Nobody starts a business with the intention of failure, but the statistics show that failure rates for startups in 2017 were as high as 90%, and so you should never assume that you are going to be in the 10% that survive. You are going to have to fight for your survival and continuously be on the lookout for ways to boost your business using a mixture of both traditional and innovative approaches. Here are 3 ways to boost your business.
1. Be Agile
You will no doubt have heard the word agile being used more and more in business, but what does it mean for you? Business agility falls into two categories:
- Business culture
With the greatest will in the world, if your business’s culture is not one that supports your vision, goals and objectives, your business will fail. You need to promote a culture of communication and collaboration to be able to deliver successful business solutions. By encouraging learning and autonomy in the workplace, your employees will work efficiently and productively to constantly improve the business within a progressive and agile business culture.
- Product development
The products and services that you provide need to be created for the market in which you are in. We live in a digital age, and that means that every industry is fast moving with new innovations emerging and customer needs evolving at breakneck speed. For your business to succeed, you need to ensure that it is responsive to these changes. This is a very different approach to more traditional business planning; an agile business focuses more on prioritizing than ever before.
How can your products be adapted to customers’ evolving needs?
2. Bundle Products and Services
Bundling is when companies offer multiple products or components together. Customers equate bundles of product and services with savings. Even if the savings that are made are nominal, the customer enjoys the benefit of having saved money and having received value. When customers buy multiple products from your business, it is a more efficient process and reduces the marketing and distribution costs that occur from single purchases, and so profit is increased.
However, profit only increases if your bundle options are effective; you need to really understand your business and your customers to make it a success. You must identify why your customers buy your products and how the bundle will provide them with a solution. You need to be flexible with the products that you offer and keep at the forefront of your mind that your bundles must always align to the multiple needs of your customers. You must also analyze the revenue and profits for both the bundled and unbundled options – if the bundled solutions offer no customer advantages or generate minimal profits, you should reject this strategy.
So, how do you get to identify what your customers want?
3. Talk to Your Customers
The customers that you currently have are the best resources you have to increase your revenue – they are already have experience of the products and services that you provide, and if you have provided them with a quality and positive experience, it is easier to upsell your offerings to them than to seek out new consumers for your wares. Customer retention is the key to having a sustainable business.
The relationship that you have with your customers puts you in the position to be able to analyze data that they provide you so that you can address any issues or challenges that they face when interacting with your company. Knowledge is power,and by arming yourself with information you can develop strategies and tactics to incorporate into your business to boost revenue. Have you heard about growth hacking and how effective it can be? For more information, make sure to read a comprehensive guide to explain how using customer data can be used to create multiple streamlined strategies to boost your business by efficient and proven methods. As you adopt these growth hacking approaches you will be able to test and evaluate which are best for your company, but you need to be agile and responsive to the findings.
Increasing revenue is your main priority. You need to continually enhance your business’s processes and procedures to develop a culture that promotes collaboration and communication so that it is responsive to the customers that you serve. Once you have an understanding of your customers’ needs and motivations, you are better placed to offer them products that provide real solutions to their requirements.