Did you know that only half of the small businesses will survive the first 5 years in the industry?
Other statistics also show that only 33% manages to go through 10+ years.
According to Australian research, small businesses account for nearly 98% of all Australian businesses, employing 2.2 million people.
In order to make your business survive the first five years and continues to grow throughout the next five, you’ll need to know the ways of managing small business growth.
Work on branding
Your business’s identity is one of the first aspects to work on.
You’ll need an eye-catching logo and an authentic name to make the business familiar and instantly memorable.
A professional-looking website is a must, alongside a regularly updated content on it. Building your online business space is vital for your business to grow.
Today’s customers will do the majority of their shopping research online, which is why you need to do your best to create a recognizable online presence and for an identity that will make everyone know it’s your business just at the look of your logo, for example.
Don’t forget to constantly invest in social media presence.
Hire people to take care of your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other accounts because that’s where all the businesses thrive.
Put a focus on marketing
In today’s world, without a good marketing strategy, your business won’t exist.
Unless you’re present on social media, television, and even radio, you won’t be able to grow your business well.
To increase sales, you need to create and use a promotion kit, include any type of media into your opening or new products/service launch.
You’ll want your business to be known outside the borders of your country or even continent. Just because you own a small business in Australia, for example, it doesn’t mean your products shouldn’t reach European customers or the ones from the USA, for instance.
Word of mouth can also be a powerful marketing option. Just think about how many times you’ve bought a product or went to have certain services offered to you just because your friend had a great experience at the salon, restaurant, or gym.
Building a good reputation will be invaluable and allow you to have a successful business for years.
Be financially responsible
As a business owner, you need to take financial responsibility seriously.
As one of the things to do to avoid business failure, staying on top of the income and expenses game is crucial if you don’t want to find yourself bankrupt all of a sudden.
Tracking expenses, paying taxes, and repaying loans are just some of the financial tasks every business owner must be up-to-date with.
Many business owners can’t handle recording transactions, monitoring payments, and budgeting, which is why they decide to hire pros to do it for them.
If you don’t want to be among the 60 percent of small Australian businesses who went under within the first three years, you should hire a pro to look after your finances.
For example, if you are a business owner from New South Wales, consider hiring tax agents in Glebe to help you keep the business running smoothly.
Not only will a professional tax agent make the bookkeeping out of your way, but they will also help your business maintain legal compliance.
Stay on top of customer service
A dissatisfied customer will not trust your business again if they once they’ve been offered poor service.
Not only will they refuse to come back, but may also leave negative feedback on your social media platforms, and cause a massive negative impact.
Therefore, one of the vital steps in growing your business is constantly improving customer service.
Loyal customers will spread the word about your business and come back to you, which will make your business advance day in day out.
Think about investing in staff training, take a look at your return policy, and make a few changes if needed.
Just by improving your response rate to emails and other messages, will make your business more attractive to your customers.
Related: 10 tips on how to not give up after a huge business failure
Final thoughts
Running a small business can be overwhelming and demanding. However, if you’ve finally decided to make your dream come true, you should follow all the steps to making it grow year in year out.
Don’t be afraid to take chances, but also don’t be lazy and think success will come on its own.
It’s essential that you work on your branding, come up with creative marketing strategies, pay attention to customer service, and make sure your finances are in order.
When all that’s sorted, you’ll have no trouble managing your small business’s growth.