4 Ways to Grow Your Small Business in 2017

We’ve mentioned ways to help your small business grow before, but here are 4 more ways to expand your small business in the year 2017.

1) Customer Service
Most importantly, in order to grow your small business, you have to create a loyal customer base; this is where small businesses can shine. Operating a local business allows you to come face-to-face with your clientele where as your big business competitors may not have the same opportunity. Big businesses have stayed king because they can offer big inventories, usually at lower price—because they get bigger vender discounts. To battle this, small business owners have one very powerful tool—customer experience. This means knowing your customers and what they want, and doing your best to provide them with it. We’ve all tried to contact customer service in a big business, only to be answered by long FAQ webpage and robot answering machines. Your best asset for building clientele is to be available. That means real people answering questions and addressing concerns with the customer’s best interest in mind.

2) SEO
Another way to grow your small business is to better your search engine optimization (SEO). Okay, we’re going to say it, in this day and age, if you don’t have a webpage or if you don’t have an online presence by not showing up on related Internet searches, your small business will have a hard time growing. The easiest way to improve your SEO so your business comes up on the first page of internet searches is to hire a company to do it; but that can cost thousands of dollars. Another option is to do it yourself. Just make sure you understand the basics so your hard work is effective.

3) Understand Cash Flow
Once you have a big client base, you’ll have to learn what your free cash flow looks like. This is calculated by subtracting your total expenditures from the total money earned. Once you know this number, you’ll be able to better understand just how much equity you’ll be able to invest in expansion. This can mean opening more locations, hiring additional employees, or simply expanding your inventory. The more you know and understand about the figures that are any business’s lifeline, the easier you’ll be able to spot and act on opportunities for growth within your company.

3) Implement Lean Operations
Finally, the best thing you can do for your business is to implement lean operations. This means making all the processes and protocols as simple as possible so if and when you do expand, things will continue to run smoothly. There is nothing more frustrating than following convoluted processes within a company. The more streamline everything is, the faster and more comfortable you can grow.