Growing your small business can be challenging and there’s a lot to think about. However, you didn’t go into business by yourself to take the easy route and there are plenty of things you can do to grow your revenue. Let’s take a look at four of the most effective ways to dramatically increase your turnover.

1. Create a Five-Year Plan

It’s always a good idea to have a safety net in place. A cash reserve will help you to cover unforeseen costs and keep your business afloat should disaster strike. Speaking to Business News Daily, Jay Singer of Mastercard advised “it would be wise to have enough cash on hand to cover up to six months of your average cash flow.”

2. Create an Emergency Plan

If the covid-19 pandemic taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. In March 2020, the world quite literally changed overnight and it will never completely go back to the way it was. Rapid market shifts can and do happen, and the businesses who survive are the ones who prepare. 

It’s always worth having an emergency strategy in place. Think about what is most likely to go wrong in your business: 

• How could you continue to operate if you had to close your doors for a month?
• What happens if there’s a delay in the supply chain?
• How can you avoid making employees redundant during an economic downturn?

Use the pandemic as a learning experience and create an emergency plan so that your revenue won’t suffer during tough times. It is possible to continue to grow your small business revenue during tough economic times, so long as you have an emergency plan in place and are prepared to be agile.

3. Gain a Deeper Understanding of Your Target Audience

If you want to grow your business revenue, then you should strive to learn as much as possible about your target audience. One way to do this is through customer surveys, but there’s also a lot to be learned by simply listening. 

For example, if you’re looking to grow your social media audience, be sure to follow members of your target audience online. Observe them carefully: what type of content do they engage with the most? What kinds of accounts do they follow? How often do they post? Which social justice campaigns resonate with them?

Furthermore, try to have as many in-person conversations as possible with your target customers. Don’t try to sell, just use the opportunity to get to know them and gain an understanding of how you can solve their problems. This knowledge will be enormously helpful in growing your business revenue, because it will ultimately teach you how to sell to your ideal audience.

4. Prioritise Learning to Remain Agile

During the pandemic, the businesses that fared the best were the ones who demonstrated a high level of organisational agility. In order to grow your business revenue, you not only need to move with the times but actively leverage market changes to drive sales. 

It’s vital that you don’t grow complacent; as a small business owner, you should always be striving to learn something new. It’s the only way to stay ahead of the game. Make sure you stay up to date with current events, local news, online trends and changing customer behaviours. You can then use these changes to benefit your business, whether that’s gaining good PR by partnering with a local charity or getting involved with viral online trends to grow your social media following.

There are essentially two aspects to growing your business revenue: planning and education. By planning for the future and preparing for emergencies, you can create a roadmap to ensure smooth and steady growth. Meanwhile, you must continue to listen to your customers and educate yourself so that you’re able to take advantage of market changes and benefit from them, rather than being left in the dust. By being patient, putting in the work and pursuing these two avenues, you can grow your small business revenue steadily and effectively.

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