Anyone who has ever spent a lot of time working out is likely familiar with the concept of a plateau. That’s what happens when you’ve been working out for a while but your body suddenly seems to stop responding to the exercise. The improvement in your body that you had previously seen in your efforts to lose weight or get in better shape suddenly stagnates. Thus, you are said to have hit a plateau.
That is a concept with which small business owners are likely familiar. After all, a small business sometimes grows in fits and starts. There will likely be periods of stagnation during which your company will seem like it is a stuck at a certain level and can advance no higher.
The usual advice for a workout plateau is to try something different in your regimen to jump-start another period of improvement. Your body will generally respond to the new types of stimulus you throw at it.
Your business will probably work in the same way.
If you find that the company seems to be stuck in neutral while you’re using the same old methods and strategies, new initiatives to jump start might be needed to get a boost. This cycle will likely repeat itself through the life of your business, especially if you’re in a competitive market, requiring you to make these kinds of efforts periodically to ensure continued advancement.
There are some aspects of your business that you can focus on. Your primary focus should be your core business. You need to test new products and services that answer your target market’s current needs and wants. The reasons Nintendo, the legendary video games company, is struggling right now is that it’s slow to shift to the huge mobile apps market.
An example of your business’ secondary focus is your assets. Once your business accumulates an impressive number of assets, you should be thinking about asset management and estate planning, which should be handled by experts in the field.
Breaking the growth roof requires you to step outside your company’s comfort zone. Here are some ways you can break out of that plateau and hit that next level above the competition.
Aggressive Hiring
There are times during the life of your business when the perfect candidate for a position, one that can really make the difference in the fortunes of a company, becomes available. In such situations, there will likely be other companies who want this candidate for themselves. That’s when it might be a wise move to spend a little extra on the hire, with the idea that it is an investment for the future of the company.
Marketing Push
If yours is a relatively small business, you probably do your marketing on the internet or through social media. While those cost-effective avenues can certainly be effective, a traditional marketing initiative in television, print, or radio might be a way to add a little extra oomph to your marketing. After all, there are still large segments of the population that get their information through these media outlets.
Big Promotions
Many companies simply need customers to sample their products or services to get a foothold in a specific market. The hardest part can be getting those people in the door. As a result, some sort of giveaway or other promotional event might be the best opportunity for you to achieve that kind of saturation with the public.
All of these methods will require some capital to get the underway. If done effectively, however, you can indeed shake your company out of the doldrums and achieve a higher status in the business community.