Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 234 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thanks for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!

If you’re enjoying this podcast – I’d love you to take a screen shot and share it on your socials and tag me in it.  How cool would that be!

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/234

Did you listen to last week’s episode? I had a fabulous guest on Anna Lamb from Uplifting Value, and we chatted all things pricing and ensuring you are charging what you are worth.  Head back there if you didn’t listen in – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/233

Today I am going to go over 5 strategies or secrets (but they aren’t really secrets!) to grow your business quickly.  Now quickly isn’t always a good thing – sometimes strategic, slower growth is good, but for today I am pretty sure these tips apply to whether you want to grow fast or slow!

So let’s get in to it.

Tip 1

Have a plan Stan!  And freakin’ stick to it!  Have a marketing plan, big, small, short, tall – it doesn’t matter, just understand where you are right now and now we want to go and have a plan on how you will get there!  Ask yourself why you are posting on social media, why you are sending our emails or sponsoring that local footy club – know the why and know the expected return on that investment.

Without a plan, business life is hard.  Marketing is hard.  But it shouldn’t be, and it does have to be. 

When I say get a plan and stick to it – obviously, plans can change, but the overall goals in your plan should probably stay quite consistent.

So, if you don’t have a plan – then start today.  When’s the best time to plant a tree, 20 years ago, when’s the next best time – TODAY!.

If you need help with getting a plan together – reach out – book a discovery call and let’s chat.  You can book through my website www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au

Tip 2

Market where your customers are.

I am writing at a book at the moment (oh, I haven’t said that out loud yet – stay tuned for a whole episode on that and what it’s like getting outside your comfort zone AGAIN) – and today, the chapter I’ve been working on is “Market where your customers are!”.

It seems simple, but it’s not.  Too many people are taking the path most travelled when it comes to their marketing and think ease not strategic.  They think, everyone is on Tik Tok, I’ll head there and market, without consideration of whether their audience is on Tik Tok or not.  Spend your marketing time and budget on the platforms and on the strategies that your ideal client or customer interacts with!

Don’t do what’s comfortable for you – it’s not about you – it’s about them.  Just because you hate emails, doesn’t mean they do!  You might not be your ideal client!

Tip 3

Innovate, Innovate, Innovate.

Mark Drucker once wrote, “there’s only two things in business, marketing and innovation, the rest is just stuff”.

I think we all learnt a valuable “innovate” lesson during covid but have you innovated since?  Are you still doing things that aren’t working just because you (a) don’t know they aren’t working because you never check or (b) it’s just easier to do the same thing and blame the economy or the competition for lack of business growth?

Watch for trends.  Listen to what your customers want to buy from you and innovate.

Innovation sets you apart from the competition and helps you stand out online.

Tip 4

Invest in yourself.

If you want to grow a business, then, I’m afraid you need to grow a business OWNER.  When was the last time you invested in you?

As the business owner, it’s so important to grow yourself, invest in yourself, invest in your knowledge and invest in your expertise.

Make sure in 2023, you are investing in yourself.

To be salesy for a few seconds, you can consider coming along to my Women in Business Retreat in May – there’s 1 ticket left or join the wait for my 30 day challenge – https://bit.ly/ChallengeWaitList2023

Tip 5

Focus on the customer.

Without customers, you don’t have a business!

So make sure you not only focus on the customer but listen to them also.

Listening to what your customers are asking for, what they are telling you, and then taking some action (test and measure, of course!), can explode your business and in a good way!

So none of the tips are earth-shattering but they are ways to grow your business quickly if you want.

Become more customer focussed and question everything you do – will this make me more sales?

Grow yourself to grow your business – it could be as simple as attending more networking events to grow your network

Be Innovative – don’t just do the same thing over and over and expect the same result – if you aren’t growing now, something has to change!

Market where your customers are – especially if you are going to be most customer focussed – you need to do this in the place where the customers are!

And have a plan! 

The Big Small Business Survey that I did last year, showed that 64% of people were going to increase their marketing spend in 2023 – which seems great but 83% of them had little or NO plan – so how on earth do you spent more money with no plan in place to measure success or to measure growth.

I love that these tips are logical and make sense.  They aren’t hard, but they are a mindset change. 

Which one do you need to work on most?

Got questions or thoughts? Get in touch or head to the Facebook group – Like Minded Business Owners and let me know.

If you loved this episode and found it valuable, please take 30 seconds out of your day to leave me a rating and review if you want where you are listening.  One more goal of mine is to reach more people with this podcast, and you can help me achieve that, by leaving me a review!  Thanks in advance.

See you next week on the podcast for episode 234!

But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.

But whatever you do,

……..remember small business peep, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!