2018 is just around the corner, and while you are probably busy thinking about closing the business year, you also need to start thinking on ways in which you can grow and improve your business in 2018.
Markets, products, and technology are ever-changing today, and it’s always a good investment to spend some time in prepping the ground for the future. With that in mind, here are 3 ways that can help you grow your business next year.
- Review 2017
“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” or so the saying goes. Before you start planning for growth in 2018, take some time to review your business performance in 2017. What did you do right? What could have been done better? Where did you miss your goal or opportunities? Analyze the data you have available, study the best months, see if you can find any patterns or spot any tendencies. Which service or product performed best?
Answering these questions will provide you with valuable insights that will help you better plan and strategize for the coming year. Focus your growth strategy on those areas where business performed best. In the areas where you believe things could have been better, consider different strategies and approaches. It’s important to know what worked and what didn’t work. Additionally, it’s also useful to know your numbers, what drew the most profit, what costs the highest, what was your total annual profit?
- From data to insights
To grow a business, you need to understand your key clients, what they like, what they dislike, and understand their behavior. Data has provided companies of all shapes and sizes with the opportunity to better understand the way humans work and their buying, as well as consumption habits.
In order to transform data into insights to better adjust your products, services, and business strategy you need to have a comprehensive list of your clients. Putting together this list and analyzing their behavior can help you differentiate between your customer groups, allowing you to tailor specific offers and products or services to each group. Successfully turning data into insights can significantly increase conversion rates, purchase numbers, and overall company profit.
- Innovate
Technology is ever-changing, and in order to remain relevant and competitive in a global market, businesses need to innovate and find unique ways to add value to their clients. Having the right technology infrastructure can help businesses innovate. It can also serve as a tool to improve processes or programs. Innovation also requires the right mindset, the right environment, and the right team.
Innovation doesn’t necessarily mean creating a new product; it can be within innovation in a process or improvement in a current service or product. Technology can empower workers to innovate in certain aspects, but the right workplace environment can also greatly contribute to this. Agile working models and collaborative workplaces have also contributed to increased levels of innovation within a company; it’s one of the reason why coworking and serviced workspaces have seen a rise in demand over the past couple of years.
