When you first launched your business, you barely had time to breathe, things were moving so fast. You were too busy developing, designing, sourcing, and/or selling to think much about long-term strategy. All that hard work has paid off, and now you’ve got a few grand — or even a few million — in the bank. But it’s at this phase that many businesses tend to plateau, stalling out and losing that sense of forward motion.
To stay ahead of the game in an increasingly saturated market, this is the time you actually need to fight even harder. Too many other competitors on the playing field means even the most well-differentiated brand, product, or service barely stands out from the crowd. To win, and to break past barriers to further success, you’ll need the right game plan to level up. Here’s how you can use your current growth to fuel even more momentum.
Supercharge your marketing strategy
In the early days, you could rely on word of mouth, or perhaps a bit of press, to get your brand name out there. From there, maybe you started buying up Amazon or Google ads and running a modest social media campaign. But as you scale your business, you need a more aggressive, multi-pronged strategy to grow your sales and increase brand awareness. According to Hawke, a data-driven approach to marketing can mean huge returns for your business.
The specific tools you use to grow your presence will look a bit different for every business. But the basic essentials include killer visual branding, authoritative content, and a user-friendly website that converts more prospects into customers. If you don’t have a CMO or the in-house staff to handle the job, you may need to contract with an outside expert. They can help you develop a plan that works, while highlighting the unique voice and vision of your brand.
Launch new products, services, channels, and revenue streams
Most brands break into the market with just one popular product or service: an iconic item or offering users forever associate with their brand identity. From there, they might add a few variations, like different colors, features, or add-ons. This is where many brands lose momentum, though, since a limited portfolio of offerings means a limited amount of growth. To break through and expand further, you need to offer customers even more options.
It’s not just about what you offer, but also where, when, how, and to whom you make it available. For instance, if you sell a product on your website, it could be time to start selling on Amazon or Walmart, too. If you sell snacks, beverages, pet products, cleaning supplies, or other consumer packaged goods, offering a subscription service could grow your revenue. If you’re in a B2B service, it could be time to move to B2C, or even B2G (business to government).
Invest in systems that grow with you
As your business takes on more layers of volume and complexity, you’ll need scalable tech solutions and other infrastructure. Simple tools — like spreadsheets and shared calendars — won’t be enough to manage all the new products, projects, and clients under your belt. If you sell physical products, you’ll need, at minimum, an dedicated inventory management platform. You may also need to subcontract tasks like logistics and fulfillment to a third-party provider.
For services-based businesses, you may need to implement tools like customer relationship management and project management software. You may also need tools like chatbots and automated scheduling software to manage increasing volumes of inbound customer communications. Advanced AI can automate many repetitive and administrative tasks, so you can stay focused on improving your offerings and delighting your customers.
Attract and develop top talent
If it’s in your budget, now’s the time to start thinking about adding more full-time talent to your team. The more you expand, the less feasible it is for a tiny core team to manage all aspects of the business. As it is, you’ve probably got too few employees, working too many hours, with their hands in too many pots. As your sales climb, you can start to think about hiring specialized associates and building distinct departments.
But it takes work to attract and keep skilled employees, especially in a world where employees tend to change jobs every few years. You’ll also need resources, like development and training opportunities, to keep them engaged and committed to your success. Invest early and often in resources employees can use to upskill, cross-skill, and grow personally and professionally. Your employees — new and old — will always be your most valuable company assets.
Think “scalable systems”
A key question to keep asking yourself as you scale is “Can this continue to grow with my business?” Every investment you make should be flexible, agile, and equipped to keep up with exponential expansion. New employees don’t just need to be highly skilled; they also need to be open-minded and coachable. Any new software or infrastructure you invest in should be able to accommodate a company ten times your current size.
Remember: In this day and age, a company can go from unknown to viral sensation overnight. A bit of stagnation says nothing about where you’ll be just a month or two from now. You don’t want to overspend on bulky enterprise software, overhire employees, or purchase too much inventory.
But you do want to build a resilient business that keeps running smoothly as you reach your fullest potential.
