Angelo Alleca - Basic Growth Strategies For Small Business

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Jun 6 · 7 min read

Angelo Alleca — 7 basic strategies for small business growth Angelo Alleca — A small business is de몭ned by many people as a company with fewer than 500 employees. According to the Small Business Administration, about 28 million businesses fall under this de몭nition. Unfortunately, many of them won’t last more than a year. This doesn’t mean that your small business has to stay small, though — you can always put strategies in place to help it grow. Here are some of the most basic ones:

7 basic strategies for small business growth


Set clear goals and track performance. The 몭rst step to growing your business is to set clear goals. You’ll want to de몭ne what you want to accomplish and how you plan on achieving it by creating a one-year and 몭ve-year plan for growth. If you don’t know where you’re going, then it can be hard to get there! The next step is tracking your performance against those goals on an ongoing basis. Unless you know how well or poorly your business is doing at any given point in time, it can be di몭cult to make adjustments that will help bring the bottom line up and keep moving forward toward those larger goals. Once these steps have been taken, review their impact on the company regularly with key stakeholders such as investors or partners — or with yourself if this is something only being done internally! This process helps ensure that everyone involved understands where things stand at any given point in time so they can act accordingly based upon current conditions rather than outdated ones (like last year).

Focus on customer service. If you want your business to grow, you need to focus on customer service. Customer service is the most important asset of your small business, and it’s a key di몭erentiation between you and your competitors. Customer service isn’t just about being nice or friendly; it’s also about building loyalty among your customers by creating long-term relationships with them based on trust and respect. This can be accomplished through good communication with your customers, whether that means responding quickly when they have questions or o몭ering them discounts if they buy multiple items from you. Customer service should be an ongoing process that involves both the company itself (the employees) as well as its representatives who interact directly with customers (employees). The goal of providing excellent customer service is not only short-term gains but also long-term success: by focusing on customer satisfaction now, you’re setting yourself up for repeat sales later down the road — a practice known as cross-selling/up selling

Study your competition. Step 1: Start by knowing your competition. Know what they do well, and know what they don’t do so well. When you start to see patterns in the way that other businesses are operating, you’ll be able to determine the areas where you can outdo them.


are operating, you’ll be able to determine the areas where you can outdo them. Step 2: If there’s something that your competitors are doing that’s working for them, ask yourself if there is a way for you to incorporate that into your own business model. You may not want or need to take on every aspect of their business model — you only need one or two things from each competitor’s o몭erings in order for it make sense for your small business growth strategy (and remember: don’t get too hung up on trying to copy everything). Step 3: If there are several aspects of a competitor’s service o몭ering that would 몭t perfectly into your own company’s niche market, consider whether or not it makes sense 몭nancially and logistically with other components of your overall plan before implementing any changes based on these 몭ndings.

Use outside expertise. Outside expertise can be a great way to help you get the most out of your business. A consultant can provide new ideas and expertise. They can help you 몭nd ways to improve e몭ciency and increase pro몭ts, better market your services, or 몭nd innovative marketing strategies. A coach will help you grow personally while guiding your professional development — and they’ll be there when the going gets tough! Coaching is ideal for business owners who need support but don’t need more hands-on involvement from an employee or partner in their company. Mentors are often considered the most valuable type of outside help because they provide wisdom and guidance on a personal level rather than simply o몭ering advice on how to run an e몭cient organisation (which may not suit everyone). Mentors are also normally willing to commit more time than other kinds of consultants would o몭er — or at least they will charge less per hour than other types of experts do!

Hire the right employees. Angelo Alleca — Hiring is one of the most important tasks for a business owner, and it can be a challenge if you’re not prepared. Before you start screening applicants, make sure that you have a clear idea of what kind of person you want to hire — someone who 몭ts into your company culture and will excel at the work they’ll be doing there. You also want to ensure


want to ensure that this person understands your values as an organisation, shares them and can help spread them throughout your team. Finally, it’s important that they share in your mission and are willing to go above and beyond their own job responsibilities in order to achieve its goals.

Put money back into the business. Invest in the business. The most obvious way to put money back into your business is by investing in capital expenditures, or CAPEX. These are expenses that add value to your business, like buying new equipment or renovating a building. Investing in new technology can also lead to higher pro몭ts down the line by allowing you to o몭er more services, reduce overhead costs, and increase productivity for employees. Invest in your employees. Investing in human capital refers to spending money on things like employee training programs and additional bene몭ts like health insurance or paid time o몭 (PTO). It also includes hiring contractors who will grow revenue by doing work outside of their regular hours — such as graphic designers who work on projects after hours so they can charge less per hour than full-time sta몭 members would be paid out-of-pocket over their careers at other companies — or bringing on board skilled professionals whose expertise makes them worth paying extra because it brings longterm value back into the company rather than just short term gains from one project that might not happen again anytime soon! Invest in Customers: This strategy involves making sure customers know they’re valued by o몭ering discounts or freebies as incentives for future purchases; if nothing else then just give away something small every time someone makes their 몭rst purchase from you so there’s never any doubt about how much these people mean to us! Again though: don’t forget about yourself here either! Since we’re talking about putting money back into businesses let’s take a quick look at what happens when one doesn’t do this often enough.``

Know when to scale back to grow. One of the best ways to grow your small business is to scale back. Scaling back can help you focus on your core business, avoid over-expansion, and avoid over-investment. When you are growing a small business, it’s easy to get caught up in all of the excitement surrounding expansion or new hires. However, if this happens too quickly


without su몭cient planning and thoughtfulness on how it will a몭ect your company long term, then there will be consequences that may impact growth in ways you hadn’t anticipated. Scaling back also gives you an opportunity to identify areas where things aren’t going well or where changes need to be made before they get out of hand. A lot of times we don’t realise how big our problems really are until we step out of them for a while — and this goes both ways: sometimes scaling back helps us see what isn’t working from afar but when we’re knee-deep in it every day!

Small businesses can stay small or grow — it all depends on the strategies you employ The 몭rst step is to know what you want to achieve. Do you want to grow, stay small, or both? How much money do you need to make each year and at what rate will it be attained? How much revenue will be required to reach your goals? Next, know your business inside and out — the good parts, the bad ones and anything else that might a몭ect how well it performs in the real world. Once these things are decided upon then all other decisions fall into place with relative ease: who does what; where does this need go; how long does it take us……. This can only be achieved by knowing yourself — your strengths/weaknesses as a business owner/manager and how they relate with the larger environment around them (i.e., industry competition).

Conclusion Angelo Alleca — The point is that every small business can 몭nd success if it follows the right strategy. You may not be able to beat Amazon or Walmart, but you don’t have to — all you need is a few loyal customers who will keep coming back because they believe in what you o몭er. The best way to get those customers is by following one (or some combination of these) basic strategies for small business growth. ---


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Angelo Alleca is a serial entrepreneur having owned and operated businesses for over 30 years. Passion for all things business-related.

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