Most business owners want to grow their enterprise. The Erasmus+ Growing European Microenterprises project (GEM) has been designed support the development of business growth coaches who work with enterprises that ant to achieve rapid growth.
Choose Your Top Five Growth Tips
There is no signal magic bullet for growth. Instead growth is the result of many smaller actions. Choose five actions to implement today:
- Invoice NOW!
Never have an ‘invoicing day’ or prepare ‘batch invoices’ – invoice as soon as possible and use the revenue to provide valuable cashflow for growth. Every day an invoice is NOT sent out or is NOT paid, eats into your cashflow so TAKE ACTION TODAY!
- Work faster
Simply learning to work faster (without compromising quality) saves time and time is money. Imagine the impact of condensing a six-week project into a five-week. What could you do with this spare time? More projects? More marketing? Keep looking for time efficiencies and why not start this today?
- Simplify and Systematise
Time spent ‘weeding out the inefficient processes and tasks and unprofitable or hard-to-sell products and services is a cashflow saver. First, review processes and then identify where they can be simplified. Next, look to see how you can automate time-consuming and repetitive tasks. Make sure you base your decisions on data and not hunches and watch the savings mount up!
- Look for and Reward Efficiencies
Team members should be encouraged to look for improvements and efficiencies. Just because this is how a task has been down for two years does not mean it is the best way. Encourage innovation and continuous improvement. Why not go one step further and reward team members for making efficiency and improvements?
- Avoid Project Creep
Always define your project’s scope in writing and stick to it. If you must change because of a customer or client, charge for it and protect your margins. Remember: project creep = less margin!
- Increase Visibility
Visibility is essential whether on or off-line. Keep on top of your SEO strategy (Search Engine Optimisation) or your Google Ads. Avoid relying on Facebook as it only takes an algorithm change, and your visibility can plummet. Start today and Google your business name and see if and how it shows up and then take action to improve it.
- Freshen Up Your Marketing
Start by simplifying your marketing message. Then freshen it up and then TEST IT, TEST IT AND TEST IT! TEST many versions of your messaging on your website, in emails and any ‘calls to action’.
- Promote Consistently
Always be promoting! Promote offers, new features and successes. Create news stories and make sure you add marketing messages to your email footers, letter and sales.
- Engage in Social Media Chats
Make sure your business has a PRESENCE! Answer and respond to comments, especially from customers and clients. DO NOT IGNORE uncomplimentary comments, address them. Find out which media your customers use and stick with it – avoid try to be present on too many platforms – think quality and NOT quantity!
- Be Generous
Try giving something valuable away on your website, in your store, when you send out your invoices, and when you deliver goods. Give-aways do not have to be expensive. Try giving away ‘how to… guides’, a discount voucher or a small packet of sweets and see what works.
- Become an Expert
Always be willing to share your knowledge and expertise freely through web forums, blog posts, and in FAQs on your website. Be available to advise and even to speak at meetings and events – work on your brand as an industry expert.
- Would You Refer Me?
A satisfied customer or client is valuable. Make a habit of asking your customers and clients to leave reviews. Better still invite them to refer their colleagues, suppliers, and customers to you. This strategy can save you thousands on old marketing activities – remember to think (and possibly) reward people for making referrals.
If you have found this blog post helpful, please share it with some of your colleagues, customers, and suppliers… oh and would you like to leave a short review or comment?
Other projects that will be of interest include:
- Managers as Coaches (MAC) – this project is designed to upskill managers as workplace coaches enabling them to improve and support the performance of teams and individuals.
- Coaching MAPS (CMAP) – this project has created a new and powerful coaching model which means managers can use one of the 12 ‘off-the-shelf’ Coaching MAPs to improving their organisation’s performance by adopting one or more High Performance Working Practices (HPWP).
To learn more about growing your business or any of the Erasmus+ projects, contact John Moore on 01455 845071 or john.moore@exponentialtraining.com
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