How to Plan Your Business Growth Strategy

How do you plan your business growth strategy? How do you present your business growth strategy in a business plan so that investors can comprehend easily and sign the check? Well, this article is going to provide an in-depth guide on how to plan and present your business plan growth strategy.

Usually, businesses start small and then expand gradually. This runs true for most global brands. Unfortunately, most businesses that start small never get to leave the “small business” cadre; not even after 10 years. Why? The reason these businesses remain small is not because their owners love to keep them small, but because their owners didn’t plan a growth strategy from the outset.

While it is just normal to start your business as a small one, it’s just silly not to have a well planned growth strategy. Not having one simply means you have no plans of expanding your business (and I am sure this isn’t the case).

As a small business owner who really wants to expand, you should plan a growth strategy for your business. This strategy would demonstrate how you will introduce new products to the market, expand your customer base, and ultimately grow your business. More importantly, your growth strategy should outline how these moves will increase your sales.

A small business can grow in many ways. These include having multiple branches, reaching new customer bases, introducing new products, acquiring other businesses, and so on. Though you may not need all of these to grow your business, you should look into the options to find the most suitable ones you can include in your growth strategy. Here are the various business growth options that you can adopt for your small business:

How to Plan Your Business Growth Strategy

1.  Open multiple locations

If yours is a retail business, outline in your business plan where you can open more showrooms and what your geographic strategy will be. Don’t just open new shops randomly because you think your product is successful at one location.

2.  Reach new clients

Granted, you have your target customers. But after reaching those customers, should you stay put? No. You should start looking for other customers who may as well be interested in your products or services. For example, if you are offering business-to-consumer products or services, consider business-to-business offers, too. This way, you will reach new clients and still retain old ones.

3.  Introduce new products

Introducing new products is an obvious way to boost sales and grow your business. (But this strategy is often poorly implemented). Look at ways by which you can bring new products to your stable. Would they be variations of the products you are offering? Or would they be completely new offers? It’s left to you.

4.  Leverage the Internet

Consider growing your business using the internet. You can sell your product through your own corporate website or partner with an existing online retail store such as Amazon. While it is not compulsory that you sell your offers online, your growth strategy should include an online element.

5.  Decrease costs

The wider the gap between your income and expenditure, the faster your business will grow. Decreasing your costs is a smart way of widening this gap. As you go on with your business, you can take advantage of learning curves and economies of scale. Learning curves improve your efficiency with time. Economies of scale refer to a reduction in average cost over time because of factors such as buying power and managerial specialization.

6.  Acquire other businesses

Acquisition is another option to consider when planning how to grow your business. However, you can only be realistic in this quest if your small business is well established and ready to expand into other markets. You have to address which companies would make ideal acquisition targets. Find companies that are a good fit for your product and methods of marketing and distribution methods, and that are very likely to present new opportunities for growth.

After studying the business growth options discussed above and choosing the ones you think will work for your business, here are the next steps to follow:

How to Present your Business Growth Strategy in a Business Plan

1.       Explain the development options and opportunities in detail.

2.      Review and document the financial requirements for each option.

3.      Document the marketing strategies you will need to accomplish and nurture your chosen growth option.

4.      Review the financial breakdown of internal or external capital and how the capital will be made available throughout the growth process.

5.      Document a breakdown of other things that will be needed, expanded, or ditched.

6.      Print your growth plan and review it regularly until you are ready to implement it.

Having a growth plan helps you keep your business on track and in line with the various options you may adopt in order to expand your business. It’s like a compass that leads your business through the way to development.