Growing a business is an exciting yet challenging journey. The constant internal and external pressures entrepreneurs face often push strategic planning to the bottom of the priority list. However, by engaging with an experienced business growth strategist, these challenges can become opportunities for progress, and their impact can be maximised.
We have spoken to countless entrepreneurs without a business strategy. Generally speaking, they know the direction of their business. They keep servicing clients and that works well. Until it doesn’t.
A business growth strategist, helps business owners navigate the complexities of running a business while making a considered plan for short and long-term growth. In short, a business growth strategist looks for opportunities to grow the business while mitigating the challenges we will undoubtedly face on this journey.
If your business wants to:
- Increase profit
- Maximise productivity
- Reduce operational costs
- Build a sustainable and robust business
Then engaging with a specific business advisor like those within Move at Pace, could help you to grow your business now and in the future.
4 Growth strategies for your business
If you are actively looking to grow revenue and profit then you’ll need to consider the types of business growth strategies you could use to achieve this goal
Increasing market share
Increasing market share is the most common growth strategy. It’s also known as market penetration and it involves selling a greater percentage of your products or services to the same market.
There are 2 ways to increase market share
- You can gain market share from competitors
- You can focus on market expansion customers
Gaining market share from competitors
There are only so many customers in a market and a growth strategy for many businesses is to become a bigger player in the market. They do this through a growth strategy where they focus on the existing customer pool and aim to attract clients away from their competitors.
Not in an unethical way, but rather with a considered focus on scaling your business through good business efforts such as sales, marketing and the provision of a better service.
Market expansion
When I started my business, this was the primary method of growth we focused on. It allowed us to build a strong foundation of business, stay away from competition and most importantly, under the radar. Instead of trying to attract existing clients of highly established businesses, we focused on those new customers to the market.
By doing this, your competitors aren’t losing business to you, because they never knew it existed.
Product or service development
When you develop new products or your service offering, you give your clients the opportunity to spend more of their budgets with your business. In our suite of businesses, we had a digital agency, a branding agency and a digital printing company. From a client’s perspective, we provided a full suite of complementary services that would support their business growth. In short, once they were in our ecosystem, they had no reason to leave.
In many instances, brand clients became print clients and vice versa. What is the next evolution in your product or services? Will it add value to your revenue or will it cannibalise your existing budgets?
Diversification strategy
Typically the riskiest of growth strategies is diversification. Selling new products or services to a new market or customers. While it’s not completely starting from scratch, it’s not far off.
But, the entrepreneurial mind wanders and looks for opportunity everywhere. A business growth strategy must allow for the exploration of new opportunities, but a good business strategist will help you pause and truly consider if this is a prudent move for your business.
Entering new markets
One of the most popular growth strategies for businesses is to take their existing product or service and provide this to new customers in new areas. From a geographical perspective, Northern Ireland is a small marketplace with access to significantly bigger markets here on the island of Ireland and right across the UK and Europe.
Looking at many businesses that have become incredibly successful, the market that they serve in their home location is only a tiny percentage of their overall revenue.
The choice of growth strategy often comes down to a multitude of factors that can be overwhelming to consider, so engaging with a business growth strategist will help you to plot a course of action that will maximise the growth potential of your business and plan to reduce the risk of growth.
Benefits of engaging with a business growth strategist
When it comes to business, theory will only take you so far. The real learning happens from the experience gained running your business. But when you’re in the day-to-day grind, it’s often hard to see a clear path forward. A business growth strategist helps look at your business objectively and provides sound advice and support to plot a course of action.
At Move at Pace, we value real-world experience. Our business advisors are all exited owners who have built their businesses from the ground up.
While we acknowledge that there are some great theory-led business strategists, we only work with those who have walked the walk at the highest level.
Reduced risk
Because each of our business growth advisors has direct experience in starting, building and exiting a business, they will have overcome the challenges you are yet to face. This real-world experience, won’t shortcut the solution, but it will help to guide you down the right path, the first time. If nothing else, you’ll know the risks in advance and choose to mitigate these or proceed at your own risk.
Cost Effectiveness
Time costs money and the opportunity cost of one course of action could have been a bigger return on your investment.
The experience a business growth strategist brings will help ensure you get the best return for your time and money.
Objectivity
As a business leader, you’ll often be told what you want to hear, not what you need to hear. A business growth strategist’s focus is not to pander to your emotions, but to provide an objective plan forward that works for the business. This respectful challenge often allows for a pause, before moving towards the goal at pace.
Other ways to grow your business
The above opportunities are just a few examples of growth strategies a business may choose to pursue. Many businesses choose for faster or more strategic growth through business acquisition or mergers. The opportunties are endless and deciding the most appropriate course of action can be a significant challenge.
At Move at Pace, we offer a 1:1 strategic growth advisory that supports businesses of all sizes. If you are planning for growth, a material change to your business or planning to explore an opportunity for business transition or exit, then please book a discovery call to chat with our team. We’ll ask a few questions about your business, find out your plans and tell you a little bit about more about our service.
After that, if we look to be a good fit, we’ll share a scope of work and get started when it works for both parties.