Master These 6 Functions to Grow Your Business
Substantial business growth needs an owner that plans, as well as reviews and refines the existing goals and processes. Making sure the core functions of your business are effective and efficient will help support your operations. You’ll be able to deliver more services/products and support more customers which will lead to more revenue and more growth. It’s a perfect formula for increasing your bottom line.
If you’re ready to help your company flourish, take a minute to check out our suggestions below. These are key areas where most business owners should focus to move their companies forward.
1. Buy Public Liability Insurance
This could be the easiest and most often overlooked action to take when you want to keep your business on stable ground. Investing in a public liability insurance plan may be where you want to start. A public liability policy will protect you, your employees, and your business. If you already have a public liability insurance plan, then check out BizCover for an online comparison quote and review of coverage levels. You can determine if you’re getting the best public liability policy for your money. If not, then let BizCover get you set up with a new, more affordable plan right away.
Remember, this type of insurance will help your company from absorbing financial damages and legal fees associated with negligence, including property damages and personal injuries. By having a public liability policy, you won’t have to dip into your company’s checking account should you find yourself dealing with an unhappy client.
2. Carefully Manage Your Finances
How do you manage your financial records and tax payments? Do you outsource this function to an accountant? Do you have a bookkeeper on staff to handle the company’s finances? Or do you track your own revenue and expenses? It’s important to explore your financial practices and be mindful of whether they are helping or hurting your company.
No matter who crunches your numbers, you should investigate automating the company’s accounting practices. Relying on financial software will save you time and money. Tracking your cash flow and planning for expenses will keep your company running smoothly.
Also, you’ll want to make yourself familiar with public grants, business loans, and other funding options that may help boost your cash flow. It’s better to seek out information about these options before you become desperate for money.
3. Do Your Market Research
You may not think small business need to do market research. If you do, then we’re sorry to say you’re wrong about that. Conducting market research is a key function within any business. You need to know how to differentiate your products or services from the competition. The more you know about your potential clients and what they’re all about, as well as what competing companies are doing, the better off you’ll be to make good decisions about growing your business.
4. Measure Performance
You want to deliver high quality work and professional service. To do that, you need to find a way to confirm your employees are performing well. This means measuring your staff processes and performance. You’ll need consistent metrics across all levels of your company. You’ll also want to solicit feedback from clients. Their honest impression of your business will help you to find areas of improvement.
5. Develop a Better Digital Presence
Most customers contact a business via the corporate website, social media accounts, or email address. We would recommend you evaluate from all angles your current online presence, looking for tweaks that could increase your sales and revenue. To do an effective review, you’ll have to look at your business accounts from the public’s point of view. You’d be surprised how small changes can have a huge impact on the number of leads generated.
Ask yourself some of these questions:
- Do we make it easy for potential clients to get in touch with us?
- Does my online content answer all questions for prospective customers?
- Is all the content current? Or should we update?
- Are there calls to action on our digital pages? (Hint: this is what turns views into leads)
- Am I maximising all my analytic tools to make positive improvements?
- Is it time for refresh images, photos, videos?
- Do I show off positive customer testimonials? (If not, get some!)
Once you get rolling, you may be surprised how making simple changes can grow your business.
6. Nurture All Your Business Relationships
You may know this famous business quote by Zig Ziglar, “You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”
This famous tip from Zig isn’t just about customer relationships. It applies to other relationships you rely on to make your business all that it can be. For instance, you should make a little extra effort when it comes to your suppliers, employees, business investors, strategic partners, and other people you work with daily. Make a quick phone call, invite some of your connections to lunch, comment on their social media posts.
Maintaining key business relationships will help increase word-of-mouth referrals, raise brand awareness, and keep you in the loop when it comes to your niche.
Begin Today, Grow Tomorrow
Today could be the day you begin to grow your business beyond your original goals. Paying close attention to six basic areas of your company will have a big influence on the bottom line. As you work through these six functions, you may begin to paint an even brighter future for you, your employees, and your business.