3 Ways to Grow Your Business Right Now

We take business growth seriously. Want fresh ideas on business growth? Here are 3 recommendations for creating business momentum in your organization today.

1. Perform a SWOT Analysis

This should be annual exercise for small and large firms alike. If you’re a small business, consider outsourcing this exercise. If you’re a large business, task your department heads on this matter. In either context, it should be an honest, no-frills assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. If you have to do this on your own, be sure not to filter your findings based on biases, real or perceived. The results will provide you data and intelligence that, perhaps, you can use for the two subsequent steps.

2. Identify and Commit to Your Core Business

The pace of business today is warp-speed, and evolving your company to embrace the benefits of the digital marketplace is a critical requirement. However, major deviations from your core offering will not only present growth challenges and expose you to business risk, but also confuse your employees, customers, and target audiences. Here are few ways to truly identify your core business:

1. Ask for testimonials from long-term customers, and have them write about why they do business with you
2. Pick up the phone and call that prospect you lost to a competitor and engage in a healthy conversation as to what you could have done better to earn his business
3. Have one-on-one sessions with staffers at entry, mid and senior level capacities
4. Produce a brand positioning summary and a key messages document

These tools will provide a baseline for what you do well, why people should do business with you, and how to communicate your core business value propositions.

3. Refresh Your Visual Communications

Let’s assume there was no internet and you did business one handshake at a time. Would you meet and greet your prospects in grungy old clothes and unshorn? Unlikely. The reality is that there is an internet, and consumers or businesses will most likely do some online homework before engaging with you. Put your best visual foot forward, and refresh your brand materials, your sales collateral, and your website. A brandmark/logo, if executed correctly, can last a lifetime… or longer. And if done correctly, your web and collateral materials should last and evolve with your business for at least 18 months.

1. Brandmark/logo
2. Website
3. Stationery
4. Sales Literature
5. PowerPoint Template
6. HTML email and eNewsletter Templates
7. Trade Show Booth System and Promo Items