Many home-based business owners dream of a future beyond their small home office and small network of clients. They look at successful companies and their humble beginnings and wish to find the secret formula to replicate their success stories. And this is a good thing. Successful entrepreneurs are people who dare to dream, who are never satisfied with the current situation and want to advance further.
But how can you grow your business beyond its current state? It is not easy and you need to be focused on working on your business and seeking sources of supplementary financing. However, successful entrepreneurs are willing to share some tips and helpful ideas to inspire other business owners to reach out and achieve success on their own.
These are some of the most effective tips we have collected and which we are now sharing with you:
1. At the Beginning, Focus on One Core Product/Service
There is nothing worse for a budding business than trying to serve all people. You cannot be everything for everyone – so try to become the best for a segment of the market. The way to do this is by focusing on developing and improving one great product or service, which is attractive, helpful and useful for your target market.
As tempting as it is to start growing your business right away, offering a wide range of products to your customers, you need to be able to create a stream of revenue which can sustain your business – and this is done by continuous, consistent sales of your main product. Once you have reached a solid customer base and a satisfactory level of revenue, it is time to move on to the next phase.
2. Create Complementary Products and Services
The best way of increasing your sales is to sell to the same existing base of customers, by offering them products and services which complement your main product. For example, if your main product is a fitness course, the best complementary products for this are a book of recipes for eating healthy, advice for getting in the right mindset for keeping up with the training schedule, or advice on what types of supplements people should take or not take in order to boost their energy and endurance while doing the training.
Developing complementary products and services is the right way to diversify your offering and to boost your sales to your main customer base.
3. Target Other Markets
A smart business principle states that you should grow with your customers. High school students leave for college, young bachelors get married and have children, young professionals become mature experts in their niche – and their needs, expectations and wishes in life change. If you want to grow your business, follow the growing trends of your customer base, change your focus, and expand to embrace their changed lifestyles without leaving behind the new generation who grows into your original customer segment.
This type of organic growth helped businesses such a small grocery store expand from its initial street corner location to a large network of supermarkets, and a little burger joint into a multi-national corporation.
4. Consider Franchising
If your business idea and business model do not depend strictly on your particular set of skills or talents, it has the potential to be replicated in different locations by other entrepreneurs whom you train and supervise. In order to franchise your small business, you need to create a clear business system, with a clear, actionable procedure, checklists, and an accurate description of all the job roles, products, services, marketing strategy, supply chain and customer care activities.
The advantage of franchising is that you do not make further investments in other locations. All you have to do is provide franchisees with in-depth training, support them in their activities, maintain control over the compliance with your procedures, and help them with marketing materials and advice.
5. Don’t Grow Too Fast
The most important advice is this: do not become over-enthusiastic and start expanding your business before you have established a solid base to work on. The first profits are a sign that you are moving in the right direction, but not the confirmation that your home-based business is ready to move into a downtown location.
The key to growing your business is patience, hard work, dedication and striving to serve your customers in the best possible way. Look out for any growth opportunity and stay true to your business mission and you will succeed!