5 Simple Tips on How to Grow Your Small Business Fast
There’s no debating it…
Hands down, a website is one of the most powerful tools you can use to grow your small business fast.
It’s such a powerful tool in fact, that a website is what most business owners use to generate billions of dollars for their businesses worldwide.
For example, just take a look at Amazon. What started as a small business in the garage of an apartment has now become a ginormous retail giant.
I think that Mr. Bezos was forward-thinking enough to understand that he could leverage a website’s power to work for him. And you’ll have to agree, it worked big time.
Could you imagine how pathetic Amazon would be without a website?
If you want to grow your small business fast, and you could, you too have to know how to harness your website’s powers.
But how can you do that?
Well, here’s the good news…
You can grow your small business fast by following 5 simple tips. And, if you follow these tips it’s almost guaranteed you’ll have astounding results.
A Word of Caution
Like with anything else, there are ethical and unethical ways of doing things. And, using unethical tactics to grow your business quickly is no different.
For example, you’d find those who try to ‘game’ Google using corrupt methods in order for their websites to rank higher in search engines. By doing this they’ll hope to naturally unethically generate more money quickly.
And then there are others who will use any illegal means necessary to heartlessly take people’s money.
If you or someone you know has ever been scammed online then you have a pretty good idea what I’m talking about.
My final advice on this matter is this: never get so desperate that you get to the point where you use illegal or unethical tactics to scale your small business.
Why?
Because you could find your business website being blacklisted and never showing up in search results. This means no one will find your business online easily, if ever.
Well, my friend, you’ve been cautioned.
So, let’s refocus, jump in and explore how to use your website in 7 steps to quickly grow your small business.
Ready?
Step #1 – Have a Vision
To quote the good book (the Bible:)
Where there is no vision the people perish…
Proverbs 29:18
If there is no vision for your business your business will suffer as a result. The first thing you must-do if you want to grow your small business fast is to have a rock-solid plan.
Admittedly, some of our best-laid plans can fail plans. So it’s important to have not only a plan A but a plan B, C, and D also just to be on the safe side.
Perhaps the best way to layout your plan is to begin with the end in mind. That is, know what the end result you want to accomplish and then create your plan working towards that result.
Step #2 – Get a website
It should be obvious by now. But, in case you missed it, I’ll plainly state it for you: you need a website.
It is estimated that 60% of small businesses around the world have websites.
While this is good news it still means that 40% of small businesses aren’t taking advantage of the goldmine of cash a website can generate for them.
Back in the day, it was okay to send out some flyers, hand out some business cards, put ads in the newspaper and generate some serious cash.
While there is still nothing wrong with this approach, it’s not the most effective method to grow your business quickly. Here’s why?
Times have changed, and we’re in a digital age where everyone is online searching and shopping. And, if you fail to tap into this market you’ll be left behind.
How To Get a Website
In order to get a website, you’ll need 3 things:
- Domain name – this is your unique web address or URL (eg. mybusinessname.com)
- Web hosting – Web hosting companies store all your website’s files.
- WordPress – This is the platform that will be used to build your website
- WordPress theme – This generally is a template that defines the look of your website. You can get a free theme here or here.
If you are the owner of a Barbados small business, you can click here and choose one of our done-for-you websites.
If you don’t own a small business in Barbados then you can follow the links above.
Step #3 – Use Social Media
With so many people hanging out on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram it would be remiss of me not to mention it.
Social media is one of the best places to go to drive traffic to your website. More traffic = more eyeballs on your product or service which would lead to more money.
Create a huge social media following and you can grow your business at a rapid rate.
One thing to remember though is that social media platforms are for social gatherings mainly. So, the idea is to socialize first and then drive people to your business second.
Step #4 – Create a Sales Funnel
Creating a funnel is a great way to scale your business quickly.
Now you may be asking what on earth is a sales funnel? A sales funnel is a way to guide your customers from the beginning of the sales journey to the end.
Here’s a simple example.
Suppose you own an online shoe store. Someone visits your website, they choose a pair of shoes, then add it to the cart, go to the checkout and purchase the shoes. That is a funnel
It’s a step by step process a customer goes through toward the desired result, which in most cases is a sale.
Think carefully about the process you’d want your customers to go through and the result you’d want. Then create the process and test repeatedly until it works perfectly.
Step #5 – Get a Great Team
Ensuring you have a great team to help you achieve your vision for your business is very important in growing your business.
Truth is, you need like-minded people on your team.
In order to have a quality team you must:
- Choose the right people – you want people who will help pick up the slack
- Train your team – Continual training is key to your team always being at their best
- Pay them handsomely – If you have an awesome team but pay poorly, especially if you could do better, it will demotivate your staff quickly. Pay them nicely and they will perform.
- Treat them well – Even though you may pay well doesn’t mean you treat your team like crap.
Your goal is to grow your small business quickly. And once you carry out the steps above your staff will do whatever it takes to help you get there.
Focus on Customer Service
The customer is the lifeblood of any business, so you need them. That’s why you must do everything in your power to make them happy. A happy customer is a returning customer.
However, regardless of how hard you try, you will never be able to make every customer happy. That’s why having a great team member who is skilled in dealing with customer complaints is so important.
Focus on your customer service and prepare for the disgruntled customer that will come soon or later. Then you won’t be caught by surprise because you’d be prepared.
Learn to Delegate
One of the mistakes business owners make is trying to be everything. There is nothing wrong with knowing how to do all aspects of your business, in fact, it’s recommended, but you’ve got to know when to let go.
Accept that there are people who can do it better than you if given the opportunity. And, once you have hired correctly, you should have people who can do the job well.
So delegate to them, and even though there may be a tendency to micro-manage, please don’t. Let them do their jobs. Trust them enough to do it.
Final thoughts
If you want to grow your small business fast then implement this 7 step system and you’ll see the results.
The idea is to be consistent, anticipate that things will go wrong and have a plan in place to deal with these problems when they inevitably come up.
To your success.