Simple Ways To Grow Your Business
Here are our top 4 super-simple ways to grow your business, without spending a fortune. All based on our experience of running a successful and growing business.
Reputation
Word of mouth referrals are worth their weight in gold. People buy from people and they trust recommendations from other that they have built solid relationships with.
One cool idea is to introduce a referral scheme for your clients, so when they recommend you to someone else, you give them something back. Everyone loves a bit of incentivisation!
Yes, OK, it will cost you a bit of money, but referrals have a domino effect and they are much more cost effective than direct advertising. If people are happy working with you (and we sincerely hope that they are) then encourage them to spread the word.
Passive income
It’s all the rage! It’s a buzz word that you’ve probably heard bounced around at network meetings – but what does it actually mean?
A Passive income stream is when people buy something from you, usually online, that takes very little, or none of, your time – like an online course, or a download of a pdf, for example. Having a passive income stream can mean that your basic income is covered or partially covered, giving you more time and freeing up more money/cashflow to focus on growing your business.
So, get your thinking cap on – think about your ideal client, who are they? What are their pain points? What problem can you solving for them? What can you sell that will help them?
Network
Take a look at your business network. Are you really utilising it to its full potential? Just recently I realised that we have a huge network on LinkedIn that we just hadn’t been communicating with regularly. So, before we go and spend our money on advertising or promotions, I’m going to go and talk to people who already know us and have a link to Wayne or myself. They are, potentially, a warm network of potential business leads – and if they aren’t our potential customers, I am pretty sure they could be recommending us to others or working with us (collaboration).
I get asked a lot about Networking. Is it worth the time and effort? Well, networking, in my opinion (and from my experience), can lead to sales, but networking is SO much more than just that. The people you meet can help you to build your business, they can knowledge share with you (learn from their successes and mistakes), they can provide services that you might use (or recommend to your customers) and they can be your ambassadors, telling their network about you and promoting you for FREE.
These days networking events take place just as much online as face to face. So, if you can’t be bothered to get out of your PJs or are reluctant to attend breakfast meetings or large group sessions, get online! Join a few networking groups and see which ones work for you.
A word of advice though, make sure you get involved – be prepared to “chat” to people online, message them, help them out and give free advice because you’ll only get back what you put in.
Cut Costs & Free up time
The more time you have to run your business and work on your business, the faster you will grow. No question about it.
When you are starting out, or in the early stages of growth it can be tough to find the cash to outsource everything – so start with the tasks that take up the most of your time (because time is one of our most valuable business growth assets). Plan to outsource things like accounting, social media, sales reporting, ordering and record keeping.
You might think that you’re saving money by doing it all yourself but ask yourself this – how much time do you spend each week doing those tasks?
And then ask this – how much more business could you bring in/products could you make/ more services could you offer if you had that time back?
My advice is to outsource as much as you can and spend more of your time doing the things you LOVE and ENJOY in your business.
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Simple Ways To Grow Your Business
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