Don’t make these mistakes when growing your business

Written by Maribel Pascual

Niching will stunt business growth

Business owners often believe that narrowing down who they work with will mean less people will want to work them. This is incorrect.

The clearer you can get on your target market the better. The more you understand your ideal clients more of those will see and hear themselves in your marketing content; whether it’s your website, brochure, or social content.

And it doesn’t always have to be the case that you have to niche into certain industries, like professional services or leisure. It could be that you focus on your ideal clients’ personality characteristics.

 For example, ‘we work with bold businesses who love to stand out from the crowd.’ The more clearly you showcase your area of expertise, the more of those businesses you’ll attract.

Go on, be bold, stand out from the crowd and grow your business.

Raising prices will put clients off

The most common reasons businesses keep their prices (too) low is the thinking that raising them will cause customers to leave.

What businesses really want from you is value. And value is completely subjective to them and their needs.

Are you offering good value at a cost your business can sustain? If the answer is no, you must increase your pricing. Otherwise, your business is not going to be here in 12 months’ time. It’s simple maths.

Start with working out what your services costs to deliver – line by line. Your business deserves to be profitable. Increasing your prices, aligning it with value for money and being profitable will attract more of the right clients. Those who value time, dedication, and the results that service delivers.

Developing packages will stop clients buying your other services

Rather than clients coming to you piecemeal developing packages will help them to do better business with you over a longer term, serving their needs in a deeper and more meaningful way. Think Amazon’s ‘customers also bought this product’ service.

Developing packages sees you pulling together all the services your ideal clients love. You know who you get the most out of working with, what results your customers want; therefore, you know what your clients want (and need) to make their desired outcomes happen. Packages will help enhance relationships, whilst giving you and your business stability to grow.

Rebranding won’t bring a ROI and will confuse our existing customer base

Rebranding will confuse our existing customers and we won’t see a return on our investment.

Wrong.

Most likely you started your business a while ago, or certainly seems like an age as you have come so far in a short amount of time.

Perhaps when you set up you weren’t clear on who you were yet and who your client base was going to be.

I’ve worked with clients who started off in their back bedroom as a ‘freelancer’ only to see it grow into a team, working from office space, with clients they never dreamed possible. Therefore, their brand no longer fits with their identity and future business growth goals.

If you feel embarrassed sharing business cards or referring potential clients to your website, then a rebrand WILL give you a clear return on investment.

You don’t have to do it alone. Book in for my complimentary Kickstart Session – a one hour call to give you clarity, focus and guidance on your best next steps in business.