Business Growth Plan Elements – A concrete growth strategy is more than just a marketing strategy, it’s a crucial cog in your business machine. Without one, you’re at the mercy of a fickle consumer base and market fluctuations. So how do you plan to grow? If you’re unsure of the steps needed to craft an effective growth strategy, we’ve got you covered. Business Growth Business growth is a point where a business reaches where it expands and requires multiple avenues to generate profit. This can happen when a company increases revenue, produces more products or services, or expands its customer base. For most companies, growth is the primary goal. With this in mind, business decisions are often made based on what would contribute to the continued growth and overall success of the business. There are several methods that can facilitate growth which we will explain below. Types of Business Growth As a business owner, you have several growth options. Business growth can be divided into the following categories: 1. Organic With organic growth, a business expands through its operations using its internal resources. This contrasts with having to seek external resources to facilitate growth. An example of organic growth is making manufacturing more efficient so you can produce more in a shorter period of time, which leads to increased sales. An advantage of using organic growth is that it builds on self-sufficiency and avoids going into debt. Additionally, the increased revenue created by organic growth can help fund more strategic ways to grow later. We will explain it below. 2. Strategic Strategic growth involves developing initiatives that will help grow your business in the long term. An example of strategic growth might be designing a new product or developing a marketing strategy to target new audiences. Unlike organic growth, these initiatives often require a significant amount of resources and funding. Companies often first take an organic approach in the hope that their efforts will generate enough capital to invest in future strategic growth initiatives. 3. Internal growth strategy Internal seeks to optimize internal business processes to increase revenue. Similar to organic growth, this strategy is based on companies using their internal resources. The strategy of internal growth is to use existing resources for the greatest possible purpose. An example of internal growth might be cutting unnecessary expenses and running a simpler operation by automating some of its functions instead of hiring more employees. Internal growth can be more challenging because it forces companies to consider how their processes can be improved and made more efficient rather than focusing on external factors such as entering new markets to facilitate growth. 4. Mergers, Partnerships and Acquisitions Although riskier than other types of growth, mergers, partnerships and acquisitions can bring great benefits. There is strength in numbers, and a well-executed merger, partnership or acquisition can help your company enter a new market, expand your customer base or grow your product and service offering. Business Growth Strategy A growth strategy allows companies to grow their business. Growth can be achieved through practices such as adding new locations, investing in customer acquisition, or expanding a product line. A company’s industry and target market influence the growth strategies it will choose. Strategy, consider the available options and incorporate some of them into your business plan. Depending on the type of business you’re building, your growth strategy might include things like: Adding new locations Investing in customer acquisition Franchise opportunities Product line expansions Selling products online on different platforms Your industry and Your particular target market will influence your decisions, but it is almost universally true that acquiring new customers will play a considerable role. Not sure what your business looks like? Here are some actionable tactics to achieve growth. How to Grow a Successful Business Use a growth strategy template. Choose your target growth area. Carry out market and industry studies. Establish growth goals. Plan your course of action. Determine your tools and growth requirements. Execute your plan. 1. Use a growth strategy template [free tool]. Image Source Don’t rush in without planning and documenting the steps of your growth strategy. We recommend that you download this free growth strategy template and work through the instructions in the included section to outline your planned process for growing your organization. 2. Choose your target growth area. It’s great that you want to grow your business, but what exactly do you want to grow? Your business growth plan should focus on specific growth areas. Common goals of strategic growth initiatives may include: Increasing the number of employees Expanding existing office, retail and/or warehouse space Adding new offices or branches to your business Expanding into new regions, towns, cities or countries Adding new products and/or services Expansion of purchase locations (eg selling in new stores or launching an online store) Growth in revenue and/or profits Growth in customer base and/or acquisition rate of customers The growth plan may include more than one of the initiatives mentioned above, which makes sense: the best growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For example, increased unit sales will result in revenue growth and possibly additional locations and staff to support the increased sales. 3. Carry out market and industry research. Once you’ve chosen what you want to grow, you’ll need to justify why you want to grow in that area (and whether growth is possible). Researching the state of your industry is the best way to determine if the desired growth is necessary and feasible. Examples may include conducting surveys and focus groups with existing and potential customers or investigating existing industry research. The knowledge and facts you discover in this step will shape the expectations and growth goals for this project to better determine a schedule, budget, and end goal. This brings us to the fourth step… 4. Set growth goals. Once you’ve determined what you’re growing and why you’re growing it, the next step is to determine how much it will grow. These goals should be based on your ultimate aspirations of where you want your organization to be, but they should also be achievable and realistic, which is why setting a goal based on industry research is so valuable. Finally, take steps to quantify your goals in terms of metrics and timelines. The goal of “increase sales by 30% quarter over quarter over the next three years” is much clearer than “increase sales.” 5. Plan your course of action. Then outline how you will achieve your growth goals with a detailed growth strategy. Again, we suggest drafting a detailed strategic growth plan to gain understanding and buy-in from your team. Download this template This action plan should contain a list of tasks, deadlines, responsible teams or people, and resources to achieve your growth goal. 6. Determine your growth tools and requirements. The last step before acting on your plan is to determine what requirements your team will need during the process. These are specific resources that will help you achieve your growth goals faster and more accurately. Examples may include: Funding: Organizations may need capital investment or an internal budget allocation to complete this project. Tools and software: Consider what technology resources might be needed to accelerate and/or gain insight into the growth process. Services: Growth is best achieved with the help of consultants, designers or planners in a specific field. 7. Execute your plan. With all planning, resourcing and goal setting completed, you are now ready to execute your business growth plan and deliver business results. All the while, be sure to hold your stakeholders accountable by keeping the line of communication open and comparing initial results to projected growth goals to see if projected results can still be achieved or if something needs to be fixed. Your growth plan and the tactics you ultimately leverage will be specific to your business, but there are some universal strategies you can implement when you’re starting out. Featured Resources Free Growth Strategy Template Fill out this form to access your template To grow a business and its revenue, companies can implement different growth strategies. Some examples of growth strategies include: Examples of Growth Strategies Viral Loops Milestone Referrals Word of Mouth The “When We Zig Zag, We Zag” Approach In-Person Arrival Market Penetration Market Development Product Development Growth Alliances Acquisitions Organic Growth Social Media Excellent Customer Service 1. Viral Loops Some growth strategies are designed to be completely self-sustaining. They require an initial push, but ultimately rely primarily (if not exclusively) on user enthusiasm to keep them going. One strategy that fits this design is viral cycling. The basic premise of a viral cycle is simple: someone tries your product. They are given a valuable incentive to share it with others. They accept and share with their network. New users sign up, see the incentive for themselves and share with their networks. repeat For example, a cloud storage company looking to get off the ground might offer users a
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