How to Grow Your Business in Challenging Times

Many businesses and organizations are struggling in the current economic climate. With consumer-facing operations almost at a standstill and cash flow drying up, it can be difficult to see how your business can move forward. But challenging times don’t have to drag your organization’s growth to a grinding halt. In fact, business owners can – and should – maintain forward momentum even if the immediate future looks challenging. 

Below, you’ll find out how to keep the ball moving forward and how to secure wins for your organization, even if you’ve pressed pause on some of your operations. Here are five top tips for maintaining business growth in challenging times: 

Shift Your Focus

When business is operating normally, our main focus is often on the immediate future. But when times are tough, we have to be ready for the long haul. 

If you’re looking to continue growing your business even in difficult times, shifting your focus toward long-term strategic planning can help keep you on track. Of course, you’ll still need to be ready to react to changes in the immediate economic climate, but it’s also important to look toward the future. 

You can start off by looking at your mission statement and organizational principles. Are they still relevant to how your business operates? What can you change to boost your chances of future growth? 

Then, it’s time to take a look at your long-term plans. Start by listing off some of your business goals and then create a detailed plan to help you accomplish them. Then, give yourself checkpoints along the way in your long-term plan to ensure that you’re still on target – while also leaving enough flexibility to pivot if things suddenly change in the immediate. 

You can also search for areas of future investment within your organization. Don’t forget to consider new markets that will open up as a result of the ever-changing marketplace as these could be beneficial to your business.  

Action Point: Review your organizational mission, principles, and goals. Create or update your long-term plans to better match your aspirations and continue to search for areas of future growth.

Review Your Current Strategies

Regardless of how well your business was doing before an economic downturn, there’s always room for improvement. However, it can be difficult to identify where an organization can improve when things are going really well.

So, if business is slow, take this as an opportunity to assess your overall efficiency. Are there areas where you can reduce spending without drastically changing your organization’s structure?

This is also a great time to see if your business strategies are truly optimized for the industry you’re in. You might be able to slightly shift your marketing approach to better reach your overall customer base.

Alternatively, you might find that your current approach is working quite well. If so, now is the time to research different ways to maximize your reach and to keep attracting new clients. 

Action Point: Conduct a comprehensive review of your business strategies to see what you’re doing well and where you could improve. Think about ways to expand, potentially into different markets, when your client-facing relations are running at peak capacity once again.

Offer Great Customer Service

Even if you’re not operating at full capacity, your business and your brand rely on top-notch customer service. There are still people out there using your products and services, so it’s important that you give all your loyal customers the attention that they deserve.

While you might have had to halt production or the fulfillment of services in the short-term, it’s important to recognize the value of customer service in terms of driving future growth. If your customer service is lacking, your once loyal clients may feel that you’ve left them high and dry during a difficult situation.

So, think about ways to continue providing the same level of service that your customers expect. Find ways to respond to emails, answer your phone, and get back to customers in a timely manner, even if you and your employees can’t be in the office.

Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to your clients and let them know you’re still here to support them in any way you can. Your customers will appreciate the effort you put into ensuring their satisfaction with your goods and services.

Action Point: Keep offering great customer service, even if you’re not running at peak capacity. Your customers will appreciate your efforts, which will increase their loyalty to your brand in the long run.

Maximize Your Online Presence

Your business’ online presence has a huge impact when it comes to attracting new customers and providing fantastic service to your existing clientele. But, when was the last time your website got a major overhaul?

Take this time to evaluate the effectiveness of your online presence. Does your website provide an exceptional user experience? Can potential customers find all of the information they need on your site to decide if your services are right for them?

A quality website is a great way to demonstrate your professionalism and dedication to your business’ long term success.

Additionally, it’s worth revamping your social media presence to increase brand recognition for your business. Consider creating an account on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to keep your customers up-to-date with your products, services, and future plans. Investigate new ways to promote your organization online now so you can grow in the future.

Action Point: Think about updating your website and clever ways that you can utilize social media accounts so you can keep in touch with consumers and attract new business opportunities.

Be Ready to Respond When Situations Improve

You want to be ready to start up your operations as soon as possible. The last thing you want is to have to delay your return to full capacity any longer than necessary as this will hamper your long-term growth. Thus, it’s important to have a plan in place to make this transition as smooth as possible.

Many organizations have had to furlough valued employees and temporarily shut down production to stay afloat or to comply with government regulations. This means that an immediate restart of full operations might not happen overnight.

To ensure that your business is ready to restart as soon as you get the green light, take some time to create a detailed plan of how you’ll make this happen. Determine how you’ll get in contact with furloughed employees and who you’ll bring back to work first.

Consider how long-term regulations and shut-downs might affect consumer demand in the immediate future. A strategic approach to tackling these issues will allow you to restart your organization and reach out to customers without draining your assets.

Action Point: Have a plan in place for how you want to restart your business when the overall situation and regulations permit. Consider where your short-term production and service needs are and what you can do to avoid spending all of your cash reserves.