Create a Winning Growth Strategy to Elevate Your Company's Business

Building a successful business creates new opportunities to expand and solidify your place in the market, but fear of overreaching may stop you from experimenting with growth strategies. Start with low-risk expansion goals to increase your assets without undoing your current progress. When you're ready to make a bigger leap, use your existing supply chain, services and customer base to identify areas where you can grow by refining your operations, marketing and product development.

Use Low-Risk Intensive Strategies

A winning growth strategy depends on how well you understand your industry, value proposition and clientele. For example, your business can't grow if you exhaust resources on product development or marketing that doesn't align with customer interests. Start small by pinpointing your company's strengths and ideal audience. Gather feedback from clients to find out which strategies attract or repel business. Study the growth patterns of successful competitors, and think about how their choices created profitable revenue streams.

In his book "The Breakthrough Company," business consultant Keith McFarland explains that fast-growing companies increase revenue early on by driving existing customers to buy more product. One common strategy is to sell products in bigger packages, whether it's physical items in bulk or bundled services. Another technique is to show customers how they can use your products in new ways.

Expand Your Reach

Once you have a strong sales foundation, promote your product in adjacent markets, says McFarland. For instance, open more locations in different cities, compete for government contracts or franchise your business. Use the power of your reputation and branding as a vehicle for growth. Form partnerships with complementary businesses by licensing your branded product or service, which lets you tap into a wider customer base, the U.S. Small Business Administration notes.

Look for ways to cut costs for consumers and streamline your production process by acquiring suppliers. Ask yourself how you can deliver services through new channels, such as building an online presence. If your product or business is primarily online, find out how consumers prefer to communicate and receive services, such as through social media and mobile devices.

Develop New Products, Set Trends

Stay in touch with consumer demands, so you can anticipate what clients want next. Developing different products helps you attract new customers while reinforcing loyalty from existing clients. Consider how Google developed from an Internet search provider to a multinational media and communications company to an electronics manufacturer, or study's Apple's successful expansion from computers to media players, tablets, phones and watches.

A smart strategy is to repackage your product as a service, and vice versa. A career coach can develop self-guided training modules, which clients can access online at any time. A shipping supplier can provide an online interface for customers to conveniently manage inventory, reorder and choose cost-saving packaging.

At every step of your growth plan, maintain detailed sales metrics to measure the effectiveness of each strategy. Ups and downs are a natural part of growth, so use failed experiments to learn how your company can improve and move to the next level.

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