4 business growth strategies for solopreneurs and small business owners

Want to know what the 4 business growth strategies for solopreneurs and small business owners are? There is a big difference between saying “I want to grow my business” and having a clear business growth strategy in place. All businesses, whether they are run by 1 person or have ten of thousands of employees need to have a business growth strategy. A business growth strategy allows you to have a clear vision for how you intend of achieving your business growth, which then makes it easy for you to make the right choices in relation to your operations, sales and marketing. Keep on reading to find out what the 4 business growth strategies for solopreneurs and small business owners are.

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4 BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES FOR SOLOPRENEURS AND SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

Choosing your business growth strategy using Ansoff’s Matrix

Just because you are a solopreneur or small business owner doesn’t mean you can’t use tools that are used by bigger businesses.

The Ansoff Matrix is a very popular tool used by businesses around the world to help develop their business growth strategy.

If you’ve never come across the Ansoff Matrix (sometimes called the Product/Market Expansion Grid) before you can check it out in the image below.

I was first introduced to the tool whilst studying for my Professional Diploma in Marketing and have found it very useful ever since. Partially due to how simple it is.

To work out what business growth strategy, or strategies, you want to use you just need to think about what you want to sell (products) and who you want to sell to (markets).

Answering those two questions will allow you to choose your business growth strategy as the grid will allow you to see whether you will be focusing on;

Market Penetration
Market Development
Product Development
Diversification

Business Growth Strategy 1: Market Penetration

Market penetration is where you sell the same service, to the same type of person. This is the business growth strategy that is usually used when businesses are starting out and trying to grow.

In this instance ‘I want to grow my business’ means ‘I want to make more sales selling the same thing to the same type of person”.

This is the easiest type of business growth strategy because both variables are known. You know the person you want to sell to and you know what you are selling. This will mean from a marketing perspective your focus will be on continuing to build awareness amongst your target market, strengthen your messaging and refine your buyer journey to see if it can be shortened.

Business Growth Strategy 2: Product Development

Product development is where you sell to the same market, but you create, and sell, something new. For example, an online business coach has a 6-month one-to-one coaching programme. At the end their clients want to continue working with them so the online business coach decides to create a new scalable product, in the form of a membership or group programme.

In this instance, ‘I want to grow my business’ means ‘I want to make more sales by selling something new to the same type of person (and even to past or current clients),

Product development is a very popular business growth strategy for solopreneurs and solopreneurs, especially those who are providing a service online. Given the time and money, it takes to acquire a new client it makes great business sense to find ways to encourage repeat custom and a product development strategy allows that.

Just like market development this strategy has one known and one unknown variable. However, you could argue that selling something new to the same type of person (especially if you go for current or old clients) is easier than selling something to a whole new market.

For this business growth strategy to be successful you’ll need to ensure your new service or product is needed, and that it doesn’t impact the sales of your existing services. For it to successfully support business growth you don’t want buyers switching from one to another (unless your new service or product is more expensive). In an ideal world the aim, is to make something complimentary that can be bought simultaneously or something that be an additional purchase (so you are extending the lifetime client value).

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Business Growth Strategy 3: Market Development

Market development is where you continue to sell the same service, but you aim to sell it to a different type of person. For example, a financial coach might have a 3-month financial coaching programme that was aimed at C-suite executives. They’ve realised that the programme can work for C-suite executives and small business owners, and they now want to market to small business owners.

In this instance, ‘I want to grow my business’ means ‘I want to make more sales by selling the same thing to a different type of person’.

This type of business growth strategy has one known variable and one unknown variable. You know what you are selling, but you’ll need to understand your target market better. For this business growth strategy to work well you’ll need to do market research before you start marketing to the new target market. The market research will help you to understand the new target market and see whether you need to make changes to your marketing messaging and content.

Business Growth Strategy 4: Diversification

Diversification is where you sell a new service to a new market. For example, an accountant who offers ongoing accounting services to limited companies with a turnover of £250,000+ decides they want to create a ‘How to file your self-assessment’ course for solopreneurs with a turnover of less than £50,000.

In this instance, ‘I want to grow my business’ means ‘I want to sell something new to a new type of person’.

This business growth strategy has two unknown variables, which makes it the ‘riskiest’ of all the business growth strategies discussed. However, it happens fairly often that a business will decide this is the business growth strategy to take.

Referring back to the example above it is easy to see why the accountant, who is providing a service to limited companies, may think that creating a course for solopreneurs is the way to go. It could be that they have been approached by solopreneurs or have solopreneurs in their online audience. They know that financially they aren’t able to provide a service, but they do have the knowledge to help them. A course seems like a great way to help the solopreneurs. and add a passive income stream into their business.

Implementing this business growth strategy successfully will require properly understanding the new target market, creating something they want and then successfully marketing it to them. If the new target market isn’t someone you currently sell to, but they already exist in your audience, that will make it slightly easier. However, this isn’t a strategy to take lightly, especially as a business growth strategy for a solopreneur or small business owner. Of the 4 business growth strategies mentioned this one is likely to be the most work and given that time is the most precious asset of a solopreneur or small business owner it should only be followed if you have a strong desire to create something new for a specific market, or you have evidence that the market needs that service or product.

In this instance, ‘I want to grow my business’ means ‘I want to sell something new to a new type of person’.

That’s it. You now know the 4 business growth strategies for solopreneurs and small business owners.

As you can see saying ‘I want to grow my business’ really isn’t enough. Choosing a business growth strategy gives you a clear focus. Once you’ve decided on a strategy you’ll be able to make the necessary operational and marketing choices to support that business growth strategy.

Also, having a clear business strategy will enable you to do better business planning. If you know you plan to create something new or target a new market in the future then you be planning that far enough in advance to ensure you are successful.

I would love to know in the comments what business growth strategies you are going to use over the next 12 months.

CREATE A PLAN FOR THE NEXT 12 MONTHS IN JUST ONE DAY!

Choosing your business growth strategy puts your business in a good place, but what’s next?

I have a tried-and-tested process that I’ve used for years that ensures that in just one day I can help business owners to create a plan for the whole year ahead.

All you have to do is fill in a questionnaire beforehand and then turn up on the day. I’ll then lead you through the whole process and write everything down – making it super easy for you!