Start Pill
A solopreneur has taken on the tall task of starting a brand all by themselves. An ambitious professional has taken over the family business amid challenging circumstances. A stay-at-home mom is trying to get her personal fitness brand off the ground. Perhaps a scenario similar to those above is where you find yourself as you attempt to grow your fledgling company.
Understanding how to run a business successfully is complicated enough. Trying to propel the brand forward and scaling up is another level entirely. With so many tasks to complete just to stay afloat, how can you even start to think about expanding in the future?
Whether you are running a venture all on your own or working with a small team of ambitious individuals, fostering growth for a startup can be challenging. Fortunately, you can look to the examples of others for inspiration. Here are 6 habits of highly effective businesses that have done what it takes to grow their brands.
Building Positive Culture
People are your most important resource, and the internal culture has a direct impact on the relationship between workers and their company. Fostering connection, setting clear expectations, and rewarding your employees for great work can help improve the culture within the business and pave the way toward higher productivity. Employee turnover can delay progress and drain your resources, but if you can retain all your workers as they grow in their skill sets, your business will be much better off going forward.
Investing in Leadership Learning
Nobody is the perfect leader, especially in the early days of a startup. You are going to make mistakes and have gaps in your knowledge. Effective businesses are run by people who are committed to becoming better leaders for their companies. Upskilling is crucial for decision-makers because the responsibility of guiding the brand forward falls on their shoulders, and they need to have a good idea of how to do that. Invest in your leadership skills via coaching, reading leadership books, or engaging with a more experienced mentor.
Outsourcing Tasks/Resources
As a business scales, so too do its needs. The bigger you get, the harder it will be for your team to manage all that growth. Preparing for growth by outsourcing certain processes and operations can free up your team and funds to focus on other initiatives. You could consider migrating your online applications and data to the cloud with the help of services from getgsi.com to avoid paying for local servers and online infrastructure. You could hire an outside firm to handle accounting and tax procedures. Another option is to look for manufacturers so you don’t have to create your product in-house. Finding strategies to outsource can create space for growth.
Employee Development
Successful companies are willing to invest in their team members. You can do this not just with incentives and reward programs, but by subsidizing employee development. Offer to pay for certain classes that teach workers new skills that can be applied within the company. Look for group opportunities like business conferences or symposiums that your employees can attend to become more effective workers. Host some training in-house that goes beyond the basic requirements of job descriptions. By investing in your team, employee retention will improve and the people that stick with you will become more invested in the company’s success.
Adapt, Adapt, Adapt
Many things change over time, including technology, culture, customer needs, and business innovations. With the current pace of the business world, you can hardly afford to become set in your ways as a decision-maker for the brand. Never say no to new ideas simply because they are new. Be willing to research them and consider their effects on the company’s potential.
Stay Connected to the Customer
Whether or not you are successful as a company depends entirely on your customers. If they do not feel their needs are being met, they will look to your competition to do so. Staying connected to your customers is crucial for both short-term and long-term success. Stay up-to-date on the latest marketing trends. Moving your audience research initiatives in-house can ensure that your company is making smart decisions with marketing and product development. Build a community with your target customers on social media to increase visibility and trust for the brand.
Growing Companies Do Most if Not All of These
Look around at any of the most successful brands in your industry niche and you will start to notice a pattern. Those that have focused on priorities like internal culture, leadership development, outsourcing logistics, investing in employee skills, adapting to changing markets, and connecting with audiences tend to see the most growth. Pick a few of these habits to adopt in your company and you will be positioned well to grow in the future.
