Five Key Ways to Grow Your Business

We all know that this is a pretty tough time to be in business but there are some fairly consistent essentials that need to be in place to grow a business, recession or no recession.
Whether you’re a start-up, an SME or a corporate there will come a time when you’re going to need help or advice – whether that’s to get your business finance in place, to sell your business or to re-evaluate what you’re doing. That’s where we think working together as a business community should come in.
We’ve identified five of the key ways in which that growth can happen for them, which are:

1. Increase your sales
The only way to run a viable business is to generate income; without it the business will cease to exist! This is why having a clear sales strategy is key to the success of any business and that should focus on four key actions:• exploring what your business needs to achieve through sales activities
• defining the value that prospective customers will take from your products or services
• understanding who your prospective customers are
• planning your approach to enable you to reach your business goals

Often the businesses that see the highest growth, even in difficult market conditions, are those that really focus on and nurture a strong sales culture.

2. Increasing your productivity
Improvements in productivity can easily be overlooked in favour of sales and marketing or new product development when looking to grow a business. But most businesses will find that there are a number of areas where efficiency can be improved.Processes - Taking a step back to review your processes, with support, can reveal opportunities to rationalise your approach, increase capacity, improve processing time and cut costs.

Technology - Technology supports almost all business processes and you need to invest wisely in it to keep ahead of the competition and generate bottom-line savings, from looking at new online opportunities to cutting edge manufacturing techniques.

Resources - Simple changes in business behaviour can have a big impact on profitability by driving down the costs of buying in products, using utilities and disposing of rubbish.

3. Getting into new markets
Despite intense competition, UK products, services and expertise continue to be in demand across the world. And, even in the face of a global economic downturn, there are still many opportunities especially in high-growth markets, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.

4. Developing new products
Developing new products, processes and services is one of the most effective ways to give your business that all-important edge on the competition. Competing on price and quality is no longer enough as smart customers look at the wider value your products and services offer. You need to consider:

How to research your ideas: You must understand your market inside out, using good quality market intelligence, evidence, specialist knowledge and expertise, before you embark on a major commitment.

Find finance and tax efficient ways to support innovation.
Manage the innovation process: Managing new opportunities and their challenges demand careful planning and controls.

Protect and value your ideas: When you develop or invent something new, Intellectual Property (IP) needs to be considered and there are various forms of protection to adopt, from Patent to Trade Marks.

5. Acquire business
The motivation for any company to go through a merger or acquisition is that one plus one can make three, for the smallest SME or the largest PLC.

An acquisition can create shareholder value over and above the sum of the two companies involved and this can often create a more competitive, cost-efficient company as well as creating economies of sale, enhancing sector visibility and seizing a greater market share.

Pure mergers are more unusual than acquisitions simply because there is rarely a merger of equals. The usual scenario is for one company to take over another and establish itself as the new owner.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Richard Jeffery is the Director of the Business Growth Hub , the Hub is managed and supported by Manchester Solutions and Manchester Chamber of Commerce and is playing a key role in rebuilding business confidence and supporting economic growth across the region.