Good Business Growth Strategy – A solid growth strategy is more than just a marketing strategy, it’s a crucial cog in your business machine. Without one, you’re at the mercy of a fickle consumer base and market swings. So how do you plan to grow? If you’re not sure what steps to take to craft an effective growth strategy, we’ve got you covered. Business Growth Business growth is a point at which a business reaches where it expands and needs more avenues to generate profits. This can happen when a company increases sales, produces more products or services, or expands its customer base. For most companies, growth is the primary goal. With this in mind, business decisions are often made based on what would contribute to the continued growth and overall success of the company. There are several methods that can facilitate growth, which we will explain more about below. Types of Business Growth As an entrepreneur, you have several opportunities to grow. Business growth can be divided into the following categories: 1. Autonomous In organic growth, a company expands through its own activities and using its own internal resources. This contrasts with having to seek external resources to facilitate growth. An example of organic growth is making production more efficient, so more can be produced in a shorter period of time, resulting in more sales. An advantage of using organic growth is that it builds on self-sufficiency and avoids going into debt. Additionally, increased revenue from organic growth can help fund more strategic growth approaches down the road. We explain it below. 2. Strategic Strategic growth involves developing initiatives that help your business grow in the long term. An example of strategic growth might be inventing a new product or developing a market strategy to attract a new audience. Unlike organic growth, these initiatives often require a significant amount of resources and funding. Companies often first take an organic approach in the hope that their efforts will generate enough capital to invest in future strategic growth initiatives. 3. Internal The internal growth strategy aims to optimize internal business processes to increase sales. Similar to organic growth, this strategy is based on companies using their own internal resources. The internal growth strategy is about using existing resources as efficiently as possible. An example of internal growth might be to reduce unnecessary spending and run a simpler operation by automating some functions rather than hiring more employees. Internal growth can be more challenging as it forces companies to look at how their processes can be improved and made more efficient rather than focusing on external factors such as entering new markets to facilitate growth. 4. Mergers, partnerships and acquisitions Although they are riskier than other types of growth, mergers, partnerships and acquisitions can bring great benefits. There is power in numbers and a well-executed merger, partnership or acquisition can help your company enter a new market, expand your customer base or expand your range of products and services. Business Growth Strategy A growth strategy allows companies to expand their business. Growth can be achieved, for example, by adding new locations, investing in customer acquisition, or expanding a product line. A company’s industry and target market influence the growth strategies it will choose. Create a strategy, consider the available options and incorporate some of them into your business plan. Depending on the type of business you’re building, your growth strategy may include things like: Adding new locations Investing in customer acquisition Franchise opportunities Product line expansions Selling products online on different platforms Your industry and Your specific target market will influence your decisions, but it is almost universally true that attracting new customers will play an important role. Not sure what that looks like for your business? Here are some useful tactics to drive growth. Growing a successful business Use a growth strategy template. Choose your intended growing area. Carry out market and industry studies. Establish growth goals. Plan your action. Determine your tools and growth requirements. Execute your plan. 1. Use a growth strategy template [free tool]. Image source Don’t start without planning and documenting the steps of your growth strategy. We recommend that you download this free growth strategy template and follow the instructions in the included section to describe your organization’s intended growth process. 2. Choose your intended growing area. It’s great that you want to grow your company, but what exactly do you want to grow? Your business growth plan should focus on specific growth areas. Common areas of focus for strategic growth initiatives may include: Workforce growth Expanding current office, retail and/or warehouse space Adding new locations or branches to your business Expanding into new regions , locations, cities or countries Adding new products and/or services Expanding purchase locations (ie selling in new stores or launching an online store) Growth in sales and/or profits Growth in customer base and /or customer acquisition Your growth plan may include more than one of the above initiatives, which makes sense – the best growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For example, increasing unit sales will lead to revenue growth and possibly additional locations and staff to support increased sales. 3. Carry out market and industry research. After choosing what you want to grow, you need to justify why you want to grow in that area (and if growth is possible). Examining the state of your industry is the best way to determine if your desired growth is necessary and achievable. Examples include conducting surveys and focus groups with existing and potential customers or delving into existing industry research. The knowledge and facts you discover in this step will set the expectations and growth goals for this project to better define a schedule, budget, and end goal. This brings us to step four… 4. Set growth goals. Once you’ve determined what you’re growing and why you’re growing, the next step is to determine how much you’re growing. These goals should be based on your ultimate aspirations of where you want your organization to ideally be, but they should also be achievable and realistic. This is why setting a goal based on industry research is so valuable. Finally, take the steps to quantify your goals in terms of metrics and timelines. The goal of “30% quarter-over-quarter sales growth over the next three years” is much more obvious than “increase sales.” 5. Plan your course of action. Then outline how you will achieve your growth goals with a detailed growth strategy. Again, we recommend writing a detailed growth strategy plan to get your team’s understanding and buy-in. Download this template This action plan should include a list of action items, timelines, teams or people responsible, and resources to achieve your growth goal. 6. Determine your growth tools and requirements. The final step before executing your plan is to determine the requirements your team may need during the process. These are specific resources that will help you achieve your growth goals more quickly and accurately. Examples may include: Funding: Organizations may need capital investment or an internal budget allocation to complete this project. Tools and software: Consider what technological resources may be needed to speed up the growth process and/or obtain information. Services: Growth is best achieved with the help of consultants, designers or planners in a specific area. 7. Execute your plan. With all the planning, resourcing and goal setting done, you are now ready to execute your business growth plan and get results for the business. During this time, make sure you hold your stakeholders accountable, keep the line of communication open, and compare early results to your projected growth goals to see if the expected results can still be achieved or if anything needs to be adjusted . Your growth plan and the tactics you use will ultimately be specific to your business, but there are some universal strategies you can implement when starting out. Featured Resources Free Growth Strategy Template Fill out this form to access your template To grow a business and its revenue, companies can implement a variety of growth strategies. Examples of growth strategies include: Growth Strategy Examples Viral Loops Milestone Referrals Word of Mouth Marketing The “When We Zig, We Go” Approach Personal Approach Market Penetration Market Development Product Development Growth Alliances Acquisitions Organic Growth Social Media Excellent Customer Service 1. Viral Loops Some Growth strategies are designed to be completely self-sustaining. They need a push, but ultimately rely primarily (if not exclusively) on user enthusiasm to keep them going. A strategy that fits this is the viral loop. The premise of a viral loop is simple: someone tries your product. They are given a valuable incentive to share it with others. They accept and share with their network. New users sign up, see the incentive for themselves and share it with their networks. repeat For example, a cloud storage company trying to get off the ground might give users a