Launching a startup is one thing; accelerating growth and expanding it is
an entirely different challenge. While patience is certainly a virtue, it’s
not necessarily the best skill for entrepreneurs to adopt. Instead, the
focus should be on rapid growth, return on investment and long-term
success. How do you accelerate or boost the growth of your business? The
following tips offer some insights.
*Monetize early*
Monetization may be the most important aspect for all startups. Many
founders battle with the idea of whether to build an audience or monetize
first. Don’t hesitate to monetize as early as possible. Put your revenue
model to the test early and see if your idea holds weight in real market
conditions. People only value what they pay for. And paying customers is
the quickest way to validate your idea. Growing your audience to high
numbers is comforting, but the product/service remains an unvalidated idea
until you monetize it.
*Experiment with pricing*
Pricing should evolve as your company evolves. Only by charging money and
testing pricing strategies can you truly understand how your audience
values your product and their readiness to pay for it. You’ve found your
optimal price when: a relatively small percentage of people complain that
you are too expensive, another small percentage that doesn’t hesitate at
all before paying and the biggest segment says the product is quite
expensive but they are ready to buy because they see its value.
*Add new streams of revenue*
After you’ve been in business long enough, you’ll likely begin to
understand your customers more and be able to hone in on what they really
want. This gives you the unique opportunity to add additional streams of
revenue. Today, the ecommerce platform is earning revenue
from logistics, hotel and flight booking, payment gateway and online food
ordering.
*Increase capacity*
The problem for most startups is that they quickly reach capacity and can’t
perform at a higher level. If a startup can only hire enough employees to
remain open 12 hours a day, it’s going to be difficult to increase
revenues. The obvious answer to increase capacity is by hiring additional
employees and staying open another five or six hours.
*Narrow down customer acquisition efforts*
Sometimes, time, effort, and money don’t bring about desired results. In
fact, it may be a targeting problem, not a product problem. You can’t be
all things to everyone so if you’re trying to market to everyone it’s
simply a waste of resources. To accelerate growth focus on a niche audience
that has expressed genuine interest in your brand.
