How to Position Your Small Business for Growth

Many of us like to tackle major goals one at a time. This certainly applies when it comes to your career. No matter how your journey to owning a business began, you got there by reaching one milestone at a time. Now that you are successfully running your own business, what’s your next focus?

With a thriving small business running smoothly, growing your business is the logical next goal. There are many ways to embark on this goal, all of which include strategic business planning. To help you get started, here are three steps to positioning your small business for growth.

Outline Your Growth Goals

As you plan for growth, you’ll need to outline and define your goals. What do you want to accomplish? Some ideas may include:

• Increasing your total number of customers
• Bringing on more employees
• Expanding the services you offer
• Adding additional locations

Any business goals you draft should be SMART goals, meaning they are Strategic, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and are built within a Timeline. Once you have yours outlined, make sure they meet each of these five requirements.

Consider How Your Goals Fit into Your Business Plan

You probably had a business plan when you were first building or buying into a small business. What many forget is that business planning is not a one-time task, but an important ongoing activity. The result is a roadmap that shows where you want your business to go and provides directions for how to get there. If you haven’t reviewed this plan recently, now’s the time to dust it off and add in your new growth goals.

A couple questions to consider in this process:

• What resources will I need to achieve these goals?
• Do I need to consult with other partners (legal, financial, marketing, etc.)?
• Are the right people in the right positions to get the necessary work done?

Get Your Team in Place and Get Started

Making sure you have people lined up to take on the work needed is crucial to ensuring you meet your small business’s goals. This may mean meeting with your external partners, bringing existing employees up to speed on your plans, hiring new operations or business staff or working with outside experts. The right mix of these options depends on your small business and your goals.