Success leaves clues. There is a blueprint for business growth. The blueprint has some critical factors that help businesses grow. If your business is not growing, it means you are lacking the critical factors required for business growth.
Once you adopt those key factors, it will eventually make your business grow.
After extensive research, I have found the top five reasons businesses don’t grow. Once business owners take care of all these factors, they see considerable success.
If you are a small business owner and want to understand why your small business is not growing, here are the top five reasons which prevent businesses from growing.
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You don’t have a written business plan.
A well-written business plan is essential for a successful business.
It sounds odd, but it’s true.
Many small business owners believe that having a written business plan isn’t essential as they have everything in their minds.
But it doesn’t work.
So if you don’t have a plan covering every area of your business, you are missing a great tool to keep pushing the business the right way.
Here is what happens when you don’t have a plan.
When you can’t sell your products enough, you lose focus and distract from the essence of your business. You try to sell others’ stuff to make money.
Once you compromise on the core values of your business, you will never get a unique space in the market.
So if you don’t have a written business plan, get one for your business no matter how much it costs. It will give you a clear direction and won’t let you distract.
You don’t have SMART goals.
A business plan isn’t enough: Setting SMART goals is the next big thing to work on.
When you set SMART goals, you have every tiny detail about your goals and targets. You know how exactly you will get those goals, what resources you will use, and how long it will take.
So everything becomes very clear, and you can easily go through it before you work on it.
For instance, someone started a clothing brand. He had a plan (in mind) that he would build 5 branches in the next decade, and each franchise’s sales would be 10 million yearly.
But he didn’t know how to achieve 0.1 million in the first year.
It doesn’t mean his plans are not achievable; it means he didn’t set SMART goals. He blindly wished for something, and he had not had a clear path to reach the destination.
You don’t have a marketing strategy.
The next big thing influencing any business growth is the right marketing strategy.
If you don’t have a clear and working marketing strategy, you can’t run your business efficiently.
One famous entrepreneur says when you start a startup or small business, the top priority of any business should be to sell its products.
And you can’t sell without marketing.
The guy who had started a clothing brand said, my stuff is not selling. What should I do? I am thinking of adding this and that so that at least something sells.
I said, do you believe that every buyer in the area of your products has visited your franchise?
He said no.
I said your top priority should be to convince your expected customers to visit your store at least once. You can do it with aggressive marketing.
The same is for every business. If something is not selling, it doesn’t mean the product is not worth buying. Many times the right buyers don’t know about the products or services.
The best ways to market any small business are:
- Traditional marketing techniques
- Social media marketing
- Start a website
- Grow your e-commerce business online
You don’t have enough budget or resources
The next significant thing that hinders any business is finances. Many new businesses fail due to finances.
If you don’t have enough money for stocks, marketing, or keeping enough employees, how can you think of competing with the market?
You can only make a living if you have budget issues, and you should be happy with that.
To run your business appropriately, you should first research how much money you need to start your business and make sure you have enough budget in your pocket.
Secondly, by resources means, you don’t have the right tools, say loyal employees, or products, that align with the values of your business.
It will not let you grow fast enough.
So here are the two areas to focus on here.
- Attract and retain loyal employees
- Get enough money to run the business.
- Use the best resources and build a powerful team.
Once you have all the above, here is the last thing to consider.
You don’t offer unique products.
Every small business owner wants to build a brand. He wants his business recognized. But nothing happens on its own.
Building a brand and getting your business recognized in the market requires a lot of struggle, persistence, and uniqueness.
If you don’t have a unique product or service, you are not adding value to customers’ lives, you might make money, but you can’t build a brand.
People remember brands because of the uniqueness they offer. If you have long-term business plans, then the top priority should be building a worthwhile brand.
Once people use your product, they will utilize the benefits of uniqueness you offer, they will become your loyal marketers, and you will eventually start growing.
What prevents small businesses from growing?
Many small business owners don’t care about some critical factors that decide a business’s fate. For instance, a business plan, budget, and resources, marketing strategy are the main reasons that prevent businesses from growing.