Ten tips for small business growth in 2017

ten tips for business growth in 2017

Tips for Small business Growth

These tips for small business growth are born out of the knowledge and experience of entrepreneurs who have had to confront some of the very problems you are experiencing.  These are the persons who continually monitor their environment and make timely adjustments to their business to respond positively to changes in their environment.

The following tips for small business growth focus on key areas that must be addressed:

1             Your website – a website is a “must have” item.  It is, however,              necessary that:

It is constantly updated. Persons returning to the website are invariably looking for new material.  Many websites feature events that have passed.  After an event, advertisements, etc. of the event should be removed.  The website should be kept current with recent blog posts and upcoming events.

It must contain blogs that are of value to your visitors. It is, therefore, necessary to know your target market and write with respect to their issues/problems or upcoming trends etc.  Do not try to cater for everyone.  Be focused.  Ensure that information you are giving is accurate.

You pay attention to grammar and other aspects of writing. Poor writing can negatively affect your business.

Your website should look appealing and not old and stale. How does it compare with the competition?  Is your website easy to navigate?  It should easily give the vital information your visitors require.

Your website should focus on the problems/issues of your clients and how you can assist them. It should not just give information on what you do.

2         Your business operations – you need to review your business operations i.e. how you conducted your business in 2016.  Determine what strategies/systems worked and what did not.  Are your business processes causing you to lose customers and reduce revenue?  Determine what adjustments you need to make to effect improvement in business operations.

3               Internet safety– A website check on sites as https://www.scamadviser.com can reveal how much of your personal information is available online.  You, therefore, have to limit the amount of personal information that is placed on some so-called “safe sites”.  The reality is that identity theft is a major risk as many persons have the same names even those living in the same country.  If someone can obtain your personal information they can easily commit identity theft.   www.noobpreneur.com’s Six Steps to Staying Safe Online with Enhanced Identity Theft Protection.  is important reading for this area.

4               Business marketing – Video marketing is a major marketing tool.  The post  8 reasons why your business should use video marketing points to the virtues of using videos.  Develop/upgrade a social media strategy. Remember there is now the opportunity to stream for free on the internet.  Include this as part of your strategy.

5               Revisit your business model to ensure relevance in light of the successes/failures of 2016 and the continuing business environment of declining sales and economic recession that many countries are experiencing.

6               Assess your competition.  What are they doing differently?  How are they performing vis a vis your business?  What strategies are they using that you can make use of?

7               Make a budget and stick to it.  Closely monitor your expenses?  Review your suppliers and assess possible new suppliers for substitute products/services that can work for you.  Review your expenditure items and spend time and money on those items that bring in the highest amount of revenue.

8               Improve your networking.  You need to find out where your customers “hang out “and be seen at these events.  This will also give you an opportunity to determine early issues that are important to them and allow you to make timely adjustments to your offerings.

9               Do the research.  You have to pay attention to any changes in your environment that can positively or negatively affect your business.  This will allow you to positively respond to upcoming opportunities and to put things in place to mitigate the effects of things that can negatively affect your business performance.  Remember large companies have entire departments dedicated to doing such research.

10             Make a personal development plan to improve in your weak areas.  One of the main reasons for entrepreneurial failure is the fact that many entrepreneurs are great subject area experts but not great at managing businesses.  Spend some time determining your weak areas and make a plan to improve in them. Continuous learning is necessary.  In this fast changing environment, you have to be prepared to learn new things.  This can be done via book, journals, etc.  Entrepreneur.com’s 15 business tips every entrepreneur should know highlight many business management issues.  Here the writer states that the problem is probably you.  Patrick Bet-David in how to write a business plan makes a point of stating that we should be making life plans.

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