The Sapphire Bay Best Growth Opportunities Checklist For Businesses - Ideas to grow your business

Growing your business is one of the most important aspects to your continued success. Even if you are comfortable with your current business size, it is always important to think about your opportunities to ensure a steady stream of earnings.

In this article we talk about Sapphire Bay Partners' Best Growth Opportunities Checklist for businesses, which can help you consider ways to maximise your performance.

Best Growth Opportunities Checklist for Businesses. Sapphire Bay Partners

To help you grow your business, we have compiled a list of actions to consider that can help you take your business to the next level.

They fall into the following buckets:

1. Existing customer opportunities

2. New customer opportunities

3. New markets with existing products or services

4. New products or services

5. Profit Improvement

While not every idea in this article will be applicable or implementable to your business, it should hopefully get you thinking about opportunities you could consider, if not these ones.

So, let’s dive in and see which opportunities could work for you.

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1. Existing customer opportunities

When growing your business, focusing on existing customers can be an easy place to start.

Your existing customers already know your brand, services and/or products, and they trust you, so there’s already a good foundation for growth.

Target your best customers with offers

• Identify the customers which generate the most profit for your business or who have the most potential for additional sales.

• Actively engage with these customers to gain more sales.

Research other products and services to sell

• You always want to be innovating and evolving.

• Consider online surveys or ask customers directly to discover what other products or services they might be interested in.

Consider a loyalty scheme to make you "stickier" to customers

• Building a loyalty system (loyalty tiers, points or benefits) is a great way to encourage more frequent purchases, track your customers’ buying habits and make them stickier to your offering

Develop a database to target offers

• Collecting customer emails or addresses enables you to contact them with special offers, new items or useful information.

• Run in-house sales sessions or employ a sales consultant.

Train your team to improve sales

• Ensure your business has friendly, helpful team members / staff that are well trained to take advantage of converting enquiries into sales.

Incentivise your team to sell more

• Encourage your staff on-sell to existing customers by offering incentives.

Build a community through social media

• Start a social media campaign to increase the profile of your business and encourage additional purchases.

Identify cross-sell opportunities

• List the products or services your customers have previously bought and then match other items that you could sell to them.

Review your business projections

• Go over your business forecast to evaluate and update anything that’s recently changed.

• Check you’re still on track for your growth goals and make any necessary adjustments to ensure you hit your targets

2. New customer opportunities

Attracting new customers to your business within your existing market is a way to grow your business without altering your services or products. No matter what stage of your business, acquiring new customers is an important goal for continued success.

Create a targeted marketing plan

• Outline a specific marketing strategy that’s aimed at new customer segments. Then develop a precise plan to build awareness, leads and conversion into paying customers.

Use direct marketing that gets results

• Measure the response rates to each area of your direct marketing campaigns, whether it be email advertising, direct mail, or online click-throughs.

• Invest more of your marketing budget into those that deliver results.

• There may need to be some testing or seek out professional assistance

Find ways to generate word of mouth

• Build up positive word of mouth referrals by getting testimonials from customers, encouraging regulars to refer their friends or family to your business, speaking at events, and networking inside business associations.

Identify referral opportunities

• Consider who in your network could give you a warm referrals to potential customers or promote your product or service.

Increase web traffic by improving your search engine optimisation (SEO)

• Spend time determining your site’s keywords and keyword phrases so it attracts the right traffic to your business and optimise your page to drive improved search engine results

Purchase search keywords to improve your online exposure

• Consider paying for search engine marketing so that when customers search for your business products or services, your web address comes up ahead of competitors.

Create regular posts

• Keep your content fresh and updated by writing regular blog posts.

• Regular blog content can be important for increasing your SEO and driving traffic to your website.

Sapphire Bay Partners Tip: Deliver value to your client online

Run demonstrations or workshops to educate customers

• Run demonstrations, workshops or events to showcase your business to new customers.

3. Expand into new markets with existing products or services

New markets can represent a fundamental shift in your business size. And it’s exciting!

Sometimes, only minimal changes to your existing offerings can provide initiatives that could materially grow your business.

Consider a new marketing medium to increase your profile

• Get your goods or services in front of a worldwide audience, by potentially entering a new platform for your business, such as YouTube, TikTok or another social platform.

Use Google Global Market Finder

• Google’s Global Market Finder generates a spreadsheet based on monthly keyword searches that ranks the opportunities of doing business in other locations

Exhibit at trade events or conferences

• Build connections, demonstrate new products and develop stronger relationships by presenting your business at trade shows.

• Or consider presenting at conferences where the audience will find your offerings relevant

Make your product available for purchase online (if not already)

• If you’re not already selling your goods or services online, think about changing your business model to offer online purchasing.

• Even if you are a service provider like a lawyer or physiotherapist, consider a product which could be passively sold online (e.g. like a book or a course).

• At a minimum, make sure you have an online presence where customers can learn about, engage and contact you

Investigate opening a new location

• Research the feasibility of successfully opening a new store, office or branch.

Bid for a major contract

• If your products or services are suitable for government agencies, departments or larger corporations that release tenders for work, you could tap into a new market you hadn’t considered (or hadn’t had the courage to consider) before.

[Side note: we recommend all our clients read The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz. Very often, it takes just as much effort to deliver on something BIG as it does on something small]

Investigate wholesaling and retailing

• If you’re a wholesaler, consider opening a retail outlet (or vice versa).

• Just make sure the strategy works with your business model

Consider buying a business in a different market

• Identify if you can enter a new segment by buying a business that already exists in a different region

Export outside of Australia or target inbound overseas customers

• Develop an export plan to identify the feasibility of selling outside Australia.

• Or sell your services to inbound overseas customers

4. New products or services

Strategic growth outside your core products and services is always a thrilling opportunity, with huge potential.

Conduct research to identify new ideas

• Capture feedback and/or conduct surveys with your current customers to help inform new product or service development.

Consider the next step in your offering

• Make sure you are deliberate about your next offering.

• Consider what your core market is today and think about a strategic expansion “Beyond Your Core” (see Sapphire Bay’s article about Growth Beyond the Core)

Test new offerings with your customers

• Before introducing your new product or service to the broader market, consider testing it first (consider testing with your best clients to further make them feel important).

• Start “lean” and iterate

Conduct a financial feasibility of any new product or service

• Calculate whether you can make a profit from your planned new product or service.

• Carry out some market research to be sure of demand.

• Again, start “lean” to test your new offering

License other products

• Consider licensing another business’s products or services to extend your product or service range. It’s especially effective if they’re complementary to your own offerings.

Look to joint venture with other businesses offering different products

• Keep an eye on other successful businesses within your industry, or those targeting markets that you’re interested in, and look at how to develop a strategic alliance.

• A recent example we have been seeing is electricians and plumbers combining to offer Gas & Electric Safety Checks mandated on landlords for their rental properties

Import products unavailable in Australia

• Search for products that aren’t available or are difficult to obtain in Australia, but will potentially open up new domestic markets.

Protect your intellectual property

• Once you’ve developed some intellectual property (IP), it’s vital you protect it.

• Consult a lawyer of have a look at the IP Australia website for detailed information on what you need to do to protect your business’s ideas

[Side note: if you need a referral to an IP lawyer, don't hesitate to contact us at letstalk@sapphirebay.com.au. We are happy to point you to lawyers we know and trust. We get no benefit or reward from it and we don't mind if you are a client of ours or not. We just like to help!]

5. Profit Improvement

Profit (and your cash flow) is what it is all ultimately about. Make sure whatever initiative you implement has a clear plan to deliver profit, either through increased sales or through saving you time, money and resources.

Automate processes to save time

• Look at current processes you could change to save you time or money such as changing from manual systems to automatic ones to free up time for more important tasks.

Lower energy use (and other consumption)

• Look at each area of your business separately and come up with ways to reduce consumption.

Reduce operating waste

• Identify how to produce more efficiently to reduce leftover materials, which will lower your cost of goods sold.

Investigate ways to improve output

• Improve your output to deliver your products or services faster. Add staff, upgrade to the latest equipment, or change software; try anything to speed up production.

Negotiate prices to improve margin

• Does your product have any leverage to negotiate a higher price? Consider the impact on demand if you have price sensitive customers.

Identify overheads you can reduce

• Audit all your expenses to see what can be lowered without affecting your business operation

• Re-negotiate with suppliers and reassess any subscription services or set pricing plans.

Build a process to collect money owned to you faster

• Take a close look at your debtors to establish which ones need extra motivation to pay you sooner

• Consider changing your policy towards new debtors by tightening payment terms or adding a discount for quick payers.

The closing word

Key reminders:

• Be proactive – no matter what business you are in you should always be looking to grow your business

• Be strategic – consider your business and what will work best

• Be deliberate – ideas can be fleeting at first, but once you decide to execute, be deliberate and give your initiative(s) the opportunity to succeed with time and resources

• Involve your team – no matter the concept, engage your team; seek input and empower members to run with the concept

• Know your core products, customers and numbers – use this knowledge to grow your business in a way that makes sense for you and your customers

• Learn – no matter the outcome, even if your initiative proves not to be feasible, make sure you take learnings from your efforts

Implementing a growth initiative should be exciting for your business. Enjoy it and, no matter the outcome, make sure you learn from the experience and consider your next initiative.

And if you need any assistance, don’t hesitate to contact the Sapphire Bay Team. We’re always happy to help – we love seeing our clients grow!

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Sapphire Bay Partners is always delighted to help. We love working with dynamic, proactive clients and helping their businesses grow.

If you would like assistance, feel free to reach out to us.

Tel: + 61 3 9563 4666

Email: letstalk@sapphirebay.com.au

Important Information

This is general information only so it doesn’t take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Sapphire Bay Partners is not giving you advice or recommendations (including tax advice), and there may be other ways to manage finances, planning and decisions for your business.

Carefully consider what’s right for you, and ask your lawyer, accountant or financial planner if you need help. Alternatively, feel free to reach out to Sapphire Bay Partners for assistance or referrals to an appropriate professional. We’re always happy to help!