so do what you can to create positive reinforcement and as many good experiences as possible when you first enter the market. If you have a nice, happy, and positive aura around your business, whilst providing customers with something in which they need or would desire in their life then that will only bode well for the future. You must also do everything you can to have a consistently high standard of customer service, let your customers know that they are wanted and make them feel good because they’re the people who will ultimately determine the success of your business!
Stay organised
As a new business, it’s imperative that you stay organised, keeping a close eye on your finances, inventory, assets and other important aspects of your business e.g. any employees. If you don’t keep an eye on your finances then you may as well not start the business in the first place, you must know the state of your cash flow otherwise it’s impossible to forecast for the future. Inventory turnover needs to be measured as well, this is so you know the amount of stock you can hold at one time and how long it typically takes to shift it. If the organisation aspect of the business is something you feel that you may struggle with, then you must make it a priority to work out a solution. For example, you could use an accountant to handle finances and hire a trusted stock/warehouse manager to keep a close eye on the inventory turnover.
Strategies for retaining customers and gaining new ones
1. Offer outstanding customer service – This was mentioned earlier and the importance of this cannot be stressed enough. Providing customers with a wonderful experience when they visit your shop or interact with you service is going to put a smile on their face and create a strong level of positive reinforcement. It can help you to stand out from competitors and begin to create brand loyalty for your business.
2. Utilise social media – Social media is more powerful than ever, it’s an increasingly powerful tool for reaching new customers and building relationships with existing ones. It’s a way of you communicating with your target market and keeping them regularly informed and is a superb method to keep them interested. It’s the easiest way to reach the largest market and can be brilliant for advertising, e.g., a new product or aspect of your business.
3. Offer promotions and discounts – These are a fabulous way of incentivising new customers to come and try your product, for example you can offer welcome deals and discounts on particular products or services you offer. It’s also an excellent way of rewarding your loyal customers, offering them exclusive deals for using your services for a certain amount of time, this also informs them of how important they are to your business and will certainly go a long way to strengthening brand loyalty and ensuring repeat purchases. It can also be a great method to get rid of stock you’re finding difficult to shift.
4. Build a referral/testimonial program – Encourage your existing customers to refer your business to family and friends, you could make this more appealing to your customers by informing them that they can receive a discount or free product for providing you with new customers. A number of testimonials, which are visible to the public, e.g. on your website, are a magnificent way of showing the public how trusted you are by your existing customers. If there’s several five-star reviews regarding your business, then that’s only going to drive more trust and positive attention towards your brand.
5. Attend industry events – By attending trade shows, conferences, and networking events you’re exposing your brand and making it more visible to more consumers, this could go to great lengths in expanding your customer base/target market. It also displays a proactive attitude, going out and letting people know you’re there rather than just waiting for people to discover your brand for themselves.
Overall, there are key guidelines in which you must follow to enable your start up business to become a success. Ensuring that market research is in place, developing your concise business plan, building your brand, focusing on customer satisfaction and absolutely making sure that your business is organised. Once you’ve fulfilled these key requirements then you can actively look at growing your business, the growth strategies provided will go a long way to achieving that, if you are firing on all fronts and have a foothold in a number of these methods then there should be no ceiling on your success. If you would like any help regarding what has been discussed in this blog, then here at The Link Directories we can provide you with services such as logo design and advertising, just get in touch today.
