While the economy continues to improve, small and large business alike continue to struggle to grow in an overall poor economy. But even in a bad economy, stagnating is as good as closing the doors and businesses must continue to grow. Implementing business expansion strategies that increase profit margin and sales with less investment is a must, but how? These three tips give businesses more ways to grow, even when the economy looks bleak.
Employ a Workforce Management System
In a poor economy, many businesses consider the upfront cost and training of automation and decide it's the wrong move for their business. Instead, they sink money into manual entry and data collection which loses workforce hours and increases human error costs year after year.
For a small upfront cost, businesses can expand their growth potential by gathering more accurate data, preventing time loss, and optimizing staffing with a workforce management system. An automated workforce management system takes the guesswork out of benign but time consuming tasks and allows businesses to focus their manpower on more important tasks. While a workforce management system may require an upfront cost, the service pays for itself by reducing time waste.
Identify Your Niche
Many businesses take a scattershot approach to marketing. They think that because their product might be appealing to all demographics, they should cater to all demographics. This approach can severely stunt a business growth strategy because by attempting to appeal to everyone, no one takes notice.
GoPro is a great example of a product that optimized marketing to a niche market to grow their business. Cameras aren't a new product but by targeting adventurers, athletics, and young travelers, GoPro stood out from their competitors. Once they had established a strong market share in their niche demographic, they expanded their business growth strategy to attract everyday tourists and vacationers.
By identifying and attracting a key niche, businesses can stop sinking costs into the mainstream marketplace where advertisements turn into white noise. Instead, they can focus on a demographic that they can connect with more intimately. Implementing a business expansion strategy that funnels marketing into a niche demographic is a great way to expand in a poor economy and stand out among the competition.
Work Together
In today's digital world, it's easy to dismiss forming relationships with other businesses. Still, creating partnerships is a great way to maximize your business growth strategy. Indie authors have been the most recent group to truly make this strategy work for them. Indie authors found that releasing multi-book collections and promoting other authors in their genre drastically improved sales and increased their customer base. By banding together, these authors have been able to reach a wider audience and bring more attention to their genre and works. Reaching out to other businesses for promotions is a simple, low risk way to improve your marketing and business growth strategy.
Maximizing your business growth strategy in a poor economy doesn't need to mean increasing expenses. If anything, making due with less can help catapult your business to the next level. By freeing up personnel to perform their jobs with automation, funneling marketing towards your ideal customer, and teaming with other businesses, your business can grow even in a poor marketplace.
