Business Growth Q&A

In achieving such rapid growth, creating a working strategy and business plan is most difficult work to do. Your complete business growth is depends on your strategy, marketing work, quality of your products, your team work. If you want such rapid growth in your business, you must need to take these all together.

Hi Shane,

Engaging users is one of the tricky parts of business, especially in an online world.

Since it is much easier for businesses to start up due to lower overheads, competition is rife!

My suggestion to you is to build a brand that employs a journey for the user so that they have to keep coming back to get the rest of the story, and/or read the next chapter. There is no specific business model for this as it can be moulded to suit any business.

There are such things as 'opening loops' - essentially it is starting the beginning of a sub-plot and not finishing it off until a later date. You only have to think of popular tv series such as "Lost" or "24" to understand what I mean. The end of the episode keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat wanting to know what happens next.

If your product/service is for perishable goods, then making sure you announce or make known that you have new products available soon is one way to get people to come up. Similar to opening a loop, a teaser of the next products to come, maybe showing 4 out of 12, can get users to come back.

There are many more ways to engage users but that should help you thinking on the right track.

Humans are curious creatures and we like to finish off what we start so use that to your advantage.

It all comes down to the business you are in. However this is what works for me:

Telemarketing:

Start calling your target market and make some sales, that is the fastest way. Sort out who is your target market, buy that data and either make the calls yourself or get someone to do it for you.

Presence:

I go to conferences for one of the industries I am in, that way I can meet potential clients face to face. Having a presence makes a big difference.

Follow up:

Once you have their details, follow up with them and ensure they have all the information they need to make the sale. If they say it isn't the right time, send them an email every 6 months to let them know about new features, offers or anything you feel is appropriate.

Why not:

If they don't want to use your service ask why! If it is because your competitors have added features, better deals or simply a much better product, then you need to develop a better product.

The truth is unless you have a "World First" product your potential clients will most likely be using a competitors product. If they are not using a competitors product you may need to educate them as to why they need it in the first place.

You have to stand out from the rest, the size of a company doesn't mean they will have market share for ever. There is always going to be new companies coming onto the market with new ideas and processes. We have taken market share from very large companies in Australia because we have a better product, we develop it all the time and our competitors simply can't keep up. The only sales pitch they have is their name, and when that no longer works they have two options; give up or develop.

If a potential client tells you that a competitor has a better product, don't bother calling them once you have caught up the the competitor. Call them once you are a step ahead and stay a step ahead.

From a delivery point of view, using drone for delivery will provide better security so that you don't have to be home to receive the delivery.  Currently you need to be at home or office to sign for delivery of parcels because leaving parcels in front of the house or unit is not safe as it can get taken or stolen by other people but if drone is delivering the parcel, the drone operator can leave the parcel in a more secure location such as the backyard of the house, or in the balcony in a case of apartment.  This would save time for everyone involved in the process of delivery.  No driving to post office or depot for the receiver and no repeat delivery for the courier.

I have to respectfully disagree with Roland. Firstly, not turning a profit when the business reinvests to allow growth is the way many businesses secure their future. And, suggesting that Amazon (or Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Tesla etc) was a hobby, or in any way wasn't a business until it turned a profit is incredibly naive. Any market changer, innovator, research company or business developing hardware will have a long period before turning a profit, while operating very much as a business.

To answer the question though, it depends on the type of business, its present financial position and the state of the market. I agree with Roland that the key is margin, but there is rather more to it. Revenue, and cashflow, is king - it is what allows a business the means to keep running. At the end of the day, there isn't much point making huge margin on each sale, if you have to lay off all your staff between projects.

If you are in a product business then marketshare is vital. Your revenue streams may be from customers other than those who are actually the end user of your product. This means you need marketshare, to be growing, and to be keeping your product current. It's actually the same for service businesses.

If you want your business to do more than sustain itself at its current level, you need to grow. The right time to do so will be when you have cashflow and resources within your team to invest in it - or if your business is just starting out, for as long as you can sustain the growth phase.

Businesses come in many shapes, sizes and make ups. If you want your business to grow and are able to invest your "margin" to do that in lieu of turning a profit then do so - you know your business, your customers, and what your team can do!

Customers, or users, are the new profit to many modern businesses. Strong market position means your business can face the future, and when it comes time to turn a profit it will likely be much bigger than focussing on taking whatever you can at the start.

When you are content with the amount of time vs financial gain that you return.
In my case, it's using the profit to buy assets that give me a passive income. 
This in turn gives you choice. 

 

That depends on the definition on "critical mass" :)

I'll say the growth of OzBargain has been pretty linear for the first few years. I guess there are some milestones.

• First million page view month: Sept 2008 (2 years after launch)
• First million sessions month: July 2009 (2 3/4 years after launch)

By looking at the traffic graph (from Google Analytics), I see a pretty flat line with some dips (Jan/Feb slow season). One significant event was at the beginning of 2011 when I go full time working on OzBargain. No, the traffic didn't shoot up (angle of the slope stays the same) but that just means I was more serious about growing it.

Looking back I realise that we are more "reactive" (adding resources when we have to) than proactive, but that's just me more used to slow and steady approach.

When you start a domestic cleaning business, it's likely you'll do much of the cleaning work yourself, with the opportunity to hire experienced and skilled cleaners and take a step-back later on. Having the state-fo art cleaning equipment is the best way for you to gather some new, repeat customers. You can always count on your friends aand relatives to suggest your cleaning to business to their colleagues at work, and, suddenly, you have a lot more jobs to do.