Ways to Increase your Revenue
by Suzanne Cleal, Striding Out Business Coach
There are many ways in which a business can grow their commercial revenue through the development of new income streams.
To grow a business, the founder(s) have to balance building and developing a team, with developing new and existing income streams of the business. This can be a struggle, particularly if the founder is very entrepreneurial and likes to focus on developing new ideas before building the foundations of their first ideas, to enable them to flourish.
At the point of a business growing beyond it's founder(s), it is critical to develop a clear vision for existing and new revenue streams. Once the strategy is agreed it must be communicated to all members of the team with delegated responsibilities. This ensures everyone in the business is moving in the same direction and the future growth of the business is not restricted to the energy and initiative of just one person.
This will enable the small business and founder to maintain it's entrepreneurial spirit within a structured framework that will ensure the future success of the business.
Ways to Increase Your Revenue
A number of ways to increase your revenue are discussed below...
Customer development
Customer development should always be the first consideration when looking at growth opportunities. It has always been said that it costs ten times more to acquire a customer than to retain one! This is a simplistic view but it never ceases to amaze me how many business owners focus time and energy (and therefore money) on sales to new customers, forgetting the potential value that is available to them through existing customers.
Product/service development
This is an extension of the customer development option. Once you have considered how you can sell more of your existing products or services to existing customers it is time to think about what more your customers might want and be willing to pay for. You may want to develop additional products or services yourself or find partners who can help provide relevant offers to your customer base in a way that brings growth to your business.
Business development
At the same time you also need to be thinking about how you will continue to acquire new customers. There are two key things to think about. How can you find more new customers similar to the ones you already have and then are there different groups of customers (a new market) who may also be interested in your products and services and how might you reach these new groups? This is where you will consider the options for geographical expansion, such as franchising.
Diversification
Diversification is the most risky of the growth options and unusual in young businesses. It involves developing new products or services for new customer groups or markets. A good example of a diversification strategy is Virgin. Virgin used the strength of its brand and unique positioning as ‘consumer champion' to enter unrelated markets. Who would have guessed that a new airline competing against the established big boys subsequent move would be into cola?
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