Small businesses represent the soul of the American economy. Amidst concerns about the global economy, many small businesses are facing an existential crisis. Can you scale your business like Amazon and increase revenues in these tough economic times? The answer is yes! Many companies grow into multi-million dollar enterprises after starting out as a single-person operation.
Most small online businesses don’t have a road map for reaching $10 million in annual revenues. Sometimes they have a clear vision and goals to reach these numbers, but they lack a strong plan and actionable steps towards achieving them. They may not be well positioned for success, have poor prospects, no effective sales mechanism, or inadequate delivery systems.
Here are 13 tips for scaling your business like Amazon, even during an economic downturn:
1. Create a Strong Sales Funnel
Many small online businesses often have an inconsistent flow of traffic. One reason for this is a poorly defined funnel. It could be that they’re trying too many different types of marketing channels or that they aren’t using any marketing channels at all. They might not have a clear definition of their products or services, so prospects get confused. Or they might not have enough positive reviews from happy customers.
A well-thought-out sales funnel that includes an ethical persuasion system throughout the entire business cycle can be helpful for your business.
2. Improve Processes and Procedures
SOPs and systems act like catalyzers in any business environment. These tools don’t just help companies grow; they can be used to improve any company’s processes and create greater efficiency. Automate lead nurturing, sales automation, and customer service so you can focus on growing revenue instead of managing people.
Henry Ford developed the moving assembly line and reduced the time it takes to build a vehicle from several hours to just under an hour and a half. He did so by applying his SOPs and systems. Better processes can do the same for your business.
You created a business so that you don’t have to go to a regular office job every day. By implementing the right SOPs, you can quickly grow your small business and get out of the routine of non-productive tasks within it.
Many small business owners tend to take too long to make decisions. If you have good procedures and systems in place already (such as an effective sales funnel), you’ll be able to quickly measure and evaluate the effectiveness of your choices instead of having to decide for months.
By using quality feedback loops, you’ll be able to quickly measure things such as whether your ad was effective, whether new hires were successful, whether new campaigns were effective, etc.
Once you’ve measured, you can see what works for you and what doesn’t, and then you can use that knowledge to decide whether to change course or stick with what’s already working. Because small businesses often lack time, resources, and access to experts, they need to learn from their mistakes fast.
3. Delegate Tasks
Many small business owners often find themselves doing everything on their own. Do they really make any profit? No! For example, if your business income goal was to earn $1 million dollars this year, then your hourly rate would be approximately $450 per hour. This means you should not work on anything that doesn’t return that much money.
Hire the right employees to do the job for you for under $100 an hour. In the long term, outsourcing saves money because you’re not paying someone else to work for you. And if you outsource enough, you won’t have to worry about choosing between projects anymore.The right employees can help you with everything from creating a website to managing social media accounts.
The business owner‘s goal should be to help people solve their problems rather than get involved in them.
4. Set Lower Expectations and Overdeliver
When consumers are unsatisfied with the services they obtained, it’s typically due to they had been over-sold, and the services weren’t delivered.
Don’t just focus on delivering less than what you’ve promised; rather, try to deliver more than what was originally agreed upon. Doing so will not only make your current clients happier, but it’ll also help you gain new clients who may refer you to their friends.
All Fortune 500 companies started out as small businesses at some point in their history. But they worked on building strong funnels, developing scalable systems, pivoting using customer feedback loops, hiring qualified staff members, and exceeding customer expectations.
5. Focus on Sales, Not Product Development
If you want to grow fast, switch your attention away from product development and towards sales. You need a formal sales model, a dedicated sales team, and a clear plan for meeting your new goals and demands if you want to achieve massive growth quickly. All these things require time, money, and effort. Only then will you be able to reach your full potential.
6. Start Marketing Your Business
Small businesses have a natural advantage; they have small marketing budgets that allow them to experiment with different strategies. Many online businesses don’t benefit from this advantage when it comes to marketing. You can create a customized Facebook page, Twitter account, and Instagram account that will help you gain more followers.
Many small businesses feel the need to market their products by spending a lot of money on ads and relying too strongly on word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. The truth is that marketing should be a simple and easy process. You need to get your name out there by all possible means from different media outfits, including social media and website promotions.
7. Put Quality First
Stay focused on creating great work. Don’t let yourself get sidetracked by competition. You can beat them if you keep working hard and deliver quality products. Grow by focusing on what you do best rather than trying to outdo others.
8. Use Sales Tools
Small businesses rely too heavily on their own knowledge and instincts, which means that they don’t have enough information about their sales process. The good news is that there are companies like HubSpot out there. HubSpot is a business automation software that allows businesses to create high-quality sales funnels and online campaigns. All you need to get started is a clear vision of what you want your business to achieve in the future.
9. Seek Funding
Most startups can’t afford to fund themselves through sales, marketing, customer acquisition, product development, and operations without outside investment. To get started, they must raise money from investors who provide startup funds, often called seed investments, to help them grow. Investors may offer convertible debt, preferred stock, common stock, warrants, or options to purchase shares. These types of investments come with certain risks, so startups should carefully consider whether an investor is right for them before signing any agreements.
10. Don’t Focus on Income Statement
Many small business owners focus too much on the income statement, which reflects all revenue earned during a selected period. If revenue is increasing but expenses are higher than revenue, then small businesses will go out of business.
You should focus more on tracking your profit and loss statement because it reflects the difference between all revenue and all costs for a specific period in time. Don’t just look at the income statement; look at both statements.
11. Invest in an Experienced Board of Directors
In order to successfully install a board of directors, one must recruit a team of seasoned professionals who can bring their diverse skillsets together to help guide your company through the next phase of growth. These individuals should be compensated fairly and given equity in the company so that they feel invested in its success. Finally, they should be engaged in an advisory capacity where they provide guidance and support to ensure that your company remains focused on its mission.
12. Make Smarter and More Strategic Hiring Decisions
Smart staffing is an important step to ensuring your success. In addition to fresh product, you need people smarter than you for real help, who have the perfect combination of skills and experience to foster and manage new business growth. You don’t need the bandwidth to keep hiring more helpers. Managers are required to lead their teams, keep them focused on the right things, and inspire them to achieve greater heights.
13. Prioritize Workplace and Company Culture
Culture is the most important thing in any business. Make sure that your employees know and follow your values and operating principles. Reinforce them by clearly defining their behavior and giving them guidelines for doing so.
Scale Your Business With Professional Answering Services
A professional telephone answering service can be a great way to increase the efficiency of your business. In addition to providing excellent customer service, a professional telephone answering service will also save you time and money. By outsourcing this task, you can free up valuable time that can be used to run your business. As well, a professional telephone answering service can help to reduce the risk of human error. By using a company that specializes in this type of service, your business will be less likely to make mistakes that could lead to costly consequences.
With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder why so many businesses are turning to professional telephone answering services. By taking advantage of this option, you can maximize the efficiency of your business while reducing costs and risks.
If you’re ready to get started with a professional answering service, we’re here to help. Contact Answer Aide by calling (866) 427-3500 or by filling out our online form. We’re happy to partner with you to support your business while it grows.