“To open a shop is easy; to keep it open is an art.”
“You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow.”
A couple of interesting quotes to get you thinking!
“Growth” may not be how you describe it; the term in the sense of business growth is interchangeable with “change”.
When you think of growth you may immediately associate it with getting bigger in physical sense, but when it comes to business growth it’s fundamentally about doing things differently, responding to external changes and proactively changing internally in order to achieve a true environmental fit.
Growth or change, however you refer to it isn’t something that should be considered at certain stages or be assigned to particular periods. It should underpin and be the key driver behind business strategy.
There are common barriers to growth and here’s a few tips on how to overcome them.
Failure to differentiate your business in the marketplace
Fitting in to a broad or general category isn’t enough. Customers will readily select different variants of products or services, or select different vendors according to price, deals and offers and other more superficial grounds if you don’t develop a differentiated and distinguishable presence in the marketplace. You need to identify what their needs are and endeavor to continually meet these better than your competitors, not just on a par. You need to give them a reason to choose you and your company’s products and services over alternatives.
Letting your competitors set the agenda
Although there are second mover advantages to be gained, in todays fast past dynamic business environments being second isn’t always good enough. Consider your market and your marketing strategy and aim to be different in some aspect and also the first.
Not offering alternative price points and buying opportunities
Customers in today’s market expect choice. They are being bombarded with alternatives and can readily select and switch according to who is best meeting their needs at the given time. You need to be responsive to buying trends offering different products and services within different price brackets so you can continue to meet their needs whatever their budget. You need to be different and easier to do business with.
Changing too fast, not changing enough, taking too many risks
This comes down to investing in sustained changes in your business to the point where ‘change’ becomes a seamless aspect of what you do. It’s about being effectively and consistently different because you are clear about what the difference needs to be, why, and how to do it.
Being too busy completing the endless and ever growing task list
Your task list never seems to end which when coupled with being too reactive rather than proactive means that your business will never move forward.
You need to free up some of your own time and your employees to allow for change to happen. Innovation is the driver of change and being proactive will mean that you gain those first mover advantages. In order for it to be possible you need to remove some of the remedial tasks from your day. It doesn’t mean hiring more staff, it just means investing in a business management solution, such as SAP Business One, to integrate your critical business functions to streamline operations and increase efficiency across your business.
If you have any tips, comments or insight be sure to share your views!