You started your businesses out of love for what you do, and you believe that passion is a crucial ingredient to achieving success. Running a business gives you a sense of accomplishment and pride – this is what makes every entrepreneur tick.

Yet, the real work comes in when you need to grow your business into a bigger enterprise. It is a process that requires a whole set of new tactics, creativity and skill set different from the ones you employed when you started the business.

Growing a business is like raising a teenager; it takes many sleepless nights and a lot of time, money, and effort.  The journey might be gruelling, but it is all worth it when you get to the destination and grow a business that lasts for generations to come.

We remind you that we are always here to help, and below is a list of multiple ways growing your business can be achieved organically or through an acquisition:

Increase incoming sales leads

The number of incoming leads will determine the number of prospective customers you get. This totally depends on the means you use to attract prospects to your company.

Lead generation is usually done through advertising or improving SEO for your business’ website. This requires a marketing budget and a good advertising strategy.

Once you have an understanding of how to attract leads, remember that in order to initiate a meaningful conversation, your leads need to have reliable contact information. Therefore, whatever the means you use to attract leads, you need to make sure the client has the means to input their contact details, and they trust you with their personal contact information.

Part of finding new business leads involves structuring a marketing experience that makes it easy for customers to engage with your company. Here are some ideas:

• Create a form on your website to make it easy for visitors to inquire about your products/services
• Make it easy for a potential lead to call your business to set up a consultation
• Create a social media account and allow potential leads to contact via direct messages

Convert your prospect into customers

Another important aspect is to create a winning strategy to convert your prospects into customers. You will need an effective sales strategy, improve your sales efforts, and be able to answer the following about your prospects:

• What are your prospect’s key needs?
• Does your prospect have a budget?
• Will your product provide value for the prospect?

Once you can answer the above questions, you can formulate to your prospect how your product or service serves their key needs. Having a good sales pitch is part of the equation – this can be done by consulting with a professional or by taking a sales pitch course.

Always remember that communicating your value to prospects will increase referral chances. Even if you are unable to solve your prospect’s needs, if your prospect understands the value of your product or service, they may be able to refer you to more suitable prospects.

Increase your sales efficiency

Business is all about beating the competition, and if you want to grow your business, you need to be faster than your competitors. Analyze your sales process and find a way to make each step more efficient for the buyer.

One of the ways to work smarter, instead of harder, is by using strong sales tools to increase productivity – you need to use technology.

For example, analyze your customer relationship management tool (CRM tool). A good CRM is supposed to provide good visibility into sales opportunities and allow you to track deals as they progress through the sales pipeline. If your CRM is not providing you with insights about your sales progress, then you need to think of investing in a new CRM.

Other creative ways to increase sales efficiency:

• Sell more to existing customers
• Increase the number of sales channels
• Focus on the most profitable opportunities

Grow your business through an acquisition

Growing business organically is important, but one of the ways to grow your business to the next level can be through a strategic acquisition. Growth through acquisition can be a powerful strategy – the possibilities are endless: acquire new products/skills, access to new markets, or create synergies with competitor businesses, etc.

Usually, acquisitions are a part of broader growth strategies known as “buy-and-build”, “roll-up,” or “consolidation”. However, before pursuing these strategies, it is important to come up with a strategic justification for the purchase, for example, aiming to improve economies of scale, capacity utilization, or transform the business entirely.

• Economies of scale – this concept is particularly important in those business models that have high fixed costs. If by acquiring another business, usually a close competitor, you can increase the scale of your own operations while keeping fixed costs under control.
• Capacity utilization – many would consider this a subset of gaining economies of scale. However, gaining capacity utilization is usually tied to increasing the ability to sell more products by acquiring more manufacturing capabilities, sales capabilities, or even acquiring R&D activities.
• Transformational merger – this type of merger usually changes the nature and operations of a company. For example, by acquiring another firm, a business can gain new markets, new sales channels, or gain a new product portfolio. It is important to note that this type of merger involves significant operational challenges.

So, what’s next?

First, fine-tune your organic growth strategy. Some of the ideas outlined above can give you a head start – however, organic growth alone may not help transform or grow your business to the level that you desire.

In that case, you need to devise a growth strategy and pursue strategic planning. One of the best ways to start is to get in touch with business advisory experts like us – we’re happy to answer any questions.

McCay Duff LLP in Ottawa for trusted business advisory strategies

Let the team of financial experts at McCay Duff LLP help you develop a strategy to take your business to the next level. Our professional accountants can assist you in fine-tuning your hiring strategy and guiding you through setting appropriate targets. We develop creative and efficient accounting, business advisory and tax solutions that help our clients achieve their financial goals. To learn more about how we can help you and your business, contact us online or telephone at 613-236-2367.