Last Updated on June 6, 2019 by
Most entrepreneurs have dreams of growing their startup into a household name. The one thing that plenty of these founders do not think about is how growth will impact their quality of product or service. Taking this into account can help those at a startup grow efficiently without changing what is delivered to clients. Alienating large clients through growth can stunt growth as a huge part of growing a business is customer retention. Scaling processes should be one of the first steps and testing the processes needs to be done as well. A huge order breaking processes is not something any startup wants especially if they recently signed a huge client. The following are tips to help grow your startup without impacting the quality of service or product delivered to the consumer.
Finding An Investor
Finding an investor might be necessary to come up with the capital that it takes to grow. The one thing that a founder has to be aware of is that not all investors are created equal. Lee Jacobs of Angelist notes that sometimes generalist investors are better picks for a company than a specialized investor. It depends on the needs of the company. Asking potential investors what their expectations are for the investment and how involved they want to be with the startup. You do not want to take on an investor that will pressure you to make a decision in the short term to recoup their money that will hurt company growth moving forward. With this being said it is also important to present realistic projections rather than optimistic ones so their expectations are not inflated.
Focusing On Content Marketing
Content marketing can impact the growth of a startup immensely as search engines impact business in nearly all industries. A company blog is a perfect platform for a startup to showcase their knowledge on a specific relevant topic. The focus needs to be on quality content instead of churning out low-quality content consistently. Offsite content being published on related websites can help with search engine rankings for the keyword phrases that are linked in the article. Other forms of content besides written content have been quite a success as well. Podcasting allows those at the company to get in-depth on topics with those listening able to comment if a custom hashtag is created for the podcast. A podcast has no limit on time, unlike written content that can be time-consuming to produce.
Utilize Freelancers To Reduce Costs
Freelancers can be one of the best tools for a startup to allow employees to save time and the company to save money. For those companies that might need content written at a high volume, a freelancer platform like Upwork is full of talent that can be of help. Finding the right freelancers is the difficult part of this as you do not want to miss a client deadline on account of a freelancer promising to hit a deadline then failing. A good pool for reliable freelancers being built can help a startup get out of a pinch or save money on a weekly basis.
Automate Wherever Possible
The ability to automate certain processes not only can make an employee’s job easier, but it also allows them to spend their time on other things. The fact that automation eliminates human error is just another positive aspect of automation. You might find that you can automate certain jobs allows the company to become more budget-friendly in terms of employee wages. There is no shortage of tools that can help with things like data entry or pulling information from a PDF without having to manually input it. Find where automation is possible and put a plan into place to automate within a reasonable time period.
Retain Clients With Incredible Customer Service
Retaining clients month after month allows a startup to have a healthy cash flow which they can use to spur growth. This is going to take the customer service team’s best effort as customers want to feel valued especially if they have worked with the company for an extended period. Updating the CRM religiously can also help with this whether it is a personal note about a client or something as simple as a recap of the last client call. Avoid switching client reps when possible as the personal rapport the client has made with this person is invaluable.
As you can see it is important to grow a company with the happiness of current customers in mind. Take a look at other startups that have grown in the correct ways to see is anything that you can learn. Enlisting the help of a business mentor is not a bad idea either as getting an outside opinion on certain issues can lead to making the right decision. Grow your startup consistently starting today keeping all the above in mind!