Small Business Coaching on 3 Ways to Grow Your Business

By Allison Babb

It probably goes without saying that all self-employed people want to grow their small businesses as quickly as possible. Solo entrepreneurs, in particular, can find this to be quite a challenge. Perhaps it’s because we’re often wearing many hats and juggling many responsibilities. Growth can seem slower and harder to achieve at times.

When you're self employed it's important to understand how growth happens in a small business so that you're not spinning your wheels. Growing your small business typically means growing the bottom line. You reach others with your product service which then produces growth for your business. So how do you get to growth? Well there are many ways, but here are 3 to consider:

Attract more customers: Yes, I know, you're thinking "well duh Allison". :-) Everyone knows they can use more customers, but too often we limit ourselves to 2 options: "word of mouth" and "networking." These are great ways to get the word out but there are countless other ways to market our businesses as well. We simply need to invest in our own learning and growth to discover more options.

I discovered countless marketing options by reading books like "The Ultimate Marketing Plan" and "Guerilla Marketing" and, of course, quizzing my coaches and mentors on what options exist for me. I now have well over a dozen different ways in which I market my business offline and online. If business growth is your goal, having only one or two marketing options is rarely enough to get the volume of customers you want.

Increase your prices: Now that’s one way to grow your bottom line, right? But seriously, can I share a secret with you? Most self-employed people undercharge for their products and services. Why? It's largely mindset as far as I can tell - we often don't believe anyone would pay us higher prices. Internally, we don’t think we’re worth it. So we undercharge. There are so many talented entrepreneurs out there who deliver tremendous value and deserve to be paid for the results they create for others.

With the economic downturn, we’re tempted to cut our prices to attract more clients. But quite honestly, people don't typically buy based solely on price (unless you're competing with Walmart-type goods and services.) People buy based on the value and results you deliver. Price your services based on the results you help people achieve. It may be time to amp up your value and increase your prices. Now I don't mean to overprice but truly take a look at the results you deliver in your business and see if it may be time to adjust your pricing based on what you help others accomplish. Your talent is probably worth way more than you think.

Create repeat business: Our customers return when there's something valuable to come back to. One thing to note is that a lot of self employed people have just one or two things to sell. That's probably not enough options to create repeat business.

When you offer more options, you increase the opportunities for people to buy. Some of your customers will want your lower-end products/services while others will want your top end offerings. It may be time to add some offerings based on what your customers are asking about or what they're saying they want more of. And if it’s been a while since you asked your customers what they want, this may be a great way to start the New Year.

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WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Allison Babb is an author, speaker and Small Business Coach to solo entrepreneurs. Allison publishes the "Small Business Success" weekly Ezine on how to create a steady stream of clients for your small business at: www.GreatSmallBusinessAdvice.com

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