The modern world, struck by the effects of COVID-19, presents many challenges for businesses looking to grow. In the complicated economy of the pandemic environment, stimulating business growth can be difficult. However, with the right mindset and toolkit, businesses can grow despite the hard times.
In a survey from QuickBooks, 75% of surveyed businesses said that COVID-19 has hurt their business plans. Many of these businesses are prioritizing survival over any kind of growth. But survival doesn’t need to be your only option. Businesses can thrive through innovation.
While growth in the modern era may not be as quick as you’d like, through these five strategies you can find innovative methods to help stimulate business growth.
1. Delegate
One of the worst positions you can put yourself in—in terms of business growth—is taking on too much from a leadership position. In light of the pandemic, more small business owners than ever are having to rely only on themselves to complete a variety of essential business tasks.
Unfortunately, it is exceptionally difficult for businesses to grow while their leaders are hampered down by an excess of responsibilities. This is a great time to restructure your business practices, a key element of which means reassigning and delegating tasks to better free up your workflow.
As counterintuitive as it may sound, delegation can actually help immensely with the innovation pipeline. With more minds approaching a task from a variety of positions, the potential for workers to streamline practices can be a necessary step forward in stimulating business growth.
2. Explore Needs and Growing Industries
Another key element of maintaining business growth even in difficult economies is exploring emerging needs and industries primed for takeoff. By taking a look at the wider world around you, your business can look for opportunities that might not have existed before.
For example, the modern world is economically realizing the potential of sustainable products and resources. Meanwhile, efforts that have a positive effect on the environment can increase business activity and consumer interest at the same time. Sixty-five percent of consumers report wanting to buy brands that advocate for sustainability.
When you combine elements like this with emerging industries, you can create beautiful opportunities. For example, hemp as a hyperaccumulator can help clean contaminated soil. In addition, it is a highly versatile textile material, meaning it can be used in a wide variety of products. A business looking to grow might look into materials like hemp as a way to diversify and explore new, sustainable processes.
3. Differentiate
So many businesses today face the problem of sameness. For growth, companies should look to attain a level of differentiation, a separating factor that makes them stand out from the crowd. For every business, the process of differentiation will vary.
What makes your business stand out? What do you offer that few others can? How can you fulfill needs—especially in the modern COVID-19 era—that might interest consumers?
These questions and more are what your business should be asking itself in order to better formulate products and services that can stimulate growth even in this difficult economy.
4. Embrace Empathetic Leadership Strategies
Especially essential with the health difficulties caused by the pandemic, empathetic leadership is needed to maintain a highly functioning and innovative work environment. By embracing empathy as a leadership strategy, you can help your business thrive under the policy changes it needs to enact due to the times we live in.
Leaders who emphasize the philosophy of health first demonstrate to their employees the value of the human aspect of business. This empathetic mindset can carry over into business innovations, as it allows decision-makers to put themselves in the shoes of their customers.
In turn, businesses can better define needs and provide products and services to meet those needs.
5. Constantly Reassess
Stimulating business growth no matter the state of the economy means constantly brainstorming and reassessing current practices. By cultivating a culture that is responsive to ideas from all levels of the workplace, businesses can better generate and explore innovative ideas. Capitalizing on those ideas then requires your business to do comprehensive data analysis.
By exploring the results of all potential business changes in data form, you can best decide what is the right growth approach for your company. Luckily, many data platforms such as Google Analytics exist for free and can help even small businesses integrate a data strategy. For others, artificial intelligence-powered systems for predictive analytics can help you model business decisions for lucrative growth.
Bottom Line
To not only survive in the modern business world but to thrive, businesses need to maintain mindsets of empathy and innovation that span the entire organization. At the leadership level, encourage a culture of empathy to help stimulate new ideas. Meanwhile, data integration can allow for the testing and exploration of new products, services, and practices.
Growing your business means standing out from the competition. These five tips can help you get there, however, it will also take hard work and constant analysis of your current progress.
Comments (1)
Great leadership