To be successful, companies need to grow. Half of all new startups fail in 5 years or less. While the causes for failure may vary, it’s often a failure to grow — or a growth plan that leads to failures, such as cost overruns or an insufficiently researched market.
What are the best ways to grow a company? Since all businesses are unique, there’s no one-size-fits-all method. There are a host of ways to make sure that your product line, customer base, profit margin, or more grow. The choice of which is best for you depends on the nature of your business and the context of the methods chosen.
Here are some of the best.
- Create new processes
As a recent Harvard Business Review points out, innovative processes that will allow you to produce goods and services at a lower cost while maintaining or even hiking prices is an excellent way to grow. Can you pare down production line costs? Use AI more cheaply than people? Use the Internet of Things (IoT) for efficiency?
- Establish a value proposition and market it
What’s your value to your customers? Are you the cheapest? The fastest? The best? The most cherished? Once you establish what your value proposition is, create a marketing campaign and make sure every potential customer knows it.
- Add new experiences
The Walt Disney Company and other theme parks know this one well. Offer a customer who liked one experience a new, upgraded, more current model. A better roller coaster. A more immersive experience. But it works for a number of companies, from cookie sales to 3D printing.
Car manufacturers grow on new models.
- Upgrade models
This method of growing a business is well-known among car manufacturers. Every year, like clockwork, new models with upgraded and new features roll out. They can be marketed as upgrades everyone needs to have. Tech companies do this as well, as do cosmetics and appliance firms.
- Add new features
This is often a consumer favorite. Bells and whistles for pizazz or convenient new items can sell many a product. Cars are often sold this way as well, as are smart tech products, games, children’s toys, and more. Can you add voice-activated technology to your existing product? It’s a great way to generate interest and make your product a must-have.
- Sell to more customers
If you’re a local company, can you sell to a more national customer base? If you’re already national, can you expand internationally? But moving geographically is only one way of reaching more customers. Can you appeal to a different demographic? Make your product more appealing to customers who might be passing it by?
- Create new products
From Apple’s iPhone to Sweetgreens’ fast foodish but utterly healthy restaurants, new products are a tried-and-true method of generating new business. New products create a built-in new customer base and, at their most popular, make the world beat a path to your door.