From small to big

Four great ways for companies to make the leap towards a new corporate horizon

IF YOU have been following my progress over the last few months, you may have noticed that I have been talking increasingly about making your business bigger, stronger, better and faster.

Well, the truth is, this is because my team and I are in the midst of launching a brand-new corporate training arm with a new business model.

Yes, after years of training the consumer market in digi-tal marketing, we are shifting our focus to this new arm because, well, many companies have approached us to help them improve their performance.

The kicker here is that while my own transition is incredibly exciting, I realise that most businesses do not share my enthusiasm because they feel this process is harrowing at best.

Now, I believe the core issue here is not that they are afraid or anything of that sort; it is just that most business owners do not have a clear understanding on how to push their business further.

So, in celebration of the growth of my business, here are the four great ways to get you up and running towards a new corporate horizon.

Evaluate your business model

Quite obviously, every successful company has a good business model.

The kicker here is that if the owners of these brands want to take the leap onto a bigger playing field, what do they have to evaluate before they proceed?

In this scenario, the most effective way is to look at how you can further monetise the different aspects of your brand offerings.

Some of the easiest ways is to look at your market, products and sales processes.

In terms of your market, evaluate if they are paying you well enough. If this is unsatisfactory, then you need to target a more profitable profile.

For your business offering, consider if your product or service is unique enough to help you stand out from the crowd of your competitors.

If not, then you need to consider getting better products, customising your offerings or investing far more in marketing to gain the attention of your market.

Regarding your sales process, you need to figure out whether when and how you are selling is helping you rake in enough qualified prospects and customers to ensure sustainable or increased profit.

If not, then you must be ready to aggressively pursue a more aggressive sales process that runs 24/7 across multiple cost-effective platforms.

Don’t stop at one

As a business owner, I think it is safe to say that the days of finding success by selling just one product are gone.

Instead, today’s demanding market conditions has forced us to adapt our operations to encompass a wide range of business offerings to cater to a wider range of prospects and remain sustainable.

This aspect holds doubly true in terms of growing your business.

A great way to diversify your business offerings is by having a fully comprehensive singular product that you then segment into various smaller offerings.

In my business, I segment my products into low, middle and high-tiered products. The lowest tier is easily affordable and caters to a mass audience; the middle tier allows people to experience a more comprehensive range of products; and the top tier is fully customised.

As an above-all strategy, I also created a consultancy service for clients that want end-to-end service.

Fire yourself from client servicing

A sure-fire way to limit your growth is to be too involved in customer relationship management or “client-servicing”.

You see, in business, your role is to be the boss. In the case of expanding your business, your focus must be on business development.

So logically, if you were caught up in servicing clients, then there would be no time to expand your business.

If you are thinking of expanding, then you need to consider either assigning internal manpower or outsourcing your client-servicing to other people.

For my corporate training arm, I assign trained speakers who have been groomed and selected by me to handle the clients. In turn, this provides me with more time to boost business development.

Think long-term

Ok, this does sound like a pretty obvious point, but hear me out. I realise that many business owners tend to focus on chasing as much immediate profit as possible rather than thinking of sustainable profits through repeated patronage.

While this is perhaps acceptable for a very small business, any business owner that desires to expand needs to focus on crafting business offerings around garnering this repeat business.

What I do to accomplish this is to identify any previously unseen elements that will encourage recurring patronage and then incorporate these as quickly as possible. These can range from product extensions, peripheral services and even third-part businesses vendors that are compatible with your business.

At this point, let me just say that expanding your business is really not rocket science.

Hopefully, these fundamental tips can help you get started on bringing your company to a higher level.

That said, it can be done if you are determined enough and more importantly, if you are willing to put in the effort to learn how.

Pam Siow is the founder of ThinkSpace, a regional corporate training company in Singapore and Malaysia. . Find out more at http://thinkspace.com.my.