Unlike product-based businesses with frequent one-off customers, small firms rely strongly on a positive reputation and client loyalty. Getting to this stage takes time, but once you’re there, your firm will likely grow steadily and successfully.
Because of the importance of building that strong foundation, what you do in the early stages matters. How are you monitoring the success of each strategy you implement? Are you tweaking and adjusting consistently or letting your strategies thrive or fail organically?
Monitoring metrics gives you real-time knowledge of your firm’s health and whether your strategies are working or not. The good news is that you don’t have to throw spaghetti at the wall to choose the growth strategies to start with. In this easy guide, we’ll share tried and true tips to help your young firm grow.
1. Know Your Numbers
Every business starts out with a zero and then celebrates that first “one.” The sale, the new employee, the first year in business. But eventually, those numbers begin to blur and lose importance, and we stop tracking them. Yet, knowing your numbers helps you see where you are doing well and the areas that need help.
In the early days, you can probably do this manually. If you only have a handful of clients, monitoring metrics like profit and loss, loyalty, and growth is simple. But as you expand, you’ll want to invest in professional services automation software, as explained in this article by Accelo, to run the reports for you.
With metrics informing your decisions, you can adjust any strategies that aren’t working before they cost more resources, or, worse, lose your clients.
2. Partner With the Community
As a small firm, you’re in a prime position to establish partnerships with other small to medium businesses in the community. Through these connections, you refer people to each other’s services and engage in activities like ribbon cuttings or professional gatherings. You might donate services or money to local charities and organizations, a philanthropic step that generally creates a substantial return on your investment and helps the community.
The success of partnerships is symbiotic. Both you and your partner businesses can leverage the connection to cement your reputations, gain more referrals, and achieve increased brand exposure—especially in competitive industries like company formation in Singapore, where trust and collaboration are key to success.
3. Don’t Hesitate to Remove What Isn’t Working
Many small business owners think that the more services and options they offer, the wider the net they cast. However, if something you’re doing isn’t making a profit and is costing you resources to provide it, you might be better off removing it from your business.
This strategy isn’t just about services. Staff members who have been on the job long enough that they should know what their responsibilities are, yet they aren’t fulfilling them, are a danger to your business. In a small firm, you may see your team as part of your family, making it hard to let someone go. But if you’ve tried to correct the situation and it hasn’t worked, for the sake of the rest of the team and your firm’s success, this might be an essential step.
4. Outsource Where Necessary
In this post-COVID world, hiring freelance workers and outsourcing jobs is commonplace. If your business isn’t at the stage yet where you can justify hiring a full-time employee for everything that needs to be done, a virtual assistant could be the bridge that helps you get there. Any jobs that you don’t want to do but don’t want to hire someone to perform on-site, such as bookkeeping, marketing, or social media posting, can all be outsourced.
Recruiting is another aspect that is often outsourced. The typical avenues like social media referrals and ads or posting job offers on LinkedIn can be hit or miss, giving you too many unqualified responses to sort through or, on the flip side, resulting in no responses. A recruiter wades through the potential workers and brings you the best responses, reducing wasted time so you can focus on working with your clients. You’ll also want to outsource tasks related to big financial decisions for the business and company. For instance, Mill Wood Finance can help provide commercial finance advise and expertise to provide the right direction of guidance and get tough deals over the line.
Any jobs that you don’t want to do but don’t want to hire someone to perform on-site, such as bookkeeping, marketing, social media posting, and print flyers, can all be outsourced.
Conclusion
Growing a small firm takes time. You want to do it right, building your reputation and brand carefully. Instead of focusing on landing more clients, start with internal strategies that prepare you for success: follow your metrics, connect with the community, get rid of anything that isn’t working, and outsource when possible. These four easy strategies will help you be ready for an abundance of clients!
