Common logic would suggest that if a new business is successful in its first year, it has cleared the most difficult hurdle. However, the failure percentages for small businesses actually increase as time passes: 70 percent of small business owners fail in their tenth year.

Survival is all about having a growth plan that pushes you to increase and succeed every year. Sustaining profitable growth is a challenge but can be done. Our experience working with businesses over the years has led us to three steps that increase revenue: focus on the key objects, knowing your customers, and technology that grows with you. Each of these can help your company achieve its goals now and into the future.

Focus on the Objectives 

Start by thinking about the garden you’ll plant this spring. Each tiny seed grows into a full-size plant, some even producing fruit you’ll eat in the summer and fall. Those seeds have an objective written into their DNA: to create full plants. Everything a seed does focuses on achieving that objective and passing its DNA down to the next generation of seeds. 

Like the garden, your business started with a seed idea. But how has it grown? If you haven’t identified key objectives and woven them into the fabric of your daily DNA, you won’t achieve the big things you dream about. This will result in growth that comes in fits and starts, makes wrong turns, or even remains stunted. 

PositiveVision has consulted with multiple businesses over the years, and we’ve consistently found that the ones who achieve great things are the ones who remain focused on key objectives. What is your company's key objective? Have you stuck with the goal you defined for 2019? What about planning for 2020? Remain focused on the goal, and you will grow toward it. 

Who’s Your Customer? 

Related to setting goals for profitable growth is knowing your customers: understanding not just who your customers are, but what they want and need. How can you meet their needs if you don’t know what they are? 

Review your customer and sales databases. Both contain a great deal of information on your customers, including clues about what they want, need, and desire. Consider the problems your customers face each day. How can your business make their lives easier or better? What problems do you solve for them? 

List the common characteristics of your best customers. Then, seek new customers from among similar groups. Consider how you might make interactions with your current customers extra special. You’ll get to know your customers and, more importantly, make your company more memorable. 

Technology that Grows with You 

Lastly, to plan for profitable growth, you must adopt technology that will help you scale your business. Scalable technology grows with you and includes cloud-based ERP software, which can expand as your business expands to include additional data, new tools, and more people. 

Take a look at what your business needs now, as well as what it might need in the future. An ERP system offers a combination of accounting, financial management, and operational management that provides unparalleled access to data and insight into all aspects of your business. Additional modules connect your warehouse, customer relationship management, and other vital parts of your business into one streamlined system. Software automation can also help you get more done without adding stress to your workload. 

If you're currently using spreadsheets or dedicated business accounting software, you could be missing out on many time-saving features of the latest technology. If your company is serious about supporting long-term growth, achieving your goals, and knowing your customers, you would be wise to invest in new technology that helps these goals. 

Set for Growth with PositiveVision 

Choosing technology to help your company grow now and in the future might seem daunting, but with the right partner by your side, you’ll have the best solutions installed in no time. At PositiveVision, we pride ourselves in offering full-service, expert consultation to partner with you from selection to implementation, training to support, and everything in between. With more than fifteen years’ experience with both Sage and SYSPRO ERPs, we’re confident that we can help position your business to succeed this year and for many more years into the future. Click here to get started now.