Once your business is reliably generating revenue, it’s time to take it to the next level
Here, we show you how to develop and implement a business growth strategy in South Africa.
Identify what you want from your business
You can’t take your business to the next level if you don’t know where you want it to go.
You must spend time discussing and visualising the long-term goals for your business and for yourself. Consider what makes your business offering unique. What do you bring to the business?
Assess your competitors. How are their offerings different? Conduct essential market research. Is there a market and a gap in the market?
Where will your growth come from? Consider new customers, new sectors, new markets, and new products or services.
Once you’ve visualised your objectives, shape them into concrete “SMART” goals. To constitute part of a growth strategy, they must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
This will help you and your business stay focused as you take it to the next level.
Convert your goals to a business growth plan
You can’t achieve goals without a strategic plan. Now that you know your goals, develop a business growth plan for achieving them.
Outline how you’re going to achieve your growth goals with a detailed action plan. It should contain a list of actions and who is responsible for them, deadlines and resources for attaining your goals.
Before beginning your growth plan, establish the metrics you’ll use to monitor your goals. If you’re not meeting them, why not? Marketing not working? Is the business short of cash?
Actively target bigger opportunities
The growth plan will depend on your business, but your strategy will likely include new customer acquisition and actively targeting bigger opportunities.
These might include adding new locations, investing in customer acquisition, franchising opportunities, mergers, partnerships or acquisitions, product line extensions and selling products online across multiple platforms.
Other ways to actively target bigger opportunities include securing purchase orders and tenders.
For advice on where and how to apply for construction tenders, for example, see our article How To Find SA Construction Tenders for Your Business.
Line up funding
Before acting on your growth plan, you must line up funding. This enables your business to reach your goals faster and more strategically.
If your business doesn’t have existing budget to allocate to the growth plan, you’ll need capital investment. Access to traditional finance is a major constraint for most SMEs in South Africa.
BizFunding’s profit-sharing funding model can help.Profit-sharing is a collaborative approach where the funder and SME work together to support mutually beneficial growth.
The main advantage is practical. SMEs don’t have to worry about repaying borrowed funds until their work has been paid for.
If your SME has secured a significant tender or purchase order, you can use it to secure working capital from BizFunding. This makes it possible for you to pay suppliers and complete the order and grow your business.
Align resources to opportunities
The last step before acting on your plan is to consider all the resources you might need.
Examples include cash, personnel, equipment, tools, software, marketing, inventory and services.
Remember to be agile. Get the right human and equipment resources in place, as and when needed – but avoid wasting money on unnecessary resources.
One way to remain agile without missing out on opportunities is to outsource non-core functions.
Execute your plan
It’s time to execute your plan. You’ve done the planning; now you must deliver the results.
Remember that controlled, sustainable growth is key to achieving your goals. During this time, it’s essential to assess, adapt and adjust when necessary, by:
- holding stakeholders accountable
- keeping lines of communication open
- measuring progress
- evaluating performance
- periodically reassessing goals
- consider adjusting the plan.
How BizFunding can partner with your business
A strategic growth plan can help take your business to the next level.
If your business has secured a tender or purchase order, BizFunding can partner with you using our profit-sharing model to provide working capital. Apply in minutes and receive a same-day proposal.
For more information, call us on 012 001 0095 or go ahead and apply online now.