Owning and operating a business starts with a hefty investment. Whether or not you have a business with deep pockets, being conscious of how you spend resources to expand your organization is important. As a business owner, preparation is crucial for every decision, especially those affecting growth, while budget-wise, spending responsibly is a crucial aspect of sustainable growth.
Always bear in mind that investing in a company is an expensive venture. A budget-friendly solution is always the best way to scale up your business. However, what kind of solution is effective for your business? No matter what industry you are involved in, the initial step to take is to evaluate internal factors, which are the strengths and weaknesses of your company.
Furthermore, external factors can also limit the resources for future business growth such as economic downturns, calamities, and legislation, as those are outside the organization’s scope of control. That being said, the importance of being budget conscious will result in the proper allocation of resources, and at the same time increase revenue for future expansion or unforeseen circumstances.
In this article, there are 5 ways to scale up your business in a budget-friendly solution.
1. Use Social Media
In the past, businesses used traditional marketing channels to reach potential and current customers through printed media, television, and radio ads to name a few. Now that traditional mediums for advertisement had become obsolete with the advent of social media, as a result, it changed the way we communicate, interact, and connect with each other regardless of where you are in the world. Now the majority of the world’s population is active social media users. The number of social media users is expected to grow from 4.6 billion users in 2018 to almost 6 billion in 2027.
On the business side, social media helped businesses grow at an astonishing pace. The instantaneous connection between the seller and buyers became easier through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, and LinkedIn. Research conducted by statista.com reports that marketers use the leading social media platform with 93% choosing Facebook as the primary platform for marketing, followed by Instagram at 78%, Tiktok at 61%, and Youtube at 55%.
That being said, social media is free to use platform for anyone. Businesses in general could pay for ads to spread brand awareness, and increase their customer base while improving credibility and brand trust. On the one hand, if an organization cannot afford pay-per-click advertising, there’s always the option of join social media groups. Targeting your audience through social media groups, trendy postings, hashtags, along with short and long videos can help fulfill your aim of expanding your reach through word of mouth or by simply starting a trend.
As social media continues to gain widespread popularity and utility, The mistake of disregarding its potential is simply a recipe for disaster for any organization that is planning to expand in a cost-effective manner. Moreover, social media can be tricky for those who are unfamiliar with each platform’s unique user interface (UI).
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies are third-party service providers that perform in-house processes for other organizations. Their service roles include remote staffing solutions which offer social media virtual assistants. These VAs specialize in social media algorithms, customer interaction, researching trends, doing ads, and maintaining an organization’s social media accounts.
2. Improve Customer’s Average Time Spent On Your Website
As mentioned previously, social media is a free-use platform, so is making your own website. One of the cheap ways to scale up your business is to attract potential customers with an eye-catching website, with an up-to-date design, and frequently updated with content that is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly. Basically, your website will generate leads, improve sales, and as a result a well-needed revenue increase to your business.
An attractive website entices potential customers to scroll through your web pages thus increasing dwell time. When customers become enamored with your website, the possibility of them availing of your product or services increases. Equally important, have your website optimized for all devices, as a well-optimized website decreases the loading time of a website.
3. Email Marketing
Is a strategy for sending a commercial message to potential and current customers for advertisement, request, solicit sales, or donations. In 2022, there are an estimated 4.2 billion email users worldwide and is set to grow to 4.5 billion by 2025. Essentially, the wide use of email is an opportunity for organizations to stay in touch with their customers and at the same time reach new ones. In addition, now that customer preferences have shifted more toward personalized service, email marketing can be configured to be more personalized raising the chances that the customer will convert.
Furthermore, email marketing is an affordable solution for businesses to undertake, with applications such as MailChimp that can send 12,000 emails per month for free. For small businesses, sending out high-volume emails to generate leads is important for them to expand in a cost-effective way.
4. Improve Sales Pitch
For service-based businesses, the prospect of delivering sales pitches to potential customers to secure contracts is vital for the longevity of their business. Improving sales pitches can increase your chances of closing more deals. With this solution, you don’t need to onboard an application or change business processes. The important thing is improving your the quality of your customer service.
That being said, good customer interaction will leave an impression that your services are there to cater to their every need, therefore, increasing customer retention, generating leads, and closing a sale effectively.
5. Outsource
Is a business strategy of hiring a third-party service provider to perform services or create goods that were traditionally performed in-house. Outsourcing is a low-risk solution for organizations to scale up quickly while maintaining cost savings through hiring from either onshore or offshore locations.
Companies, regardless of size, frequently turn to outsource to reduce costs. Even though the pricing of services in outsourcing companies may vary, one thing is for sure, their cost-effectiveness is one of the best benefits that outsourcing brings to the table. Examples of budget-friendly services offered by outsourcing companies include:
- Remote Staffing
- Seat Leasing
- Hourly and Projects Service
- Build A Company – Build, Operate and Transfer (B.O.T)
- Recruitment Process Outsourcing (R.P.O.)
On top of that, outsourcing companies offer bespoke services to their clients. This option to scale up or down their staffing needs and billable charges provides leeway for companies to leverage their financial assets to expand even further. The insatiable desire to reduce costs will continue to increase the demand for outsourcing services.
The Bottom Line
Finally, the increasing competition between businesses to secure customers and expand their size has become unmanageable, due to the high cost of doing business, especially in these times of economic uncertainty. Being wise about how you spend while maximizing your resources will help your company grow. As discussed previously, the 5 cost-effective ways of scaling your business, starting from social media, increasing customer dwell time, email marketing, improving sales pitch, and outsourcing are the best solutions for organizations to manage their budget while on a budget.