Every successful entrepreneur wants their business to grow and to do it as soon as possible, so they can start maximising their profits. However, if you step up your sales before you’re in a position to service them, you’ll inevitably compromise the quality of your product and how you deliver it.
Today we’re going to look at 3 factors that need to be in place before you grow your company for you to continue to provide your product, or services, at the same quality level when you increase the amounts you sell or ship.
1. You need to have regular profits in place
A common mistake many businesses make is believing they can solve the problem of low sales by growing their business. However, what they should be focusing on is fixing the problem of low sales before spending more money. Getting the product mix right, marketing strategies that work and customers in place before taking the next step, will give you a clearer idea of what you need to do next. It helps remove risk and uncertainty.
Without profits you have nothing to invest, so how can you plan to hire more people, buy more products, or fulfil a larger amount of orders if you’re not making enough money. The more you borrow, the more you’ll have to pay back, so if you’re not making enough profit, you’ll be constantly playing catch-up.
2. You have repeat customers
Bearing in mind that most businesses get 80% of their sales from 20% of their customers, it’s important to have identified where your best repeat customers are going to come from, even if they’re not spending huge amounts with you yet.
You also need to have a steady stream of new customers in place, who have the potential to turn into repeat customers. Once your customers start placing challenging demands on you, either by increasing their orders, or ordering more frequently, then that’s a great indicator it’s time to grow your business.
3. You’ve done your homework and mapped out your growth on your business plan
The best way to eliminate risking compromising your service levels (and consequently your profits) when growing your business, is by having a firm business plan in place that will guide you through your expansion.
Writing down the measures you’re going to take to increase your offering and service more sales, will help you identify potential problems and make contingency plans. You’ll be able to see where you need to invest and how the whole operation is going to work on a bigger scale.
Inevitably there will be some element of trial and error to your approach, but learning from your mistakes will allow you to keep revisiting your business plan and revising it, based on what you find works for you.
Growing a business is a whole lot easier if you ensure these 3 measures are in place. It’s easier still, if you’re an online seller on Amazon, to use an automated business system to farm out the mundane, repetitive tasks.
Amazon Business Integration will automate the ways in which you add more products and some of your sales processes, freeing up your time to identify new products and work on your strategic approach. If you’re looking for a way in which to run your business more efficiently, please get in touch. Our system will buy you more productive hours in your day.
