Running a business during the past twelve months has been challenging, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. That being said, with vaccines on the horizon, many companies believe their fortunes are looking up for 2021 and beyond. If you feel like your business has been lagging in terms of growth that means that now is the time to act if you want to make sure that you finish the fiscal year in strong shape. There are dozens of different reasons that your business could be struggling, but you won’t be able to find success until you truly identify the problem and get to work correcting it.
One reason that you might feel like your company isn’t performing as well as it could be is that your brand isn’t growing. While it’s true that brands do ebb and flow, it’s worth pointing out that if you aren’t seeing an upward trajectory when graphing your brand’s exposure and the number of customers who give you business, something could be wrong. There’s no magic formula for improving your brand’s standing. Nevertheless, there are a few different strategies to keep in mind and try out that should work regardless of the industry you’re in. Keep reading to discover a few different approaches that could help you revitalize your brand and get you on track to capture the growth that you’re after.
Get serious about your brand’s goals.
If you have goals that you’re setting, but you don’t seem to be able to make the progress you used to, it may be worth switching to a different goal-setting strategy or starting to use special software to help you better track and analyze your progress. For example, the OKR methodology, which stands for objectives and key results can be a simple, yet effective way to ensure that all of your team members are in proper alignment with your overall priorities as a business. Specific key results can be defined for each team member so that they know the role they play in achieving your company goals each quarter. In order to better facilitate the tracking and assessment of your OKRs, you can leverage OKR software platforms to offer even greater insights into how your business is progressing and whether or not tasks are in alignment with your overall strategy for brand growth. If this sounds like it might be useful for your business, consider looking into OKRs software options or other OKR tools that make it easy to define and share OKRs and key results across your business.
Find ways to expand physically so you can build out your team.
Sometimes your company’s physical presence plays a role in whether or not growth is possible. For example, it’s hard to expand your staff if you don’t have office space to offer them. In these sorts of situations, it’s a good idea to look at what sorts of belongings are in your business and determine whether or not you can rent a storage unit or find a storage facility to keep some of this equipment. Obviously, you don’t want to get rid of everything in your office or you won’t be able to do your work. That being said, if you’re a small business that currently manufactures and stores all of your products in the same building, it might be worth it to take a look at a few storage units in the area.
When it comes to picking the right self-storage solution, you want to make sure that the unit meets your storage needs as well as your overall business plan. You might, for example, decide that proximity is very important to you and pick a local self-storage option by searching for storage units in Omaha. That being said, if your business is in Nebraska but you don’t need a hyper-local storage option, you can always look outside Omaha at some neighboring cities in Council Bluffs or La Vista to see what sorts of lower rates you can get. As a business owner, you’ll also want to talk to your storage facility about access, security, and temperature control. This is particularly important if you plan on storing high-end merchandise since you’ll want to be certain that the facility’s security best practices are in alignment with your own needs.
Spice up your marketing with engaging video content.
Nowadays, video content is becoming more important than ever. With a rise in social media marketing on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok, having high-quality product demo videos or an animated storyboard about your product can be a serious gamechanger. That being said, not everyone has a great option in-house when it comes to video production. Especially if you need marketing collateral for a wide variety of products and services, it might make more sense to go with a company that specializes in video production or corporate video in order to get the most effective video content for your business.
From product video production to explainer videos, there is a wide range of video production services to look into when you want to increase engagement with a professional video. If you’re a small business owner, talk to a few different companies to see what sorts of video production companies are out there that can meet your video production needs and help you reach your company objectives at the same time. You might be surprised by how much synergy you can find when working with another company that specializes in video production rather than hiring a new staff member.
Look for sources of funding to further invest in your growth.
One final tip to keep in mind is that depending on whether you’re a new business or have been in business for a while, sometimes you’re going to need financing in order to get to the growth goals you want. If you run a franchise business, this is generally as simple as looking into franchise financing to cover equipment financing or opening another franchise. However, if you’re not running a franchise business, you may need to look into alternative lenders in order to get the working capital you need to grow. Consider opening another line of credit or even researching SBA loans from the Small Business Administration and you should be able to find what you need to find success.
