10 ways to take your business to the next level

“Success depends on employees. For me knowing and connecting with my employees is very important.” -Divine Ndhlukula, founder and managing director of DDNS Security Operations Ltd

Taking business to the next level is not an easy task as the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics say about 20% of businesses fail in their first year, and about 50% of small businesses fail in their fifth year.

“Ron, a full-time web designer working for a big company in New Jersey, US. He was bored with his 9-5 job and wanted to do something different. He finally decided to resign and open his own firm. He started working from his garage with his two friends from the same domain. After 2 years, he decided to go big, took loans and set up a firm. But he lost his clients, couldn’t pay his bills and he is now BROKE”.

Is it terrifying?

Well, it is but with proper mindset and growth hacking techniques, you can very much become successful.

However, there are multiple ways that you can implement to take your business to the next level but here I will discuss 10 important steps.

Here in this article, I assume that you have an educational institute.

STEP1: Proper Selection of Your Employees:

It is possible that you are afraid to fire your present employees because your business will no longer survive without them.

Employees are the backbone of every business.

But what if these employees are responsible for your slow growth?

They may take your business down in the future and your dream to become big will always remain a dream.

As your educational institute has faculties who are not competent enough, come late, or they are not educating themselves. So, here what you can do is not fire immediately. It is very much possible that you are not forcing them to do what you should do. What you can do here is:

• Launch an educational program for them to update their skills.
• Deduct salary if they come late (Use Biometrics or other techniques)
• Motivate them
• Give them warnings.

But, if these things don’t force them to improve, then the last step is to let them go. Yes, it may sound harsh but this step is very much required.

It is possible that your works will receive a shock wave if they stop working in your firm but it is very much possible that new employees who will join can take your business to the next level.

STEP2: Learning:

“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” ― Abigail Adams.

It is highly believed that an average entrepreneur reads 1 book weekly. Although, there is no solid proof to claim this but yes, it is a universal truth that learning can significantly improve you and grow your business.

Whether you read books or learn from visual graphics, you need to keep learning and implementing new or better techniques in your business.

Things are highly changeable in this digital world so you should know how to adjust and adapt.

We suggest you find a mentor who is successful in your domain. Investing in mentorship is the best way to succeed.

STEP3: Go Digital

If you are reading this article and thinking about taking your business online then GOD BLESSES YOU!

Why because this means you are already behind your competitors and they are already making $$$ more than what you are making offline.

But the GOOD NEWS is you are reading this means you are willing to learn and grow.

It doesn’t matter what you sell, if your business cannot be found in Google, Yahoo, Bing, or even Facebook then you do not exist.

But if you think that you are content and happy with your present state then it is your choice.

Businesses these days should have a strong presence and if you want to grow then Social media platforms and Search Engines are the best.

I recommend you to read my other blog articles where I’ve discussed in detail on this digital subject.

The first solid step is to get a professional website. But choosing the best website developer or a web development company is a difficult task for a number of reasons. I’ve written an article on this topic “how to choose the best web designing company”.

Visit: Get Free SEO Audit Of Your Website

STEP4: A Solid Plan & Strategy:

Without a solid plan and strategy, your business may run but cannot reach that higher level. How can you make that robust plan?

It is a widely known fact that most of the businesses don’t document their business plan. I believe that your competitors also do so and it is an opportunity for you.

Anyways, I’ll give a few steps to make a business plan:

1. Short plan (Don’t just make a plan for formalities). Make it short and important.
2. Don’t be intimidated with figures: While figures are always important to make a plan but don’t be overwhelmed.
3. Know your customers and target market before making a plan or strategy.
4. There must be time duration and your plan must include necessary strategies and actions implementing at the right time.
5. Keep changing or editing according to the circumstances.

Also Read: 5 Ways To Improve Site Performance

STEP5: Building a Sales Funnel:

Sales funnel can be explained as the steps from mostly top to bottom (Funnel like structure) that are built as a customer journey to sell products/services. Leads are attracted from the top funnel to send them to the end. For each step, strategies and activities are set. You can effectively manipulate strategies and activities in each step to influence the number of leads/customers.

Now, the question is how building a sales funnel can take your business to the next level?

Well, a simple answer is you can track your customers and have a greater influence on the customer journey.  You have the power to edit/change funnel activities to increase/attract more customers. A sales funnel gives you the power and clear idea to achieve your business goals. It becomes more important if you take your business online. There are many digital marketing funnels that can help your business to grow.

We at iDevelopers have a digital marketing team that can build a complete business/sales funnel exclusively for your business.

For more information about our digital marketing services, please visit our website. You can also send us an email for a FREE digital marketing consultancy.

Also Read: Top 10 Social Media Marketing Tools

STEP6: Research Your Competition:

No matter what you sell (except something rare and unique product/service), you have competitors and they may be ahead of you of business. If you think that you can beat them with better products or services then you are riding the wrong horse.

You need to know your competitors and their business. You should have very good knowledge and a clear picture of how your competitors attracting new customers.

As your educational institute has subjects that are outdated and using old techniques but it is possible that what you teach is absolutely necessary for your students. But you make an assumption that you require to update those subjects without properly knowing that this transition can negatively affect them. So, to avoid such mistakes, you need to have proper knowledge of the market and competitors.

With this age of the internet, you can easily know what your competitors doing that can help your business. Like if they are using some unique techniques to attract customers in Social Media or some strategies that you can implement or do better than them.

Also Read: Top 5 Reasons To Choose WordPress For Your Business

STEP7: Position Your Products & Services

Product positioning is one of the most important steps in marketing. If you can do this strategically, magic happens!

You can position your product better than your competitors by:

• Price
• Quality
• Availability
• Durability

Positioning your products and services can drive your business to the next higher level. But before performing this step, you need to have proper knowledge of your competitor’s products/services. It doesn’t matter you have an e-commerce store or a store physical located somewhere, this step is applicable everywhere.

Also Read: Small Business SEO Tips

STEP8: Utilize Online Channels

If your educational institute ain’t taking leverage of online channels like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Twitter then you are missing out something really big. But it is highly recommended to set up a website or a landing page to effectively utilize these channels.

Your customers are hanging out in those social groups and you need to recognize and target them.

I’ve written long articles on this subject that you should not miss.

With a proper funnel [already discussed in step: 5] and using Online channels, you can effectively take your business to the next level.

Also Read: 10 Best SEO Tools In 2019

STEP9: Positive Reviews:

We usually trust those brands about which our friends, families, colleagues, or suggest us. We mostly cannot get that confident to buy those products/services that have negative or bad reviews.

You can effectively use reviews to gain more trust and confidence among your customers.

I suggest you refrain from fake paid reviews for your brand. You simply cannot buy anything in this world and this is among those things.

Reviews have a direct influence on the psychology of people.

There are certain hacks that you can apply to directly influence sales (online especially) and reviews are one such hack.

You can get positive reviews from your satisfied customers. As for your educational institute, you can request your satisfied students to write positive reviews about your institute online.

You should also counter negative reviews online by addressing their problems.

Also Read: 5 Golden Rules Of Content Marketing

STEP10: Trust Building & Customer Retention:

Trust building or loyalty building is one of the best methods to not just retain existing customers but also acquire new ones.

Customer retention must be focused more than acquiring new customers mainly because it is cost-effective. Generating leads by running ads and other methods are costlier than serving your existing customers better so that they become your brand ambassador.

You can get new students for your educational institute from your existing students who are satisfied with your teaching.  

There are multiple ways you can implement to gain loyalty:

• Offering excellent service to your existing customers
• Free gifts for special occasions
• Asking for feedback
• Creating a loyalty program

By gaining trust, you can easily upsell and your business can grow exponentially.

Well, these are the 10 essential steps that you can apply in your business to take it to the next level. There are more things you can learn and implement in your business. Please subscribe to our NEWSLETTER for the latest information about businesses, marketing, leads, and digital marketing.