As an entrepreneur you already know that starting a business is not an easy task, however, when you finally succeed in starting your business, you still face a lot of challenges. Scaling your business is hard. It takes considerable effort.

In the beginning, it means wearing different hats. It means dealing with sales and marketing. It means understanding taxes and corporate compliance. It involves having to interact with customers on a daily basis. And so much more. At the end of the day, it takes its toll on you.

Roland Frasier, a business growth strategist, has a unique approach to scaling businesses. As a principal of Digital Marketer and Native Commerce Media, and CEO of War Room Mastermind, he knows a thing or two about the online marketing world.

Frasier, who builds and scales seven, eight and nine-figure businesses tells me that there are loads of ways to grow a business quickly. But, only 15 core strategies that will truly make a real impact on your bottom line. Some are time intensive at the outset. That much should be expected. But, the benefits and profits will ultimately make them well worthwhile.

Like anything else in life or in business, you have to put in the time if you’re looking to reap the benefits. Don’t focus on the short-term outcome of your work. Look to the long term. Build sincere value and look to help your customers. Genuinely care. That should be the foundation. After that, it’s simply a matter of taking action and putting in the work to scale.

So if you have an existing business, this article will show you ways you can grow it and keep it going.

• 15 Ways to Grow your Existing Business
• How can you Grow your Business Without Spending Money?
• How can you Grow your Business Online for Free?

15 Ways to Grow your Existing Business

1. Build a sales funnel

The first way to quickly grow your business is by building a sales funnel. If you don’t have a sales funnel, you’re making a monumental mistake. Sales funnels can help to automate your business. It helps you to scale and grow quickly and easily. Sure, there’s some front-end work involved. Obviously. But, once those processes are in place, it’s smooth sailing from there.

Read Also: How to Start your own Online Business from Absolutely Nothing

Frasier says that every sales funnel needs to be carefully conceptualized before it’s created. Consider the different funnels first and foremost. Whether it’s a free-plus-shipping offer or a high-ticket coaching funnel, it’s important to build your automated selling machine to quickly scale and grow your business.

2. Utilize a customer management system

Manually tracking transactions is hard. No one wants to do that. It gets too cumbersome as the business grows. If you want to scale quickly, use a customer management system. There are plenty to choose from. But, it really depends on your line of work. Of course, cloud-based software like SalesForce is always a viable option.

Quickbooks can help you with the accounting. InfusionSoft can also assist with sales and marketing. There are plenty of CMS systems, most of which integrate with other cloud-based services. Find what works for you and utilize it.

3. Research the competition

When going to market, and you’re really looking to get your offer to the masses, you need to research the competition. Frasier says he uses two platforms to conduct his research. The first is Similar Web. The other, AdBeat. Both provide competitive intelligence. It’s your chance for x-ray lenses into all landing pages, ad copy, and other stages of the funnel.

This allows you to uncover any advertiser’s online strategy. Find the ads that have been running for the longest and emulate those. That’s the quickest way you scale any business. If it’s proven and it’s working for your competitors, it’s likely it’ll work for you.

4. Create a customer loyalty program

Loyalty programs are great ways to increase sales. It costs up to three times more money to acquire new customers than it does to sell something to an existing customer. Other resources pin this number anywhere from four to 10 times more. However, any way that you slice it, acquiring new customers is expensive.

Frasier says that building a customer loyalty program will help you retain customers. It might also help you attract new ones as well. If there’s a clear incentive to spend more money with you, it’ll pay off in the long run. Build an attractive loyalty program and make it accessible to your existing customers and watch sales skyrocket over time.

5. Identify new opportunities

Analyze new opportunities in your business by understanding your demographic better. Understand everything from distribution channels to your direct competitors, and even an analysis of foreign markets and other potential industries. There are likely dozens of new opportunities you could pursue immediately with the proper amount of analysis.

6. Build an email list

One of the most best and most effective ways to grow a business quickly is to build an email list. Clearly, that means you need to have a lead magnet. Why else would people subscribe to your list? And, with a lead magnet, comes the necessity for a sales funnel. Look into companies like Aweber, ConstantContact, ConvertKit, Drip, GetResponse and others for building and managing your list.

7. Form strategic partnerships

Strategic partnerships with the right companies can truly make a world of difference. It could allow you to reach a wide swath of customers quickly. Identifying those partnerships might be easier said than done. But, look out for companies that are complementary to your own. Contact them and propose opportunities for working together.

8. Leverage global platforms

In the e-commerce business selling products? Why not use Amazon’s FBA service? In the business of selling services? Why not use Upwork? In the business of renting vacation homes? Why not leverage AirBnB, InvitedHome, HomeAway or other global platforms? Find a platform that’s reached saturation and use it to grow your business quickly.

9. Licensing deals

Doing licensing deals is a great way to grow your business without too much-added effort. If you have a product that you can license to others and share revenue of, that’s an ideal way to grow quickly. Taking a popular or successful product and bringing it to a company with a large footprint can help you achieve market saturation quicker.

10. Consider a franchise model

If you have a successful business, and you’re really looking to grow quickly, consider franchising it. Although franchise costs are high and moving to a franchise model is complex and takes a lot of marketing know-how, it could make all the difference if you’re truly looking for quick growth.

11. Diversify your offer lineup

Look into diversifying your offers. What complementary products or services or information can you offer in your business? In order to grow, you need to think about expansion. Identify new opportunities within your niche. Uncover the pain points. What else can you sell to your clients. Where else can you add value in the exchange?

12. Build passive income streams

Growing a business takes significant effort. If you’re dealing with razor-thin margins, consider building passive income streams. This way, you don’t have to worry so much about keeping the lights on, so to speak. Passive income will afford you the opportunity to make mistakes and not have to lose your shirt. It’ll keep you in business and provide a basis to grow and market and scale quickly by giving you ample resources.

13. Acquire other businesses

Sometimes, acquiring other businesses is a very quick way to grow your own business. If you can find competitors or businesses in other industries that would complement your own, you could use them as platforms to scale fast. Take a look within your industry and even outside of it to find potential for potential opportunities.

14. International expansion

Can you expand internationally? Can you take your existing offers and scale them internationally? What would it take to do business in Canada or Mexico or Europe? If you have a converting offer, international expansion could be a quick way to grow. You’ll incur some costs. Sure. But, the potential for profits could be massive.

15. Create a webinar

Webinars are a great way to promote any product or service. It can also help you grow any business relatively fast. Webinars provide an automated selling tool for literally taking any product or service to market and reaching a wide audience quickly. The webinar medium is great for captivating audiences to clinch sale after sale, automatically.

How can you Grow your Business Without Spending Money?

We have already share some tips on how you can grow your business, however, some of the methods mentioned above might require some money. Here are some methods you can use if you are trying to save cost in your business.

1. Bill faster

Your accounts receivable can count for 40 to 50 percent of your actual assets. Don’t batch invoice; bill as soon as you can. When payments are delayed or never arrive at all, you start to introduce cash flow problems that can seriously hinder your business ability to survive (let alone grow) even if you have plenty of business. 

2. Simplify your business

Weed out the unprofitable and the hard-to-sell. As much as possible, use data to help you make decisions, and be willing to cut things that cost too much to deliver or don’t sell well. 

3. Streamline your marketing message

But don’t stop there! Test different versions of your messaging on your website, in calls to action, and in your email marketing messages.

Aim for a pithy message that addresses a pain point and inspires action. Develop a user or buyer persona to help you hone in on who exactly you’re trying to reach. Read “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath.

4. Increase your business’s visibility

Learn about simple SEO techniques that can help your business be more likely to show up on the first page of search results. If you have a brick and mortar location, make sure you’ve claimed your business on Google.

Resist the temptation to run your business through your Facebook page or any other third party page—you’re at their mercy every time they change their algorithm or your ability to reach customers. Not sure if you’re in search results already? Google your business name or some industry-related queries and see if your site shows up. Something like [type of business] in [your location]. 

5. Learn to delegate

Figure out what you do that turns dollars. Then delegate the rest. Your investment in training others to do work you don’t have time for, or that someone else is better suited for will pay off. 

6. Look for and reward efficiencies

Encourage employees to explore more efficient approaches to their tasks instead of relying on their standard way of doing things.

Run the numbers to figure out at what point it makes sense to transition from spreadsheets to a simpler to use business dashboard. Or when to switch to an automated payroll service instead of spending 10 or 15 hours on doing it manually each month. 

7. Don’t forget suppliers

They might not be on your payroll, but they are more apt to do a few things for you at no charge because you really take care of them.

Figure out the balance between holding payment as long as possible (while still respecting your vendor’s payment terms) and exceeding expectations. 

8. Work faster

If you can condense three four-month jobs into three three-month jobs, you can do one more job in the year.

This ties back to the “look for and reward efficiencies” tip. If you can find a way to automate time-consuming and mundane tasks, do it, so you can focus on doing things that bring in cash. 

9. Reward your team when they meet or exceed expectations

A 5 percent bonus is cheaper than a 20 percent increase in costs. Conversely, don’t be punitive when someone makes a mistake.

Encourage your team to take calculated risks. Some of them will pan out, some of them won’t. If you only bet on the things you’re sure will work, you may win, but probably that you’ll miss out on a lot of opportunities for revenue-generating innovation. 

10. Define and stick to your project scope

Make sure you’ve clearly outlined (in writing) project scope, and don’t be afraid to charge your customer for changes. Put that option in writing too. Don’t let project creep cut into your profit margin. 

11. Be available to the media

Offer to be a spokesperson on your specialty when your local media need an expert opinion. Send press releases regularly, and don’t be afraid to send over a head sheet ever quarter that reminds press of your areas of expertise. 

12. Give something away

Give something valuable away on your website, at your front counter, when you send out your invoices, and when you deliver goods. This should be free to you, but valuable to the recipient—for example, coupons or a “how to.”

13. Promote your business consistently

Highlight offers, features, promotions, and news in your email footers, invoices, and email signatures. Make sure the information you’re providing is relevant and consistent across the board.

14. Be part of the social media conversation

Have an active presence on social media. Respond to customers when they voice complaints or concerns in those channels.

But, don’t stretch yourself too thin. Do some research to figure out what social media platforms your target audience uses and focus on one or two of them. Remember, you get what you pay for, so don’t expect to experience wide reach without promoting your postings. 

15. Become a trusted advisor in your industry

Become a trusted advisor in your industry. Be willing to share your knowledge and expertise freely through web forums, blog posts, and in FAQs on your website. That said, check yourself any time you find yourself delivering a sales pitch disguised as something more helpful. 

16. Get your supporters to refer you

Check out “make a referral week” to learn more about how referrals can build your business. Ask your customers to leave reviews. Respond when you get a negative one, and thank those who take the time to speak positively about your business.

How can you Grow your Business Online for Free?

It is important for you to turn to the internet when trying to grow your business, there are two reasons for this. First, everybody is online including your customers. Secondly, internet provides some of the best free ways to grow your business.

Considering these reason, here are some ways you can grow your business online.

1. Deliver High-Quality Content

Creating high-quality content is important whether it’s a company blog or a product description. It’s all about engaging the audience and giving them what they need: information.

This information needs to be delivered in a way that keeps readers connected. Avoiding text blocks, separating points with headers and keeping the language easy to absorb is only the beginning.

Another important aspect of content to keep in mind is remaining factual. Always base your material on evidence you can collaborate with other sources. As we live in an age where “fake news” is tossed around frequently, you want to make sure your business is seen as a legitimate source.

In other words, you want your company to be viewed as an authoritative figure. Authority works to improve brand reputation as well as search engine ranking.

High-quality content also involves other elements outside of text as well. While content is and always will be king, the delivery of that information is greatly important.

Site Speed
As many as 53% of people on mobile devices give up on a site that takes more than three seconds to load. This means the site as a whole needs to be optimized for speed. If you use platforms like WordPress, you have access to a variety of tools to improve the performance of your website.

Design Layout
More than one-third of visitors will leave a site if the layout is poor. Color choices, graphics and even the overall layout of the site’s functions can cause issues for certain users. You need to deliver a good visual and functional experience for everyone visiting the website.

Avoid Fluffing
Don’t try too hard to achieve a certain word count. This often leads to what’s known as, “fluff.” It’s content within an article that doesn’t seem to have a purpose other than stretching out how many words are on a webpage. It can confuse your readers as well as search engine bots for optimization.

2. Be Mobile-Friendly

Everyone needs to have a mobile-friendly website today. More than 54% of people browsing the Internet are doing so from smartphones and tablets. If your site isn’t responsive or has a mobile variant, you may alienate more than half of your consumers.

Being mobile-friendly includes a variety of adjustments to the website.

• No Flash video: Most mobile devices do not work well with Flash.
• Optimized images: Rendering graphics takes bandwidth and time. Always use the correct sizes for your site.
• Tappable elements: Text links are often too small for thumbs. Use larger buttons that are easy to touch or click.
• Easy navigation: Don’t overfill the navigation menu. If it fills the screen of a smartphone, it often appears overwhelming.
• Easy Functionality: Visitors should be able to easily manage the site from a 3-inch screen.

Some aspects of being mobile-friendly do not require a monetary investment. Things such as modifying images to fit, redesigning the menu bar and more can be done easily by yourself.

In fact, using systems like WordPress hosting already does most of that for you. It’s already mobile responsive without making adjustments.

An easy way to get an idea of what your site looks like on a mobile device is to shrink your computer’s web browser. By adjusting its height and width on your screen, you can get an idea of what people see when looking at your webpages.

3. Integrate Social Media

One of the beautiful things about social media is how effective it is without actually spending money. It’s free to create a profile on most platforms and can easily put the business in front of thousands of potential consumers.

However, it’s not enough to simply have a Facebook or Twitter profile. You can’t just put up a business page and hope people flock to it. You have to be a part of the premise behind the idea: being social.

Adding Daily Posts
The number of times you should post content on social media varies for businesses. While some find it successful to do five or more, others do well with just one. The point is you need to be active if you want attention from your target audience.

Images Matter
When posting content to social media, use images or video. Graphics engage users far more than simple text. For instance, posts with images on LinkedIn receive 200% more of an engagement rate than regular text. On Twitter, videos are 6 times more likely to be retweeted than simple photos.

Share Meaningful Content
Don’t simply share random pieces of information. Post content your audience will want to read. This includes sharing any websites you find online, retweeting relevant accounts in Twitter or perhaps even commenting on someone’s post. Keep it all centered around your industry and niche.

Adding Social Buttons
Nearly every website has social sharing buttons on its content. Don’t forget to add it to your store items or service offerings as well. You never know who is looking at your pages, and he or she might share your goods with their own followers.

4. Focus On Your Target Audience

Focus the business on your particular audience. The more you streamline content, products and services, the higher the quality of your visitors. This means you’ll target those who are most likely to spend money with your business.

For example, you wouldn’t want to create guest blog posts on a website that centers around lawn care products if you sell kitchen appliances. Any marketing you do needs to stay relevant to what you offer.

The target audience will influence everything from the type of content you create to the brands of products you stock. This is a key element you’ll need to discover if you want the best chances of success.

One mistake a lot of new businesses make is trying to target “everyone.” This often leads to a haphazard marketing strategy and winds up being overly expensive in the long run. Keep your focus on those who are going to directly benefit from the business.

Later on, when you’re ready to pump money into ads, knowing your audience is going to save you a lot of money. Instead of showing ads to anyone, you can fine-tune them to show only to those people who will most likely make a purchase.

If you’re unsure who your target market is, take a look at free tools like Google Analytics. By going over the activity data of your website, you can get an idea of who likes what when it comes to your business. Many eCommerce platforms come with a variant of these tools as well.

Another good way to scope your potential buyers is to take a look at your direct competition. How do they have their content set up? What seems to be working well for them? Answer these questions and make your site better.

5. Diversify Your Operation

Growing a business often involves diversifying the operation. There’s nothing wrong with including elements that will help you draw in a larger crowd or benefit from existing traffic.

Being diverse with your business grows income while keeping the company protected from market shifts. Like the adage goes, “Never put all of your eggs in one basket.” Keep the business flexible and easy to adapt to trends and changes.

Here are a few points of what I’m talking about.

• Expanding Inventory
  A lot of eCommerce owners will expand the inventory to include complementary items. For instance, many computer and gaming shops will also stock caffeinated drinks or snacks for those who want prolonged game play.
• Ad Revenue
  Adding things like Google Adsense to your site helps generate a bit of additional revenue. Some don’t like this as it has a chance to take potential buyers to competing websites. However, some business models may excel with things like Adsense.
• Promote a YouTube Channel
  Many companies will develop a YouTube channel to accentuate their businesses. Not only does it engage your audience, but you can earn ad revenue from the experience as well. What about creating a channel showing people how to use your products or services?
• Start a Reseller Hosting Company
  If you operate online or in digital marketing, you’re going to meet businesses that aren’t fully aware of handing the hosting aspect of their operation. Offer to help them both in the marketing and with their hosting through a reseller hosting business your start. In reality, maintaining a number of sites when you have processes in place is quite easy. 

In some instances, it may take a bit of imagination to figure out how to be diverse. In reality, it’s worth the time if you find something that fits your business and niche perfectly.

Take a look at Microsoft, for example. The company has its hand in computers, gaming, phones and more. The company’s portfolio is incredibly diverse, which means a failure in one aspect will have less of an impact on the company as a whole.

6. Take Advantage of Free Marketing Tools

The Internet is full of free marketing tools from email marketing campaigns to designing perfect social media graphics. While it may take a bit of effort to find tools that work best for you, the end result is a far more streamlined system.

Let’s say you want to publish a post on your Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts for the business. Instead of going to each one of these, which is time-consuming, you can use free tools like Buffer and simultaneously share the post with all three.

In fact, there are a number of social media marketing tools you can start using right now to boost your business. While some may have a monthly subscription fee, many will have free or trial versions you can test out immediately.

If you have a website on WordPress, there are thousands of plugins you can choose from to grow your business in 2021. For example, you can check out HubSpot’s free WordPress Plugin that offers a rich set of tools to boost your sales and marketing performance: CRM, forms, email marketing and more.

If you don’t have your business listed in Google, you’re missing out. Because of how local searches operate on the search engine today, people in your area may never see your business listed in the results page.

One of the first things you should do right now is use Google My Business. It’s a free platform rich with data while making sure your local customers know where your store is located.

The Internet is full of free marketing tools from email marketing campaigns, like HubSpot’s Free Email Marketing, to designing perfect social media graphics. While it may take a bit of effort to find tools that work best for you, the end result is a far more streamlined system.

While you may receive more benefits from certain marketing tools by paying for premium service, sometimes the free versions are all you need. The point is you need to push the limits of these free tools to benefit.

7. Network with Complementary Businesses

A great use of your time and effort is to network. Forming a symbiotic relationship with another business can offer excellent rewards. One of which is getting your brand in front of consumers who may not know it exists yet.

Read Also: What are the Best Courses on Making Money Online?

Networking takes nothing but effort on your behalf. This involves reaching out to other businesses or individuals who are in your industry but not exactly competing for the same buyers. In fact, a lot of large corporations join forces simply to expand their reach.

For example, look at most non-proprietary smartphone manufacturers. Samsung partners with Google to create Android phones. This gives Samsung an operating system while letting Google run the software. Both companies benefit from each sale.

Google reaches Samsung fans and Samsung reaches Google fans. It’s a win-win for both brands.

Even the smallest of businesses can network together to expand their reach. It doesn’t have to be as involved or vast as Samsung and Google. If two companies can benefit one another, then offering a network is ideal for all parties involved.

Networking properly requires some kind of common niche or logical connection. After all, you don’t see the laundry detergent brand Tide network with Hillshire Farm, a business well-known for its smoked meat and cheeses.

Finally

As you can see, it is possible to successfully keep and grow your existing business. But you have to be ready to put in the work because scaling a business is not an easy task. The good news is that the rewards are worth all the efforts you make.