5 Necessary Steps To Grow Your Small Business

Life as a small business owner can be rewarding, but it’s not always easy. You don’t want to wear yourself out trying to build your new business, so while it’s important to work hard, it’s even more important to work smart.

If you’re trying to take your small business to the next level, keep the following tips in mind. Here are 5 ways you can grow your small business.

Dream Big

When you started your business, you had big dreams. But now that you’re in the game, perhaps you’ve forgotten how to dream. After all, you’re busy advertising and fulfilling orders.

But we must never forget to dream, dream big.

At times, it’s easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day operations of your business that you forget the importance of dreaming. You started your business because you had big goals for the future, so don’t forget to take some time to dream.

If you work with others as a team, gather your partners together on a regular basis for brainstorming sessions.

Think about where you want your business to be next year, in five years and ten years from now. If you don’t have any goals, it’s harder to keep yourself and your employees motivated to turn your dreams into reality.

Set Goals For The Future

Once you’ve brainstormed ideas for where you want to be in the future, it’s time to set concrete goals. Goals should be specific and measurable.

Create concrete, specific and realistic goals.

Instead of just saying, “We want our business to attract new customers,” change your goal to read, “We will increase our customer base by 10 percent by December 1st.”

Set goals for everything. Set a goal of 1,000 Facebook likes by the end of the year, 800 daily US visitors to your homepage, or to appear on the first page of Google for your target keyword.

Get Some Outside Help

You can dream, you can plan, but you may not be able to do it all alone.

There’s only enough time in a day and it’s sometimes not possible to accomplish all of your goals. Times like these means you’ll have to outsource some tasks to a freelancer or even hire an employee.

No one knows your business like you do, but that doesn’t mean that you need to do everything alone. In fact, seeking professional assistance from an outside source is one of the best decisions you can make for your business.

You don’t always need to pay for outside help though.

You can make valuable networking connections even if you can’t afford to hire help right now.

Join local networking groups, read networking forums online, brainstorm with others, share your experiences and grow as an individual and a professional.

Don’t Be Afraid to Change Direction

You’re passionate about your business, so it can be hard to keep a neutral perspective about it. That’s one of the reasons that networking with others is so valuable.

Nobody is perfect, so you’re sure to make decisions that turn out to be unsuccessful.

One trademark of successful small business owners is the fact that they are not afraid to make changes when necessary.

If you’ve given a lot of time and effort to something that just isn’t working, it’s vital to know when to stop. It’s not always easy to admit that you were wrong, but you don’t want to keep wasting your valuable time and resources.

Think of it this way, when you close the door to an idea that’s ineffective, you’re opening up the door to new opportunities and directions.

There are exciting things in store for your business in the future, so don’t be afraid to change direction in order to keep chasing your dreams.

Get Social

How active is your business on social media?

If you’re not connecting with your customers on social media, I guarantee you, your competitors are.

Not enough time? Don’t think the time invested will reap enough rewards? Think again. If you’re not active (very active) on social you’re missing the boat.

You may not need to hire a social media manager to help you run your social media though. By using some free tools available you can post updates and track results all on your own.

Some of the resources I use include:

• Buffer – Here you can schedule posts in advance to post at peak hours. You can analyze the performance of your updates and manage all of your social media accounts in one place. Why bother going to each social network when you can simply share to all on a schedule.
• Zapier – “Zaps” trigger when an Event is made, such as a new blog post, which then triggers an Action, such as posting the link on Twitter. You can even trigger an event when a sale is made to send you a push notification letting you know. They are integrated with over 1,000 apps so the possibilities of connections are practically limitless.
• Cyfe – This one is a dashboard where you can connect to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and even Google Analytics. You can then view your results (such as Facebook likes growth over time) all on one convenient dashboard.