Is it time to kick it up a notch where your small business is concerned?
Great! You’re ready to bring in more business, take on new customers, and reach for newer heights…
But wait! Are you REALLY ready to take on more?
Many small business owners already find themselves stretched way too thin when it comes to business tasks. Some wear many, many hats — from marketer to accountant to customer service to development.
So here are a few thing to consider when trying to scale up your small business.
1. Evaluate
First things first, evaluate where your business is at right now. Who’s handling what? What systems do you have in place for different tasks?
Don’t be caught off guard by failing to realize or notice a crucial piece of the puzzle that would need to be changed in order to handle the extra volume of business that’s coming.
2. Outsource
Are you the type of small business owner who likes to handle everything—and we mean EVERYTHING?
Being able to oversee and control every area of your business can be a great comfort, it’s true. But if scaling up is your goal, and you’re being completely honest with yourself, you will not be able to continue juggling everything by yourself with the added business.
There may be one or two tasks that you’d like to keep for yourself. Don’t be afraid to outsource the rest. Once you do and free up all that time, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
3. Automate
Free up even more time by automating as many systems as you can.
Many areas of your business can be automated. Social media posts, email management, and bill pay are just a handful of areas where you can save time and money using automation.
And again, once you do it, you’ll wonder why it took you so long.
4. Customer Retention
Have you ever heard the saying that 80% of your profits will come from 20% of your current customers? Now you see how crucial customer retention is for your business.
Scaling up definitely puts most of the focus on bringing in new business, but without customers sticking around you’ll just have a revolving door of customers, leaving your business stagnant, not growing. Make sure you have a program in place that lets your current customers know how much you appreciate them and that you’ll take care of them — no matter how big you get.
And remember, scaling up isn’t just a decision to bring in more customers. It’s also so that you can take care of all of your customers — new and old.
For more advice on how to grow your small business, read more on our blog.