For many people, working hard and earning their own money is a crucial aspect of adulthood––whether that is by having a career in an already established business or becoming an entrepreneur. Some people find practical ways to make money on the side while working a part-time job or full-time job within an organization and/or gearing up plans to start their own business. Likewise, side jobs can come in handy for high school or college students, or for people participating in a certification or training program. Being a babysitter, dog walker, freelance writer, blogger (running your own blog or writing for another), or renting out a spare room you may have in your home are profitable side hustles that can garner a decent amount of money. Additionally, side gigs assembling furniture, cutting lawns and running errands for homeowners on your own schedule are some of the great ways to earn extra money.
You may start out being handy to earn an extra income, but performing these services frequently––and getting a reputation for being great at it––could ultimately lead to you starting a home improvement and repair business. Other jobs where you work with your hands can lead to self-employment ventures as well. For instance, if you love working with your hands and have experience with professional hairstyling, consider leveraging your skills and background in this field to open your own hair salon or barbershop.
Entrepreneurship requires aspiring business owners to make plans about the type of organization they’re starting—a limited liability company (LLC), sole proprietorship, corporation, or a strictly online business. Likewise, you’ll have to determine the niche market you’ll be entering, the tangible goods and online services you may provide, and the budget for spending costs and savings. Once you get your brick-and-mortar or online store up and running, be sure to engage in practices that enable your business to expand and boost profits. Listed below are the best ways that you can grow your brand.
1. Avoid scaling your startup too fast.
Growing a profitable business and bringing in more revenue by developing new products and services, increasing its current market share, and even entering new markets are the most likeliest goals for small business owners hoping to expand their companies. When pursuing these goals, it’s vital not to scale a business too fast, as doing so could be adverse to growth. It can benefit you to scale your organization according to long-term goals rather than day-to-day needs. Make plans to increase your staff and expand the systems you use based on company needs instead of available funds. Avoid spending more money than you bring in, as business growth could cause revenue loss if you make assumptions. The best way to create plans for growing your brand is to include a realistic timeline, thorough vetting of your competition, and careful market research.
2. Enhance your organization’s sales force.
Including sales management practices in your business plans is essential to your company’s success. Sales management concerns planning, directing, and controlling personal selling. Additionally, sales management focuses on strengthening a sales staff. With effective sales management, your company can meet growing competition and follow improved distribution methods to increase profits while reducing costs.
Consider consulting sales professionals and materials produced by sales experts to learn about any sales training topic: such as sales process and methodology, sales operations, sales technology, sales training and coaching, social selling, prospecting and sales leads, and more. Using an outside sales training provider to give that sales training to the people on your sales team can be a good idea if your company can’t provide in-house training sessions. The point of sales training is to increase your profit and revenue, so choose a sales training program based on your company’s specific needs. Perhaps your sales team will need standard lectures and ebooks from sales experts or a customized live training session and one-on-one coaching. Utilizing a sales training program that combines several methods can be useful.
3. Make use of efficient technology.
Electronic devices, specialized software, and other technological solutions are indispensable to businesses. Companies can leverage robust equipment and software to enhance and support how they function to perform better than other organizations, and gain a competitive edge.
Streamline your business operations with the best technology. Large and small businesses can harness the benefits of robust objectives and key results (OKR) software, for example. OKR software enables companies to decide what goals they’ll focus on and monitor how and when they will achieve success. Establishing OKRs helps team members know the specific tasks they should prioritize and enables business owners to track progress. An organization that utilizes a practical method of measuring OKRs can enjoy streamlined business processes in every domain.
4. Improve your marketing efforts.
Consumers and potential buyers have to be aware of your brand for it to grow. Utilizing old-fashioned ways of advertising and digital marketing can help you spread the word to the public about your business, especially if you plan to run an e-commerce store, such as an essential oil online marketplace. For aspiring entrepreneurs wondering how to grow an essential oil business, social media and email marketing can be easy ways to establish an online presence for their brands.
Consider connecting with bloggers, podcasters, Instagram influencers, and professionals on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook to build your brand. Influencers on social media platforms with whom you’ve established positive, reciprocal relationships are more likely to promote your brand to their audiences through social media posts, blog posts and podcasts, and attract new customers for you.
Using targeted marketing in your traditional and digital marketing campaigns is an effective way to grow your brand. It can be a waste of resources to market your services toward an unrelated crowd, or a demographic that’s distant from your identified target audience. Furthermore, ensure that the content in your marketing efforts matches your customers’ potential needs. Content that doesn’t relate to what your audience is looking for may cause them to lose interest.
Once your business is running and fully operational, you can guarantee its growth and long-term success by leveraging technology that allows you to work efficiently, and produce content and services that will ensure customer engagement and loyalty to your brand.