Step by step for a New Year plan to grow your business… "Make it happen"

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people across the GCC countries take a confidence jump to start their own business. This pathway requires a lot of hard work, and many end up failing. But for those who survive, the rewards of entrepreneurship are well worth the obstacles they face on the road to success, and grow year after year.

Think of the New Year, as new start to foster your business growth, so are you ready to start your first year business challenge? Here's a step-by-step outline of what you need to do to make your business grow right.

 Review your vision and business plan.  Understanding where your business is and where you want it to be is one of the most important steps in planning your growth, and that will lead you to imagine your business growth in five years' time and how will this fit into your lifestyle as a business leader. Once you are in the process of reviewing your plan you must be sure that your plan is simple, and has a logical vision, including your goals and the steps which you will be taken to reach your goals, also you should aligns your business with family and lifestyle aspirations, and not to forget to insure that your plan has improvement strategies to cope with change, survive the bad times and prosper in the good time.

Whether you are preparing the plan by yourself or using a business professional for an objective outside view, you should remember the thinking that goes into a plan is as important than the document itself.

 Focus in new market.  Maybe your current market is serving you well, but remember, other markets are what will make more money for you, because if your customer market ranges from local to specific industry, think about where other companies or people spend most of their time and money, and ask your self if you could introduce your business to them?. You could offer new services, discounts or special offer on your services or product to them to have more share of the market cake.

Think about external investment.  Taking a business onto the next level can be impossible if you lack experience, knowledge or money. A mentor might be able to help. A consultant might be able to manage a particular business requirement like marketing. Much will depend on the nature of your business, its potential and your willingness to relinquish control and ownership, but often attracting external investment, for example, from a business angel or private equity investor, or a Bank loan could be the best way forward.

Satisfy and Fulfill your Current Customers needs.  The first step for business growth is to exceed the expectations of your current customers.  This reduces your customer turnover, which means that you no longer have to find new customers just to replace current customers that have stopped buying from you due to poor service.  Further, satisfying your current customers allows you to increase your marketing share.

Create a Philosophy.  Some growth strategies are clear and have immediate and noticeable results. Others, like creating a philosophy, have more indirect results, but are still extremely important as you strive to make your organization more dynamic, more productive and more profitable. Creating a philosophy for your business is about encouraging passion in both your team and customer base. Your philosophy explains your identity, your values and your beliefs, in addition to more basic things like the products or services you offer and how you price them. 

Innovative partnering.  A mistake that many entrepreneurs make is to believe that they own all of the resources that comprise their businesses. Think about alleging talent via innovative partnering. It will increase both your company stretch and capabilities. Learn to do it well, and, you'll have a readymade approach to lasting the heights of your business cycles.

Think to franchise your business.  Franchising your business will allow the growth without requiring you to manage the new location. This will help to maximize the time you spend improving your business in other ways.

 Foster your business networks.  Most business customers come from the word of mouth, especially from other people recommendations, and the value of relationships is one of the key factors to grow your business. Most of our clients come from networking, and that is something that we should be passionate about. Networking is really useful. It’s not just about selling, it’s about what you can do for your clients as service and your business to grow.

 Enjoy your business time with passion.  If you don’t enjoy what you do, then you will never truly get sustainable, long-term growth. If there’s no thrill or excitement as you jump out of bed in the morning to get ready to go to work, then growth will avoid you. The fastest growing businesses are driven by owners who absolutely love and feel passionate about what their business stands for and what good it can bring to their customers, always ask yourself: Do I really enjoy what I do and what my business does?. If you answer with anything less than passion and enthusiasm, maybe you need to close down or sell your business. I know this can be a difficult and confronting decision to make, but life is short. If you don’t love your business and all the challenges that go with it, then get out. Love what you do, and your business will thrive. Complaint about what you do, and your business will crash.

Re-evaluate the processes.  While reviewing and documenting an existing process, now is the time to identify elements that are value-added. A value-added element of the process includes an activity that the client is willing to pay for or is crucial to preparing the product or service for the marketplace. Equally, non-value-added elements include steps that have appeared in the process over time, are in place to account for technology deficiencies, or steps that were just badly designed and implemented in the first place. Once the entire process has been divided into value-added and non-value-added elements, the work to design the future state can begin.