How to grow your small business with these essential strategies

You can grow your business using marketing, investment in new infrastructure, building a team, and by automating a business. But to do this you have to follow some basic business strategies especially if you started a business with low funds and without any prior experience. I found these strategies very helpful and effective in my own business. And it helped me a lot.
That’s why I am sharing the same business strategies with you to grow your small business into a large, big, and consistent source of income.

Let’s Start!
The one-line secret to growing the business is learning from your past year, month, yesterday business and career mistakes. That’s it. And you get this advice many times. But what are those business mistakes that you didn’t know you’re doing, but not learning.

Following are the business growth strategies from our common mistakes.
It means to turn your mistakes into new business growth strategies. If you learn this article completely, it will help you to grow your business and career faster than ever. The following suggestion is based on my personal mistakes and experiences. I mean here to help you to grow your business and career. It’s for learning the purpose, you can customize and ignore all these, I don’t force you to follow.

1. Never Depend on One Income Source

Most of the people are unable to achieve financial goals when growing a small business into big. There are many reasons but the common mistake is we depend too much on one single source. We feel a sense of comfort and satisfaction after getting consistent cash flow from one source of income. Such as if your current income is 500 dollar a month from one source and the target is 1000 dollar income and you will be lucky to get 700 dollars in a month then it will be satisfying for many.

But when this fixed income, consistent cash flow accidentally stop then it’s a most frustrated, confusing, negative situation in the business. And it’s because you depend on one source of income. Even you lose your savings to pay bills and office rent till you don’t get next client, next income source and next sell. And you will start again at 0. And I think relying on one source of income is not a way to build financial stability and it will never allow you to expand, grow your business.

So the solution for you is to manage your time wisely. Spend your time on most productive things. And the most productive thing for a small business owner, solo service provider and home-based income earner to use your time to build another income source.
Such as if you’re a web design service provider and you’re working for one client from a few months, and getting consistent income then remember, it’s time to start looking for next client. If you’re earning a good income from your services and have 2-3 clients in hand, then start building passive income source, so that it will grow with the time. Etc.

In summer you get fruits for a mango tree. And in the rainy season, you get from the apple tree and in winter oranges from an orange tree etc. It means you plant fruits and plant for each season with verities so that you will never feel a shortage of fresh fruits. Multiple income sources are like a garden with different plants.
So the lessons are:
1. If you’re getting leads for travel business from Google Adwords, then now start to build or blogging on your business website. Learn
2. If you’re earning and getting paid from online clients then start promoting your services to offline clients.
3. If you’re earning a good amount of money from one website then start building the next website.
This is the way to grow your business and income. When you have consistent cash flow and income in your business each month, you can grow your business. When you have money, you can hire new employees, you can buy a new WordPress theme, you can promote your business online, you can hire a content writer and you can enjoy your time.
Else if you have a single source of income and that is not permanent (government job) and you’re enjoying the remaining time in watching funny YouTube videos, using social media after finishing the client’s works then I don’t think this is the way to build a great wealthy and healthy business for your own. (But if you have another idea then please comments.)

2. Don’t’ change your mind in the middle of the bridge when following your goals.

I think it’s good to cross the bridge and then turn from the other side. I mean it’s not that bad to re-think about the business goals. For example, if your 1st business goal of this year is to re-brand your business.

But after 3-4 months, you can change your mind and start ignoring the 1st goal and try thinking on different goal then at the end of the year, you will have nothing in your hand. It’s because you’re trying to pick many things, and not able to decide which one I have to pick first, 2nd and third. And in the meanwhile, your competitors crossed the bridge and they picked the things they were looking for.

Many of us did this business mistake last year. Mistakes help us to learn. But we have to learn from our mistakes and from others mistakes too. And it should be the fastest.
These business mistakes happen when you find new information, especially on the Internet. But I will suggest that everyone’s business strategy can be different. And you have to stick with your strategy. You can make that better, by adding the lessons of others.

So the solution to mind change and goal change problem is to make an executable plan. And you don’t need to make its final plan. It can be a rough and raw business plan.

So raw business plans help you to see the direction when time and situation change after a month in business. In small business time, situation, cash flow change like a season change.
In the small business, things change like a season so when having a rough plan for any situation (Predict) then you can keep moving with the required speed. And you can recover immediately from low cash flow problem, lack of customers, lack of website traffic, and lack of workforce faster.

So don’t plan half-heartedly and believe in your strengths, god and believe in your dreams and it will help you to grow your small business into big business this year.

3. Self-Doubt

Self-doubt is one of the biggest problems for small business owners and solo entrepreneurs. Lack of confidence in their own capabilities, strengths, skills, knowledge prevents many people in achieving business and career goals. There are many reasons, why someone does not have confidence.
I think the following are the common reasons:
1. Overthinking
2. Too many precautions and limits.
3. Comparison with other people.
4. Overuse of social media.
5. Too many expectations.
6. Lack of discipline.
7. Too many mentors.
8. Lack of Yoga and meditation.
9. Over-analysis.
10. Late waking up habits.
Etc.
If you want to test, do the above things for a day. And you will see how negative it is.
You know that no one is perfect.

If everyone was perfect, then why the world is facing the employment problem, if everyone was perfect then why crimes are happening each day if everyone was perfect then why the world is facing environmental problems.
My dear friend, you’re unique, you have some great abilities, you have the power, you have the knowledge, and you know everything that you need to be done to become successful in business.

But the problem is you’re thinking that is it perfect or not? Looking for perfectionism is very risky. You just need to keep going whatever tools, plans, knowledge, and skills you have, it does not matter. You will get everything on the way, just start fighting.

You don’t start the destination from 4 lanes, you start from a small, tiny path from your home, and those small tiny paths lead you to the four lanes and six lanes. Achieving business goals is like driving a car from small tiny roads to four lanes. Change the gear when required. And never stop learning and analyzing the road signs and signals and obviously your goals.
No one cares about you and but you need to care about yourself. You have to keep learning, building, and practising daily to make yourself powerful, expert and creative. Don’t lose your focus.
I hope you get my points.

4. Incorrect method of saving money

When you’re growing a small business into big business online or offline then you need money every time. But due to lack of knowledge and thinking, money problems happen with every entrepreneur. Many of us are not able to save enough for car, bike, home and family due to following incorrect methods of building financial stability. I think, the one incorrect method is saving all the money in one bank account.
How is this incorrect?
For example, you want to buy a car from your income and you’re trying to save the money. You need $5000 upfront payment to buy a car and you want it within six months. You managed to save $3000 after personal and business expenses. And you saved all the money in one fixed bank account such as RD, FD.

You’re happy and you have to be, it’s because you’re working hard.
But after 4 months, you need some money immediately. There are many reasons: Might be you need to pay school fees of your kids, might be there is your wife’s birthday, might be there is lack of cash flow in a business, might be clients do not pay you and you have to pay rent.
Now the situation is changed. You’re negative, you become frustrated, you start over-analyzing and over planning, and finally, you give up on your dreams.

Now you withdraw money from the bank. It’s because you did not have the options. You did not ask for the money from parents, friends and loan. And it’s good.
You can’t compromise the happiness of the family. You didn’t want to remain the office rents and bills pending.

But then what about your car and dreams?
This happens due to bad saving plan and business methods. But the lesson is here. Save the maximum part of income for your dreams in a separate bank account. Save emergency expenses in a separate bank account, save some part of income for the family. And try to move towards your goals with proper financial planning. And keep increasing the cash flow as I mentioned in the 1st point. Walk and run with the balance not a matter if you’re 2 months late in achieving your dreams.

5. Do not get trapped in team-building activities.

Many solo tech entrepreneurs are as great as a team member. They were the most reliable and productive employees for their company when they work for others.
Even after starting a business, they are great. And work very hard and wear many hats. And they are even good at multitasking. But they get problems and find it tough to build the team. They want to expand and grow the business and they look for support.
It’s obvious to hire talented people to grow business. But many failed to get the right talent. Even paid and trained people left them after six months.

It’s a problem with many big companies. The problem is on both ends. People looking for jobs, don’t’ know what they want to do and in which field they are good. Even they were unable to find a guide. And they paid money to the job/placement agencies but not satisfied after placement.

And on another side, business owners and especially new entrepreneurs don’t know which one talent is the right fit or not for their business.

So if you’re one of those small business owners and solo entrepreneurs then following tips will help you.

• You hire fresher or hire an expert but make sure that they know the value of your business, the vision of the business and business ethics.
• Do not hire people without proper plans and until you do not have funds to pay them regularly.
• Create weekly project execution plan so that you can delegate and set goals for the team.
• In an interview, ask the candidates for their habits. Such as morning routines. Ask, what are their career goals? How they are looking to achieve those goals. Etc.
So that you get an idea that which type of person is good for you? Hiring means investment on people and you will get the ROI on the team, based on your selected candidates.
• Look closely at their behaviours with you and other team members. Track their daily office habits, when they come, when they go. How they are performing etc. So that you can delegate them the task and projects accordingly.
• Make a boundary. So that when they cross their limits such as late response to chat messages, delay in delivering projects, come late in the office, go early, unable to meet deadlines etc. many times in a week or month. Then you need to talk to them. You need to educate them. You need to give them time. But when limits are overs and then it’s time to leave them humbly with proper respect and salary.
• You also need to learn inspiring project management skills. You can use project management apps. You have to learn the things that matter in team management.
• If you’re unable to delegate and not able to build the team so now you need to hire a manager.
• You can also use online applications to automate daily business tasks such as social media marketing, customer support and data analysis.
• Plan in advance how you’re going to pay them.
• You should have an idea and proper vision of how they will bring money to the business.
• Don’t force anyone to work with you, instead, inspire and lead with examples.
• Delegate the works, based on their skills and talent.
• Pay them on time and create incentive plans.
• Spend some personal time such as office party, travel etc.
• Never expose your income status and financial situation of the business, especially when it’s low.
• Do not expose the whole business plan.
• Give them gifts and appreciate and promote the right candidates.
• Do not hire anyone until you’re not ready mentally.
• You can hire people department wise. Such as expert in social media marketing, an expert in WordPress, expert finance, an expert in management, an expert in dealing with clients, an expert in customer support. And you should find out before you hire that in which department you need help.
• You not only need to keep motivating employees but also need to show/share business tricks with them. It’s often the case, many employers motivate employees even daily, but even after that, the team is unable to perform great.

It’s because motivation can’t work alone, they need to business tricks that help them to generate sales and leads.

For example, they are motivated to call new prospects and attend product enquiries, they are motivated to work longer hours but they are unable to convert those prospects into buying customers. That’s why more than motivation if you teach them how to convert the calls/emails/message/traffic into buying customers/clients then they will be able to generate leads, and it will be more than 1-hour motivation lecture.

• Don’t ask for reports every hour, tell them in the morning and ask for the reports of the day in the evening. And the best formula when building the team, is that sit with them, see them how they work, observe their behaviours. Don’t react immediately but plan how to improve their weakness into a strength.

• Build people, they will build your business.
Etc.
Many entrepreneurs and successful business owners, managers are great in team building. That’s why today’s big companies are big. But everyone face team building and management problems. It’s all about how smart you’re then others. But try to do it with honesty and with a higher level of integrity.

6. Be smart in your business dealings and communication.

Do not talk too much about your success and failures. Just be normal and serious. Learn the intentions of others, people, before even they start talking to you. Tell what is important, urgent and use each second of your time to achieve your business goals. Do not open your cards until the other has shown their cards. But if you had to show first then do not show all the addresses together (strategy and plans). Be smart.

7. Expect Less and Work Hard More

Expect less business growth but work hard for more. I mean Karma is more important than your expectations and wishes. Your each morning goals should be to do the karma not matter whatever will be the results.

That’s it what I learned so far in running my own business. Might be I am wrong. But these are things that happened to me in my business.
I shared with you. I hope it will help you.
And the last thing of this article is “never stop experiments, innovation and creativity.

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