How to Scale your Local Business

Launching a small business is one thing, but successfully growing it might be much more difficult. Scale in the wrong way, and you’ll run into problems with inefficiency in the future – and correcting these problems is almost always more difficult than it would have been to plan and execute your scaling from the start.

Create a value proposition

What is it that your company does? Does the market as it stands fulfil this purpose, and is there demand for your services and products out there?

These are questions you’ll want to ask when devising your value proposition. You’ll need to know exactly where the value of your company lies, and be able to communicate this to customers and would-be collaborators. This is something that you can do for yourself, perhaps with the aid of a third-party financial consultant.

Learn from your competitors

Some of your competitors are going to be more successful than others. It’s part of your job to look at what distinguishes those businesses, and learn to emulate them. Conversely, you’ll want to look at the mistakes made by your rivals, and think about ways in which you might avoid making the same mistakes.

By doing this, you can glean insights specific to your location, and to your line of work. For example, you might notice that certain businesses favour print advertising over advertising on social media, and that they get different results from those who take a different approach. You might write these insights down in your business plan, and use them as a basis for your business model.

Have a good marketing strategy

Most of your outcomes when it comes to marketing (and just about everything else) are going to stem from a relatively small amount of inputs. This tends to be known as the 80:20 rule, or the Pareto Principle (after the Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto who made it popular).

In the context of marketing, this means that 20% of your customers might be responsible for 80% of your business. Looking to preserve these clients and keep them loyal, while still seeking to reach out to new clients, is critical. You’ll need an approach to marketing that successfully does this if you want to grow your business.

Invest in staff

High rates of staff turnover can be extremely damaging to your business. When an experienced member of the team leaves, they take all of their knowledge and skill with them, while necessitating that you recruit, induct and train someone new. Staff retention should therefore be considered a priority.

Staff who feel that they can fulfil themselves within your business are more likely to stay around for the long term. By offering training, you can create the right environment, and provide an opportunity for progression. You'll also help to foster a more productive workforce in general.