4 Ways to Grow Your Business

The first step in growing your business is to identify where the most likely opportunity for additional revenue might be.  There are several possibilities you can consider, all with varying levels of risk, effort, cost and potential rewards.  Starting with the strategies with the least amount of risk (and growth potential), they are:

1) Sell More to Your Current Customers
The strategy with the least risk, cost and level of effort is simply to sell more of the current product to existing customers.  If you own a café, it means selling a muffin to the customer that generally only purchases a latte.  If you are a winery, perhaps there is a market for your wine with a specialty label.  Or, perhaps you can identify new ways for your customers to use your product – like turning baking soda into a deodorizer for their refrigerator.  If you own a car wash, it’s selling the wax job along with the standard wash.

2) Expand your Market
The next strategy is to sell more of your current product in an adjacent market – such as another city or state.   If you have a physical presence, such as an ice cream parlor or hardware store, that might mean opening sister store(s) in nearby towns or malls.  If you offer a service, you could advertise and network in those same towns.  If you are a manufacturer, this means expanding your distributor base.  This strategy is a bit riskier than the first in that there are additional costs to enter the market and increased management required to oversee the new territories.  Additionally, you need to be sure that you can provide the same high quality product, service and/or experience to all customers – wherever they reside.

3) Offer New Products or Services
This strategy entails offering new products to new and existing customers.  If you are a wholesaler this might mean extending your line to include other related product groups.  For instance, if you are a distributor for sports equipment, perhaps you can extend your line to include some sportswear – like caps or gloves.  If you are a manufacturer of wood doors, perhaps you can extend your manufacturing capability to include garage doors or wood  countertops.  And, if you are a retailer, that might mean adding to your existing product lines – like housewares in a hardware store.  It is far less risky to sell new products to existing customers rather than developing new products and selling to a new market.

4) Develop Additional Sales Channels
This strategy involves accessing customers in new ways.  For example, if you sell engraved trophies out of a local shop, you might expand your market through the internet.  If you offer a utilitarian product or service, perhaps you can work with corporations to access their employees in exchange for a discounted rate – similar to group health insurance.  If you manufacture office furniture, you might access additional distributors or buying groups.  Taking it one step further, perhaps you can re-package and sell your goods under a private label – thus expanding your market without having to develop new products.  This strategy is risky in that it requires accessing new channels or markets that you may not have any prior knowledge or experience.