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Are You Keeping Pace with your Company's Growth?
Long and short term strategies are essential for business growth
Implementing one or multiple strategies to growing your business is a matter of timing. How quickly you attempt to grow your business is called your “pace” of growth and is measured by the rate of growth that you are seeking from one or more growth strategies.
Both the timing and pace of your business´ growth efforts have a substantial impact on their eventual success and should be applied in tandem.
Real business growth occurs when your business is experiencing permanent increases in profit as a direct result of measurable and sustainable increases in sales volumes. Even though your business is enjoying increased sales volumes, unless these additional sales contribute to the business´ bottom line, they are only symptomatic, and could be considered to be a form of temporary “ghost growth” – giving your business the appearance of growth, without creating the required underlying increases in profit.
Market Demand
Business growth is best achieved by matching the timing and pace of your business´ growth initiatives to market demand. Ideally, your business will enter the marketplace with growth strategies designed to respond to untapped existing demand for its products and services and to take advantage of any rapidly emerging new demand.
Several scenarios that may generate increased market demand for your products and services are:
Entry into an untapped market – when your business enters a market for the first time
The advent of new products or services, complementing your existing product mix
An increase in size of the marketplace (perhaps in response to a major employer opening a new location within your target market)
A competitor leaves the market (by eliminating part of their product line or closing their doors altogether)
Consumers experience a major change in their tastes (such as the movement from landline telephone service to the use of mobile phones)
You create new demand where it does not yet exist. (This can be very costly in terms of time and money, and can have a high degree of risk should it fail to generate the anticipated profitable sales increases)
The identification of new target markets (in a new city, or the world, for example, via the Internet).
Is it possible to grow in today´s economy?
If you try to implement growth strategies ahead of market demand, your efforts may be wasted on customers who don´t believe they need your products or services; and if you enter the market late, you may have lost the opportunity to capture market share, as your competitors may have already done so.
By the same token, if your business growth strategies attempt to increase sales too quickly, your marketing efforts and their corresponding costs may be disproportionately high, compared with the market´s ability to process and react by initiating new sales.
Furthermore, if your business growth strategies underestimate the market´s demand and are introduced too slowly, your business may not reach all the potential customers when they are ready to buy, and your business will suffer a lost opportunity to grow faster.
Remember that the process of business growth is ongoing. For this reason, you are encouraged to include both long and short-term growth strategies in your plans. By continuously being attentive to growth opportunities, you can avoid the dual risks of experiencing a reduction in your business´ sales volumes and a corresponding loss of profitability.
To discover how Incisive Edge will help you grow your business email growth@incisive-edge.com or call 0843 289 7884.
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