A new year brings about new goals and the freshened ambition to be greater than you were 365 days ago. When making resolutions as a business owner, it’s safe to say you’d probably like to see your business grow.
But the worst place to put your business is a situation where being growth-minded compromises quality. After all, business growth is more about your business becoming better, not bigger.
Free Guide: The Modern Small Business Playbook
DownloadFight to Improve Processes
Before you think about becoming more than you are, you must look at the flaws. What are the cracks in your foundation?
Review customer complaints and talk to your staff to determine what changes need to be made. This isn’t a quick fix step. The larger your business becomes, the more apparent these cracks will be if they’re not resolved.
Business growth means putting more effort into streamlining your processes.
- Automation is a time saver and reduces manual, mundane tasks that hold you and your staff up.
- Implementing a training process will help ensure any new staff members function as well as the current staff.
- Correct any workarounds you have in place. Tiny tasks can become monstrous problems later down the road as your company grows.
Invest in the Right CRM
There’s only so much you can do on your own. With the world having undergone a digital shift, you cannot afford to operate your business manually.
This is why having an end-to-end CRM, or Customer Relationship Management tool, to handle the heavy lifting is a must. CRMs are great for staying organized and getting the most out of your customer data but, the right CRM will do that and more to make running and growing your business a breeze.
If an end-to-end CRM can’t provide all 10, it’ll struggle to improve business growth.
1. Listings
You need listings where your customers are looking, whether that’s Google, Facebook or Yelp. Thryv users have the convenience of uploading their business’s information once and having it populate across over 40+ trusted listing sites to make sure the information is consistent across the board, which means business owners can have confidence in consumers being able to find them.
2. Google Business Profile
Having a GBP (formerly Google My Business) dashboard makes claiming and managing your listing easier and faster. Being able to update items like hours of operation and available services is critical to your business’ success
3. Integrations
What integrations are available plays a large factor in choosing the right CRM. Whether it’s social apps like Facebook and Twitter or digital tools you’re already using to run your business like Quickbooks, you’ll want them to frictionlessly integrate into your new CRM
4. Scheduling
If your new end-to-end CRM doesn’t allow you to access your employees’ calendars so you can build schedules appropriately, then just toss it to the side. You’re going to run yourself tired by manually building schedules. You deserve better than that.
5. Booking
Online booking is a must to avoid tying up staff time and unnecessary back and forth when trying to get customers in your books. Truth be told, people are usually searching for services long after your business is closed for the day. Online booking is a must to avoid missing out on potential customers who tend to late-night browse.
6. Communication
Communication can make or break whether you keep your customers. Communicate with customers how they want to communicate and avoid miscommunication by using a single inbox. Thryv’s dashboard helps smart business owners stay organized and respond quickly.
7. Document storage
Proper document storage is key to avoiding clutter but ONLINE document storage is crucial to protecting your customers’, clients’ and students’ information. You should be able to securely store documents but also safely share them with the appropriate parties easily.
8. Payments
Online payment processing is a must for small businesses that want to easily issue estimates and invoices on the go and get paid faster than ever before. ThryvPay makes online credit card processing easy and secure, at rates small business owners love.
9. Marketing
Digital marketing isn’t a walk in the park if you’ve never done it before; however, the right CRM will make it feel easy. It should include marketing automation that triggers targeted campaigns. That way you never have to manually follow up with a customer or remind them of an appointment again.
10. Reputation management
Your reputation is important when you’re working to increase your star rating on search engines. Your CRM should offer you the ability to monitor and reply to what people are saying about your business. And if you’re lacking reviews, try requesting them. Thryv’s pre-built email templates request reviews upon invoicing, completing appointments or processing payments, all automatically.
Modern Small
Business Playbook
Find expert tips and tools to help you streamline communications, automate your marketing efforts, improve your business operations, and more in this free guide.
Remember Your Customers
How will any new changes affect your customers? The goal is to make things better for them. They are the root of your business in a way. It’s important to make sure they know your mission to provide them with excellent service is still at the top of the list.
Take the time to build out customer service policies that will make sure they always feel in the loop and continue to receive the quality service they’ve come to expect from you.
It’s a must to understand what your customers experience when dealing with your business. When looking to scale, create a detailed customer persona to understand who your customer is.
Ask yourself:
- What is your customer’s age and demographic?
- Is your customer married or single?
- Is your customer a working professional?
- What income bracket does your customer fall into?
- Is your customer a Millennial, Gen X, Baby Boomer?
- How does your customer benefit from your services?
Collecting this type of data will also help target your marketing efforts.
Advance Your Staff
You’re only as great as those working for you. While hiring more staff might be at the top of your list, pause for a moment to reconsider. Do you have someone on staff who, with proper training and classes could step into a new position?
Consider signing them up for the courses they need and placing them in a position to grow, which is great for employee retention down the road.
If you’re looking to fill spaces that are more specialized, look into freelancers. The gig economy is on the rise and this is one way to manage increased workload without permanently adding to the workforce before it’s time.
Remember that this staff won’t be familiar with your company, so make sure they’re trained well enough to not negatively impact the quality you provide.
Spend the time planning and preparing so you can pace out your growth and make adjustments as it happens. Know when to stop and begin scaling down with the seasons, especially for the sake of keeping a healthy cash flow.
Remember, when working from a place of growth, examine your quality and focus on adding resources rather than simply running your numbers up. It’s a lot to work on but worth the effort to reach the growth goals you have for 2022.
Modern Small
Business Playbook
Find expert tips and tools to help you streamline communications, automate your marketing efforts, improve your business operations, and more in this free guide.
