So, you have big plans for your business, but you’re not sure how to get to them? Maybe you want to open a new location or expand your team. Perhaps you want to take home more revenue. Whatever it is, taking your business to the next level can feel challenging at the best of times.
The secret to growing your business isn’t actually a secret at all. It just takes some time, a little bit of knowledge and the right people to help get you there. Plus, you now have our 6 steps to take your business to the next level to help you out too. With these tools, you’ll be able to dream big and have the confidence you need to reach your business goals.
6 Steps to Take Your Business to the Next Level
1. Have a specific goal.
What does taking your business to the next level or growing your business mean to you? Does it mean hitting $1,000,000 in sales each quarter or does it mean having to bring on a new team member to help you carry out the work? A specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART) goal will ensure you have something to work towards.
Knowing what success and growth means to you will mean you can measure how far you are from your goal and exactly what you need to attain that. For example, if you want to make $300,000 in sales a month, you can work out how much your average sale is and how many sales you’ll need to meet your quota. These figures will be essential when working out your marketing budget, but more on that later.
Keep in mind, when you have a goal, you have something to celebrate. If you’re simply just striving for more without a specific figure, you’ll always be on the grind and become burnt out feeling like you never get there. So, set that goal.
2. Find your HiPPO.
Most businesses will have a couple of different target audiences. For instance, a lawyer may offer commercial and family law services, so they market to business owners and separated couples between the ages of 25 to 55. But this is where your marketing can get stretched thin as it’s trying to do too many things at once. This is where finding your HiPPO can help you really zone your efforts into what’s going to grow your business.
A HiPPO is your Highest Paying Person’s Opinion. It’s the high-ticket clients or the people who buy the most per transaction. Who are they? What are their pain points? Why should they choose you and not the other person offering the same service? Know your audience and you can build your marketing around that person and they will come, bringing more of those high-paying leads and sales.
3. Determine your growth investment.
One of the biggest reasons business owners don’t achieve their goals is because they don’t invest in them. Just take at the world’s largest companies. Apple is valued at more than $947 billion, and in 2020 they invested $1.8 billion on advertising, marketing and promotions. Nike is valued at more than $142 billion and invested $4.06 billion in advertising in 2023. If you don’t get what you don’t put in.
But how much do you need to invest in marketing to grow? It depends on your goal, industry and many other factors, which is why it’s important to know your specific goal.
For example, let’s say you want to make $100,000 in sales each month, and your average job is $10,000, so you need an average of 10 jobs a month to reach your goal. But to get these 10 jobs, you need leads, so you work out, on average, it takes you 20 leads to convert 10 jobs. Now, what happens next depends on the marketing avenue you’re looking at, but let’s go with Google Ads and some random example figures.
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When running Google Ads, you see you get 1 lead per 15 clicks. Your business would need to be generating 300 clicks a month, give or take. If each click costs you $12, you would need to be putting at least $3,600 into your ad spend — at least.
But remember, your average job is $10,000. So if you’re investing say, $5,000, you’re making two times what you need to cover your marketing expenses from one job alone, leaving you with $95,000 for expenses and to line your pockets.
4. Facilitate for expected growth.
Imagine for a second your marketing is working and the leads are piling in. Do you have the resources to manage those leads, jobs and everything that comes with this for your business?
Before setting out on achieving your goals, it’s important you have a plan in place for actually facilitating your growth. Will you need more workers? What type of workers will you need? Will you need more equipment, vans, licences for things? And how long will it take you to get these things? Because if you start to get the leads you need, and you can’t get back to people in a timely manner and fulfil the jobs, things could turn pear-shaped fast. So, have a plan in place that’s ready to go and can be actioned very timely to suit your goals.
5. Claim your digital space.
Now we’re onto the fun stuff. Claiming your digital space is one of the most crucial steps to take your business to the next level. It’s how you get your business name out there and people finding your business.
What digital space you claim will differ depending on your business, but knowing your HiPPO will help you narrow it down. Where are your high-ticket clients spending their time online? How are they searching for businesses when they need one? For example, a younger audience may be better targeted through social media ads, while an older audience might be better suited to Google Ads. But again, it depends on your business and your audience. Your ideal marketing is unique to you, which is where having a digital marketing provider you can trust will help you narrow down your results a lot quicker.
Essential digital marketing to grow your business:
- A responsive website, an essential cornerstone every business should have to direct people to and claim your digital space online.
- Search engine optimisation (SEO), to help you claim more of your website’s digital space on organic search engine results.
- Google Business Profile, to maximise your visibility for local business searches on Google Search and Maps.
- Paid advertising, for putting your business in front of specific people at specific times to increase lead quality and quantity.
- Social media, to increase your brand authority and awareness on a mass scale.
6. Tap into your data for further growth.
There are always more opportunities for growth if you know where to look. Your website and digital marketing provide valuable insights, not only to further optimise their strategies, but also where you can expand your business. For instance, you may notice you’re receiving a lot of website traffic from a particular area you’ve never focused on. With this knowledge, you can refine and expand your marketing to reach new audiences and attract new leads.
What to do if you need help levelling up your business…
As a business owner, it’s likely you don’t have the time to actually be investing in what is needed to level up your business. This is when outsourcing your digital marketing can be useful to ensure you’re staying ahead of the competition and bringing in the leads you need to be able to grow; whatever that may mean for you.
Digital Surfer can help you level up your business by helping you claim your digital space. If you have big goals and are serious about achieving them, contact our award-winning digital specialists today.
