As 2019 winds down, small business owners are making plans for the new year. For some, those plans are focused on business growth. Technology has significantly impacted the world around us, resulting in a rapid change in the business sector. While the plans you made for this past year and years before may have been effective, you’re going to have to reevaluate and revise them if you want next year to be a success. There are many factors to consider and it’s important to keep pace with today’s constantly evolving business landscape. Developing solid business growth strategies includes financial forecasting based on predictable revenue, strategic marketing, and putting solutions in place to handle unexpected obstacles and competitor activities.
Pace Yourself
It’s easy to get excited when looking forward to the future of your business. However, one of the best business growth strategies is not to tackle everything all at once. You should make a list of all your planned growth initiatives and prioritize them. This involves determining which initiatives you can realistically take on each year without overextending your annual budget.
If you look back at some of the businesses that have failed in recent years, attempting to scale up too quickly is often the culprit. Rapid growth requires additional inventory, staff and more, all of which will take a big bite out of the budget. If those investments in growth don’t deliver a return quickly, a business owner may find themselves without enough resources to support that growth. Instead of taking their business to the next level, they could end up shutting down.
Successful business growth strategies involve conducting thorough research before opening an additional location or launching a new product line. You need to analyze local and regional demographics, spending trends and future growth of the area. It is also important to assess the area and industry competition. Solid research will help you decide if your plan for growth is a good investment or if you need to explore different business growth strategies.
Update Your Marketing
Today, almost everything in our lives is technology-driven and business marketing is no exception. Think about how quickly that technology evolves. The computer, phone or television you bought just a year ago is most likely already been replaced by a better model. Technology has changed the way business is conducted and you need to make sure your marketing strategy has evolved as well. While some traditional marketing methods such as print and television ads still work, they aren’t as effective as they were in the past.
Sticking with traditional advertising will cause you to miss a large part of your audience. In addition to online advertising, utilizing customer and demographic targeting technology offered by Facebook and Google will not only help you reach a larger audience, but it will also help you reach the right target audience for your products or services
Proper Financial Management
An annual budget is not a ‘set it and forget it’ component of your business. You need to constantly monitor the cash flow in and out of your business. Before you even think about investing in business growth, you need to reserve sufficient funds to cover all of your expenses. This includes a contingency or emergency fund. Unexpected expenses can severely cripple a business and in some cases, result in the business closing down.
Properly managing your business finances is crucial to sustain and grow your business. There are a couple of ways to do this efficiently, allowing you to easily keep track of your finances. You can use professional business software to record incoming revenue and outgoing expenditures as well as generate profit and loss statements. These statements will provide vital information to run your business and remain within your budget. If financial management isn’t your strong suit, consider enlisting the services of a professional business accountant.
Funding Business Growth Strategies
Almost every business will at some point find themselves in need of additional working capital, especially during the development of business growth strategies for the new year. Business growth can put a strain on the budget. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t move forward with it. Traditional banking institutions may have tightened the reins on small business loans since the financial crisis of 2008 but there are other options.
Alternative finance companies are providing multiple funding options, many with less stringent requirements and significantly less paperwork. Many business owners have been hesitant to take advantage of these alternatives to traditional business funding because they’re not the norm but, just like everything else business, financing has evolved. Many of these options are flexible and tailored to the specific needs of a growing business. By not utilizing them to help fund business growth you could be impeding your own progress.
Need a little help funding business growth in the new year? CapFlow Funding Group offers working capital solutions to provide the funding you need to grow your business. We work with business owners across various industries to find the best working capital solutions to their businesses on track. Our team will work tirelessly to see you through to success. Contact us today!
