You’ve done it: cash flow is steady, customers are habitual, and finally, you feel like you’re truly thriving within your small business. Making it out of the survival zone is no easy task and worth celebrating. But with success, every entrepreneur knows that all too familiar call (even knee-deep in success) that you could be doing more.
No matter how you decide to scale, creating a business growth strategy is crucial. Small businesses can’t afford to take massive risks without putting their best foot forward. They need a clear, well-thought-out plan that addresses every aspect of their company and actually gets executed.
From this article, you’ll walk away understanding why creating a business growth strategy is so necessary, the most common ways small businesses scale, and how to create a clear and actionable strategy that addresses your company's unique needs.
A business growth strategy is a defined plan of action for businesses to expand their reach, offerings, and revenue. For many small businesses emerging from survival stages, leadership is faced with a critical decision that can determine the fate of their business: either they can disengage and enjoy profits, or they can reinvest and pursue expansion.
It’s not an easy decision. Many of these factors depend on the industry, business model, strength of the product or service, and the founders own desire to maintain or grow. Those that ultimately decide to play it safe aren’t necessarily making a bad decision either. Sometimes, it’s what’s right for the founder and business model (and why take the unnecessary risk?).
For the more ambitious, however, business growth strategies are essential. Leading into uncharted waters without a roadmap and chasing every new shiny venture will ultimately hurt you and your company in the long run. With a growth strategy, goals become clearer and more actionable for you and your team.
Before diving headfirst into creating a growth strategy, founders should evaluate their own business and truly understand if they're ready to scale. Below are the most common signs we’ve seen that are usual indicators towards growth:
This list is not exhaustive. There’s many other factors that can hold back a business from expanding, like a founder's own desires and the quality of present opportunities. However, if your business checks several of these boxes, you may be in a strong position to take the next step.
Knowing you have the foundations for healthy growth, you may be wondering where to start. Should you grow horizontally or vertically? Should you start hiring more team members? What expenses are worth investing in first?
Every business is different, meaning not everything will work for everyone. However, here are some of the most common ways small businesses can create growth, decisions which depend upon their unique models and goals:
To experience growth, many businesses find new markets to infiltrate and offer their services.
Example: A commercial cleaning company begins servicing medical offices after earning certifications for healthcare cleaning.
Providing more offerings can create new revenue streams and attract different customer segments.
Example: A landscaping company adds snow removal, allowing crews to stay busy through the winter months.
Campaigns and concepts that put customer retention first can create huge impacts in growth.
Example: A local bookstore hosts regular events like open mics and book clubs to build brand loyalty and create community.
For brick and mortar services and products, expanding to new physical locations is one of the more obvious expansion strategies to target new geographics and grow reach.
Example: A family-owned restaurant opens another location in a neighboring community where many of its customers already live.
Robust marketing and sales departments backed by unique ideas can transform stale companies into brands people talk about.
Example: A bakery starts posting behind-the-scenes videos on social media and doubles down on catering outreach, growing both foot traffic and large orders.
Making a commitment to the highest possible technological advancements for relevancy, quality, and customer satisfaction can give your business a cutting-edge advantage.
Example: A healthcare practice implements online scheduling, making it easier for patients to book appointments.
Partnership can aid in more revenue for both companies when built with intention and shared goals.
Example: A financial advisor partners with an estate planning attorney so clients receive more comprehensive support.
For businesses with a proven and repeatable model, franchising can be an effective way to expand into new markets, resulting in standardized and consistent operations.
Example: A specialty coffee shop creates easily repeatable recipes that allow franchise owners to deliver a consistent customer experience.
Additional funding can accelerate an already promising business model.
Example: A behavioral health practice receives venture capital to expand into new communities and increase patient capacity.
Though each one of these options can be effective, picking a growth strategy for your company isn’t something you can just choose at random. Honing in on a goal that’s right for your business takes careful consideration, a deep understanding of where your company stands today, and a clear vision for where you want to go. Having the right framework in place will allow you to do just that.
Below, you’ll find a step by step guide to knowing which growth strategy will be most impactful for your business. When deciding when, why, and how to grow, use this tool and go through every step through Assessment, Innovation, Planning, Execution, and Refinement.
The Big Question: Where are we now, and where do we want to go?
You can’t follow a map without a clear destination in mind. Where do you see the future of your business in the next year? What about in five? Answering these prompts can help you arrive at the right answer for how and where you want to grow. Not having a clear idea of what true success looks like can result in sporadic, spontaneous decision making. Ask yourself:
If you haven't defined what growth is for you, you aren't growing: you're collecting. Likely, your answer will be heavily intertwined and reveal a clear strategy that makes the most sense.
Example: One of our investments at Ode Ventures is Martin Blueberries, a U-Pick blueberry farm located in Columbia Station, OH. With goals of impacting the local community outside blueberry season, Martin Blueberry’s expands its reach by utilizing the ground as an event space for special events, wedding showers, and more.
Remember to routinely reflect on your company's foundational beliefs. A vegan restaurant that prides itself on healthy, locally sourced ingredients would likely lose credibility if it suddenly began serving outsourced, unethically sourced meat. Similarly, a software company marketed as "cutting-edge" will eventually fall behind if it ignores emerging technology and stops innovating. Returning to your core business model can help you evaluate new opportunities through the lens of your brand and values, ensuring every growth decision strengthens what already makes your business unique. Some better examples might look like:
At the end of the day, your growth plan should reflect you and your company's core principles. Following this North Star can help provide valuable insights into what makes sense for not just your short-term but long-term goals.
Once you’ve decided which direction to grow your business, create SMART goals to help you set a more attainable plan. SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Repositioning goals under a SMART goal framework can create more actionable goals instead of vague ones. For example:
Before: I want to improve my marketing.
After: I want to increase my monthly website traffic by 20% within six months through SEO, social media, and blog content.
Whatever direction your business takes, establish SMART goals for more accountability and action. The clearer the goal, the more attainable they become.
The Big Question: What opportunities will get us there?
Now that you’ve chosen where you’ll grow, it’s critical to understand how you’ll grow. This is where innovation comes in. Keeping innovation at the core of your business growth plan is one of the best ways to stay relevant in today’s market. Tackling growth with creative, original ideas not only keeps your business from blending in, but allows you the flexibility to address shifting consumer needs.
You might be thinking to yourself: how can I keep innovation at the core of my business if I’m not a creative kind of person?
The truth is, creativity is a skill that anyone can build up over time. Not only that, brainstorming creative business solutions is easy to generate and replicate by following the Creative Problem Solving Framework. Based on the ideas of Alex Osborn, this framework is an incredible tool that can transform a common goal into something entirely your own. To start:
A) Clarify your problem
With your SMART goal in mind, gather as much data about your goal as possible. Ask yourself:
You should know your SMART goal inside and out by the end of this exercise. Make sure your data is at hand and readily accessible.
B) Generate possibilities
Now that you’ve got the hard facts, come up with at least 100 ideas to solve your goal. This might seem excessive, but the aim is for quantity, not quality—the goal of this exercise is to brainstorm wild and unusual ideas that push the limits of your solutions.
If you’d prefer, gather team members to help in this effort. A great, innovative solution should be useful, intriguing, applicable, and maybe even the opposite of what you were expecting.
C) Evaluate your ideas
You’ve got 100 unique ideas on your plate, some good and some great. Now what?
This is where practicalities come to play. With every great idea you’ve generated, evaluate options based on:
Don’t let these be buzzkill to your more unique propositions. Novelty and practically can coexist if done right. Just because something is hard, doesn’t mean it’s not worth the effort.
Once you’ve narrowed down three solutions that make the most sense, consider them from every angle. Make sure you understand their opportunities, investments required, their potential return, and challenges. Compare each solution with team members and trusted colleagues and collectively decide what is the best long-term fit for your company. Continue to reflect on your businesses foundational beliefs to guide your final decision.
D) Implement your solution
Finally, choose your innovative solution and begin to create a plan of action. To better help in creating a blueprint that works, ask yourself:
Knowing these will give you the foundation you need to succeed. At the end of this exercise, if done fully, you should have an innovative answer to scale your business that’s creative, realistic, and truly aligns with your goals.
The Big Question: What needs to happen for us to achieve our goals?
With your innovative growth solution finalized, it’s time to put them into full swing! A great idea only creates value when it's backed by a realistic execution plan. Honing your focus on these elements will set you up for success to grow with the most speed and efficiency.
As a business owner, there’s a certain point where you can’t be present for everything. This is a good thing. No matter the industry, feeling that pressure to delegate tasks is one of the biggest indicators of growth.
Despite this, founders will naturally keep things close to their chest. They justify not hiring new team members by lack of growth, yet need more team members to gain that growth, getting caught in a vicious loop. At the end of the day, the leap has to be taken; delegating your tasks is one of the best things you can do not just for your business, but to prevent burnout and protect quality.
To help with delegating, start small. Focus on tedious, repetitive, and time consuming tasks, like admin work, operations, scheduling, or marketing support. When delegating tasks to current team members, remember to match tasks to not just skill level, but willingness.
As your business begins to scale, not every task deserves equal attention. Focus your time, energy, and resources on the initiatives that will create the greatest return. In example from the fitness industry might look like:
Initiatives with the highest impact aren’t always the most flashy or difficult. Sometimes, improving what’s already working can be the biggest cause of progression.
When establishing new goals, progress has to be measured. Define the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will tell you whether your strategy is working, and set milestones to track advancements along the way. Examples may include:
Remember that KPIs aren't meant to be static. As your business grows, your metrics should evolve alongside your priorities and set points. Make sure through monthly or quarterly meetings that KPI’s are seeing sustainable and stable growth over time.
The Big Question: How can we achieve our goal effectively?
Even the best of plans will ultimately fail if they’re poorly executed. Execution means a lot more than knowing who’s responsible for what. Many times, the most productivity arises when teams are fully capable, fully appreciated, and fully focused.
Ultimately, your growth strategy is carried out by your employees, meaning if everyone has a different understanding of the goal, things can quickly fall apart. Regularly communicate, make sure teams stay accountable, and keep employees updated and informed on objectives and how to get there. Along with that, make sure to foster healthy workplace culture through transparency and support. An uplifting and collaborative company culture can go a long way, especially through uncertainty.
Making sure your team members are being taken care of is another crucial step in creating workplace cultures that drive your solutions forward. Especially when establishing new initiatives and delegations, employees can often feel disorienting. Make sure ample room for discussion, questions, and concerns are addressed by team members on every level. Beyond that, invest back in your employees to show you care about their efforts, whether it be through workplace education, increased salaries, mentorship, or improved work-life balance. When employees feel appreciated, only then can they begin to work toward a bigger goal than a paycheck.
You may have heard it before, but Steve Jobs had an iconic philosophy for how he approached work: the signal to noise ratio. 80% of Job’s tasks were dedicated to what truly mattered, the tasks that no matter what, had to get done. The 20% was simply noise.
This is the same philosophy founders need to adapt with their growth strategies. Don’t let distractions or avenues ideas flood your desk and your mind. Once you’ve settled on a growth strategy, stick to it, and stick to it strong. Only once you’ve given it you’re all can you evaluate your progress and see what’s working and what’s not.
The Big Question: What did we learn, and what should we improve next?
Despite all the research, meetings, and onboarding, new strategies are rarely set into motion and never touched again. Refinement is a big part of what makes great growth strategies work for the long term. Here’s how to make sure you don’t just set and forget your goals but optimize them over time for success.
Rather than measuring everything, focus on the metrics that are most closely tied to your business objectives and scaling goals. This will vary from business to business, though some general questions to understand will likely be:
If things seem to be skewing positively, customers are happier, and cash is still steady, you’re likely on the right track.
Growth strategies are rarely perfect on the first attempt. Once you've identified what's producing results, invest more resources into those initiatives. Ask yourself:
At the same time, don't be afraid to wind down or scale back on initiatives that consistently underperform. Every hour and every dollar invested in a low-performing strategy is a resource that can't be invested elsewhere. But don’t consider these a waste: failed campaigns can be extremely valuable information that reveal what your customers really want. Find the education in these moments and move positively forward with the knowledge you gain.
Economic conditions, customer expectations, technology, and competition are constantly changing. Only the businesses that remain flexible are better positioned to respond to new opportunities and overcome unexpected challenges.
Even with the strategies you’ve created, regularly revisit your goals and be willing to pivot when data supports another direction. Staying quick on your feet for changing markets will be the biggest advantage you can have as a business.
People often say starting a business is one of the hardest things you can do, when in reality, scaling is half the battle (and one you’ll almost always be fighting). For small businesses especially, scaling can often feel like a make or break decision for their company and own livelihood, often resulting in safe ideas or only giving half the effort.
Though scaling deserves your full attention and effort as an entrepreneur. Following growth strategies will only help in clarifying what works for your business and what doesn’t. If followed thoroughly and intentionally, your strategy for scaling can produce tangible results for your company, only sailing you further into success.
Ode Ventures is an investment firm and incubator for small businesses, providing capital, resources, and expertise for service-based entrepreneurs. Learn more about who we are and the impact we’re making in our communities here.
