Member Article

Top 7 Ways You Can Expand Your SME Today

Scaling your business is a challenge. It takes a lot of time and effort, and you’ll likely have to don a lot of hats in the beginning, from promoting yourself to understanding taxes. We don’t usually think about how big brands got to where they are today, but the truth is that they would have been in your shoes at some point in time.

As an SME owner, you’re probably always on the lookout for business opportunities that will allow you to grow your company. Identifying these opportunities is crucial to expanding your business.

So, how can you go about expanding your SME today?

1. Implement a Growth Strategy

In 2018, there were 5.7 million SMEs businesses in the UK, which corresponds to 99% of all businesses in the country. Going from a small business to a medium-sized enterprise or even a large company requires having a plan in place. Creating a growth strategy for your SME is, therefore, of the utmost importance.

While you may want to do everything as quickly as possible, there are certain things you should consider before making important decisions. For instance, ask yourself questions like ‘where am I now?’ and ‘how do I get to where I want to be?’. Each SME is different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

You may want to start by identifying what makes you different from your competitors, and why your customers chose you instead of them. Once you’ve established your value, understand who your ideal customer is, define your revenue streams, analyse the competition, focus on your strengths and invest in talented people who can help you grow your business. Equally important is the flexibility to adapt to the constant changes of the market, which can help you to make impactful decisions that will lead to sustainable growth.

2. Adopt Technology

Technology is an integral part of our daily lives. No matter where we are or what we’re doing, technology leads the way. If you want to contact family or friends, for example, you pick up your mobile and text them, or if you want to find a job, you use online platforms or social media to explore new opportunities.

Business owners need to be able to use technology to their advantage. After all, using it can help SMEs respond quickly to changes in the market, as well as customer demands. Technology helps you to come across as reliable and professional, allowing you to streamline your services and helping you to connect with customers. Integrating technology into your SME also means you can manage your finances.

3. Build and Develop Partnerships

When thinking about expanding your SME, one of the things you should do is to build strategic partnerships with the right businesses. This allows you to take advantage of their contacts, while reaching a wide range of new customers. A good rule of thumb is to build relationships with businesses similar to your own, so that they can complement you and assist in your growth.

Building new relationships will create loyalty; your SME is not just another business that people know, but a brand that can be trusted. Companies are a lot more likely to invest in a business that they have a relationship with. In addition, developing relationships will create word-of-mouth, which is still important in the modern business world and will also create a positive image that businesses can ‘put a face to’, instead of thinking about your SME as a faceless entity.

4. Organise Finances

Staying organised is an important step to grow your SME. Take stock of your current finances, from detailed records of your business to your sales figures. This way, you can more easily identify financial trends and modify your structure in a way that can benefit you the most. For example, if you report increased traffic to your website (or increased sales) in a particular month, you can invest in extra business support during that time of year to double your sales efforts. Being able to fulfil orders quickly means you can sell more stock and increase profit.

5. Add New Products and Services

One of the most popular ways to expand your business is to start offering new products or services. This can be a difficult process, however, because you should first find out what your customers actually want. No point in sinking time, effort and money into a product only to see it fail. Extensive and thorough market research is, therefore, a crucial step before committing these resources.

6. Target New Markets

You can expand your business by targeting new audiences and territories. Marketing and selling your existing products and services to new clients in different locations or niches will open up new opportunities, such as reaching more people. While most SMEs will put their marketing efforts into targeting specific markets depending on age, location or interests, there may also be other markets that you’re missing out on, because you chose to stay within your niche.

Exporting products to other countries, for example, is a good way to widen your audience and can lead to stronger financial performance. It can be challenging to expand your business internationally, but you’ll find that it’s usually more than worth it.

7. Listen to Feedback

In order to improve your services and your business structure, it’s important to listen to customer feedback and implement changes that meet their suggestions. If your clients have a complaint, listening to them and then providing solutions to that problem will increase satisfaction and trust between you and your customers. And, of course, by implementing changes related to feedback, you can improve your business efficiency, which will help it to grow. Offering excellent customer service means your clients will not only remember you but refer you to others, as well.

This article was written by Richard Hepburn, Operational Manager at Gorilla Accounting, a technology-driven accountancy firm, exclusively for contractors and freelancers operating through a Limited Company.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Hartley .