9 Business Strategies to Maximise Growth in 2023

With a good business coach, you will grow your business, get your team working effectively and free up your time. You will develop a successful business – a commercial, profitable enterprise that can work efficiently with or without your presence. Our lead Business Growth expert recently shared her top strategies for growing your business in 2023.

 

1.) What do you want to achieve?

Ultimately, your business is there to provide what you want in life: money, time, satisfaction, success and much more. Often, business owners we communicate with have forgotten why they started, they are so consumed with the day-to-day work. Now is a great time to refocus on your dreams to ensure your business takes you where you want to go.

“Being in business should give you more life” – Brad Sugars.

 

2.) Set Business Goals

From dreams we need goals – shorter-term specific focuses to move towards our dreams. Great goals are amazingly powerful – they will give you momentum, direction and purpose, and ultimately shape the person you become and the business you create. The best way to formulate strong business goals is by using SMART Goals. SMART Goals allow you to have a clear goal which can be measured, a time frame which motivates you and holds you accountable if you don’t achieve them.

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

There are two main ingredients in setting strong goals for your business:

CLARITY – This is all about having a clear objective because if we don’t know what it is that we want to achieve, then how are we meant to be successful at achieving it?

ACTION – This is about putting together a plan to achieve your clear objective, and taking action on it – Doing It. Taking these steps will ensure you achieve success.

Find out more about SMART Goals.

3.) What is your Target Market?

Think of the last time you bought something that had been marketed to you. Were they talking to you personally about a need that you had, or were their marketing materials specific to you?

If so, they targeted you as their IDEAL customer! Take a look at your marketing, who is your ideal customer, and does your message resonate to meet their needs? The more personal it feels, the more likely they are to interact with your brand.

Finding your target market is a critical aspect of building a successful business. By identifying and understanding your target audience, you can tailor your marketing efforts to reach the people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services.

Here are some steps to help you find your target market:

1.) Define your product or service: You need to have a clear idea of what you are selling and how it benefits people. This will help you identify the characteristics of people who are most likely to be interested in your offerings.

2.) Conduct market research: Use surveys, interviews, focus groups, and online research to gather information about your potential customers. Identify their age, gender, income level, location, interests, and behaviour.

3.) Analyse your competitors: Identify your direct and indirect competitors and analyse their target audience. Look for gaps or underserved segments in the market that you can cater to.

4.) Create customer personas: Develop fictional profiles of your ideal customers based on your research. This will help you understand their needs, motivations, and pain points.

5.) Test and refine: Use your personas to test your marketing messages and tactics. Analyse the results and refine your approach based on what works best.

4.) Create your USP (Unique Selling Point)

What is a USP?

First and foremost, USP Stands for Unique Selling Point. A USP helps us to extract ourselves from price competition. It means we can differentiate ourselves in the marketplace, so when customers look at our services or products, they have something else to compare us on other than price, this in turn, means we can sell at a higher price level.

Example of a business’s USP:

We were working with a small roofing company, they were asked to find their USP that wasn’t based on price competition. The owner decided to offer his customers a unique guarantee:

• When on-site, no worker will swear or use blasphemous language
• All workers will always turn up on time
• Once work is complete, the company will ensure the property is left spotless
• If any of the above are compromised, the company will pay for another organisation to complete the job

The benefits of identifying your USP:

With our help, the owner was able to put the systems and processes in place to ensure these guarantees were met – team training, marketing strategy ect– and his roofing company went from strength to strength.

He understood his audience and what they wanted, developed his USP around these needs, and delivered on his promises. In turn, he was able to price his services at a higher level. Now take a look at your USP again – are you offering what your customers want?

Discussing these things will help you gain clarity on your vision, so don’t hesitate to get in touch if you want a chat about your USP. Click Here

5.) Develop a Business Plan

A business plan is a document that outlines your business goals, strategies, and steps to achieve them. It is a crucial tool for any entrepreneur or business owner, regardless of the size or stage of their business.

A well-written business plan helps you clarify your goals and focus your efforts on achieving them. It outlines the steps you need to take, the resources you require, and the timeline for achieving your objectives. It also enables you to make informed decisions about your business strategy, marketing, financials and operations.

It helps you identify potential risks, opportunities, and challenges, and develop contingency plans. Business plans allow you to set targets and benchmarks that you can use to measure your progress and hold yourself accountable. It enables you to review your performance and make adjustments as needed.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

6.) The Importance of Having Business Systems

Have you ever had a team member go on holiday, or worse, decide to leave, and suddenly you’re left wondering how these things got done in the business?

So you had this fantastic person who did so much for your organisation, and now they’re not there anymore, you don’t know how to do what they did? This is where systems play a vital role in keeping our businesses going.

If you don’t have a system documented or in place, then you will always be left wondering how on Earth that amazing person that has now left, did what they did.

In ActionCoach, we live by the phrase below:

‘SYSTEMS SAVE YOU TIME, ENERGY AND MONEY’

When this wonderful team member goes on holiday or leaves the business, you have a go-to system in place that means you can keep the work going. Furthermore, when you bring new people in, you can train them and get them up to speed in next to no time. Systems are a very powerful tool, and your business needs them!

7.) Improve your Time Management

Do you struggle with time management: you just can’t get everything done, or there are just not enough hours in the week, does it sound familiar?

It’s all about CHOICE – what we choose to do with the time we have:

• How do we make sure we’re doing the things that are important to us?
• How do we make sure we deliver what we need to deliver?
• After all, there are only 168 hours to do it each week, so how do we choose what needs doing?
• How do we prioritise?

We all know as business owners how difficult it is to find the time to do everything that needs to be done in our business.

4 Key Skills for Time Management:

ANALYSIS: Understanding and reviewing all the things we think we need to get done, the great big to-do list!

PLANNING: Deciding which of those things we are going to do, and when we are going to get them done

DELEGATION: Getting somebody else to do the thing, so it is getting ticked off the to-do list, but not eating up your time

SELF MANAGEMENT: Ensuring you do the first three things, committing yourself so you don’t get distracted by all the other things you could be doing

Sticking to this process has benefited our clients massively in the running of their businesses; it’s a good habit to develop, and if you really can commit, you will start seeing the difference in your productivity almost straight away.

Check out how the 80/20 Rule can help your business.

8.) Understand How to Sell

Business owners depend upon sales to provide cash flow and profit. Whether you do the selling, have others sell for you or any such combination, your revenue, profit and income will always reflect how well you turn prospects into paying customers.

Why do some owners and salespeople struggle while others find easy success?

No, the answer is not that they were born salespeople or they have a natural ability to sell. The truth lies in the fact that the key to sales success comes from three things – Attitude, Activity, and Ability.

The 3 Keys to Sales Success:

Attitude: How passionate are you about solving your customers’ challenges?

You must believe you can sell before you will successfully do it! But attitude is not just about you and your personal beliefs, especially if you have others selling for you.

What is your attitude about the products or services you offer? Do you and your team firmly believe you fill a need in the market? Can you deliver what you promise every time without fail? Do your customers get real value by working with your company or purchasing your products? 

If you or your team cannot confidently say ‘YES’ to these questions, selling will typically be a challenge. How do you fix it? Focus on improving your service delivery and get clear on the benefits so you (and your team) always have the ‘WE CAN DO’ attitude.

 

Activity: What are you doing to create new customer opportunities?

Many people may work hard, but don’t see the results because they’re not also working smartly, it’s all about the balance. If you do not generate enough activity, you will not generate enough sales and revenue. How much activity is the right amount? It depends on the sales and revenue goals you have set (and yes, you must have specific measurable sales goals).

To start, ask yourself two questions: what strategies, such as cold calling, digital marketing, direct mail, networking, referral programs, upselling, are you using to generate leads and how consistently are you using them? All too often, small businesses rely on one or two strategies and do them when revenues drop or they get around to it.

Next, look at the sales management system or process you use to convert leads to sales. Ask yourself: ‘what activities, such as follow-up calls, setting up meetings, doing estimates or proposals, and making presentations, must be done to turn a lead into a sale?’

Finally, set activity goals to support your revenue goals. The best way to do this is to begin with the end goal in mind, such as revenue targets or a certain quantity of new customers. Then, using your conversion rate, develop the number of appointments, proposals and/or leads you need to achieve this.

Note: If you do not track your conversions, start doing so immediately. All successful salespeople know their conversion rate(s) from lead to sale and you should too.

 

Ability: How well can you show the benefits for the customer?

To do so effectively, we must recognize two important factors. 

Firstly, buying decisions are primarily emotional, a desire for gain or fear of loss (or pain avoidance). 

Secondly, people buy benefits, not features. Therefore, success in sales requires that you know more than just the features of your products or services. You must know the benefits your products or services provide and understand the true emotional motivators for YOUR target customers. Having a strong understanding of both the benefits of your products/services and what your customers want helps you to sell your products and services effectively.

9.) Get Someone to Hold You to Account

As a business owner, it’s easy to let yourself off, to say “I’ll do that tomorrow”. As humans, most of us function better when someone else holds us to account. Find yourself a coach, or someone else who will push you to be your best, to challenge your thinking to do what you have said you will do.

Think about your favourite sports team or athlete, do they become the best at what they do on their own?

Of course not! They are surrounded by a team of coaches guiding them, testing them and measuring them, every step of the way. That is exactly what we do as business coaches; we give you all the tools and systems you need to succeed and help you put them into place. Once your business is running how you always dreamed it to be, then we will be there simply cheering you on from the sidelines, watching you soar.

If you are interested in finding out more about Business Coaching or how we can help your business, Click Here.