The road to success can often be very curvy and getting there may take a bit of readjustment. So, here are “adjustments” that you can make to help grow your business.
- Find an Intern
There are many students looking to get some experience under their belt. Taking advantage of their eagerness, your business can profit and they can acquire some real world experience. While some internships are paid, many of them are unpaid. Hiring an intern is as simple as developing a job description and posting it for free on Indeed.com. You can also list on many college and university websites as an employer and post positions through their employer portal.
If the intern is unpaid, there are a few legal aspects to be mindful of, such as not promising them a job in the future. A list of items can be found on the Dept of Labor website.
- Develop New Products or Services
Take a look at what you offer and how you offer it. Also, take a look at your competitors and what/how they offer their products or services. Perhaps there are services that you can offer that will help to make your business more appealing. Many customers want to be able to pay online. Perhaps it is worth the time and money to add a payment portal to your website.
Innovation is also a huge aspect to consider. If you can innovate beyond what your competition is doing, you could get a real foothold on the market, especially if you have your marketing in place.
- Re-evaluate Your Target Demographics
Many businesses struggle because they do not understand who would actually buy their products. Perhaps your actual target market is 35-45 year olds, and you are marketing to 18-30 year olds. This type of market misunderstanding happens and it can be quite costly.
To get a better handle on who your target demographic is, you can set up A-B testing, run a survey through SurveyMonkey, or look at your competition and who they seem to be targeting with their advertisements and marketing.
- Content Marketing
Attracting customers is another way to grow your sales. Content marketing is developing valuable content in your field that is geared toward your target demographic and making it available to them online. This is the art of attracting based on giving value. Your content can be a blog (like this one), videos, slides, eBooks, podcasts, and the list goes on. If you provide value to your prospects, you will become top-of-mind when it is time for them to shop for your product or service.
- Become Creative with Your Marketing
Many companies make minimal efforts in order to save costs. But is that always the best strategy and does it really cost less? While cutting costs is important, it may not always pay off. I am going to use a company sign as an example. Let’s say Company-X has a storefront business that is in a decent location. Company-X does not do any marketing at all, except for their sign and their sign is a plain sign that uses 2 colors and has no logo on it…just the company name. The sign does not light up, but there is a light on the ground that illuminates it at night. Now, this company is spending no additional funding on marketing and their location is good, but I would guess that their overall company impression is pretty low.
I have seen many companies get the sign wrong. Either the sign is too old or too plain and the company does not attract clients and sales are lost. Many times, a sign like this simply doesn’t stand out. In marketing…you have to stand out! If Company-X had decided to get creative with their sign, perhaps it would be lit, standing 20 feet off the ground, and have multiple colors. People notice creativity and marketers should be creative or hire a creative person.
- Export Overseas
Depending on your business, it may be beneficial to export your product or service overseas. By tackling new markets, you may find a lucrative market. You may also find that your company reputation becomes greater overseas than it is here in the U.S. If this happens, your company may realize major sales growth for decades to come.
- Hire a Salesperson
Sometimes the best sales growth formula is to hire a salesperson to go out and make the sales. Regardless of the other marketing efforts that are being pushed, a salesperson may be the most effective option for reaching your sales objectives. It is also important to realize that hiring a salesperson can help to balance out slow periods of the year or slow markets. Having a sales person on the road can help to line up work for the season that you do most of your business.
While there are probably countless methods to growing your business, I recommend that you find the ones that seem to make sense. Many times, growing sales is just a matter of putting the right pieces into place and keeping up the effort.
