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G. Martinez
G. Martinez is a guest writer to our site. You can find out more about her at www.womenled.org
Most small business owners wish there were more hours in a day to enable them to accomplish all their plans for company growth. The secret is working smarter, not longer, and putting a few strategies in place to maximize your efforts. MRHerrera Financial Ministry offers four proven ways you can expand your small business without burning the midnight oil.
- Network With a Purpose
Approach networking events as an opportunity to develop partnerships with other business owners whose products and services are complementary to yours. Before attending an event, make a list of other businesses you could partner with and identify the owner so you can make it a point to meet him or her. Have a couple of ideas in mind about what your two companies could do together to reach a wider audience of potential customers.
A great place to network is your local chamber of commerce. In addition to holding monthly member meetings, the chamber also sponsors public events where you can participate and raise awareness for your company. It also offers educational workshops with tips on how to build your business.
- Delegate Tasks
Try as you might, you cannot accomplish all the tasks of running your business and still have ample time left to create ways to expand it. Especially if you’re spending time running a business in tandem with other responsibilities like managing a household or earning an advanced degree.
Thankfully, you have multiple options to delegate many of those day-to-day necessities. This will also help your company run more efficiently, which saves you money as well as time. You can hire an employee for important tasks such as sales or administration and find a freelancer to build a website, create graphics or write marketing material.
It is also wise to automate some of your important processes such as payroll or accounting since this type of detailed work is best left to professionals to ensure all regulations are met. Your entire business can reap the rewards of setting up an organized system. By tapping into financial software for your consulting business in tandem with an accounting professional, you will have everything you need right at your fingertips such as real-time insights, automated workflows, and a strong financial data hub.
- Get Active on Social Media
The U.S. Department of Commerce states that e-commerce sales increased by 32 percent in 2020 and now account for 14 percent of all sales. Many of these start with a customer learning about a service or product online on Facebook ©, Instagram © or Twitter©. That is why developing and maintaining an active social media presence is crucial to the growth of your business while providing several benefits:
- Public awareness
- Event promotion
- Targeted advertising
- Opportunities to interact with customers
An important aspect is the publication of content that educates, informs or entertains current and future customers. This needs to be done regularly through blog posts, web articles, e-books or short videos on your website.
Consider also working closely with a reputable marketing agency, which can help you strategize beyond social media to build brand awareness and a top-notch marketing campaign to level up your company.
- Focus on Customer Service
Always make outstanding customer service a top priority for your business. This protects you from the damaging effects of unhappy people posting online messages about bad experiences with your company. A business grows organically when the public knows it genuinely cares about its customers and offers products and services to help them lead a better life.
Adopting these four initiatives for your company will help your small business expand to reach new customers and satisfy the needs of your current ones. It also frees up time for you to focus on generating new growth opportunities without burning the midnight oil.
