Do This to Improve Your Business’ Chances for Long Term Success

Creating an actionable strategy for long-term growth is setting up your business for success right from day 1. A strategic growth plan helps you pay more attention to what matters most to your business’s bottom-line as well as align your employees to work towards achieving long-term goals and objectives. After all, a business that has no plan for reaching new heights and improving is bound to head downhill.

With that said, improving your chances for long-term success has more to do with planning than increasing the size of your business. In this article, we’ve laid out a 5-step strategy to help you improve your business for success in the long haul. Even better, you don’t have to sacrifice short-term gains to achieve them.

1. Define and Give Meaning to your Business Vision and Mission

Every forward-thinking business should have a vision and mission statement. It shouldn’t be something sophisticated or snobbish; you can whip it up in less than 100 words. And, don’t just write down the statement — you need to make it available, and have your employees internalize it. Your vision statement should define what drives and inspires your business as well as where it’s going. What do you aspire to see in your business?

2. Leverage Your Profits

Once your business is off the ground, you need to keep profits in perspective. What does that mean? That implies that you need to leverage your profits and windfalls to build a vibrant team, pay off business debt, innovate products, and, best of all, set money aside for rainy days. Remember every business often go through lean times.

3. Focus on Your Loyal/Returning Customers

No retail business can thrive without a long list of loyal customers. If you’ve already captured audience — congrats! As such, you need to focus on these returning customers instead of chasing after 90% of individuals who haven’t heard about your business. Loyal customers are your business’s superstars and should be treated as such. That means you should create a robust loyalty program, offer discounts for repeat buys, recognize returning customers, and give them a chance to sample new products first.

4. Never Start from the Scratch

If you are planning for long-term growth, you probably are looking for ways to expand your services or product. Even so, you don’t need to start from the scratch. It’s not only costly but can also hamper both short-term and long-term growth. If you are geared towards beauty products, for instance, you can extend your business to skin care. The bottom line is to create synergies with your ongoing projects.

5. Build a Mentor Network

Mentorship is all the rage right now in the entrepreneurship space — and for good reason. The likes of Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and even Jeff Bezos talks about how their mentors helped them take their ventures to the next level. Think of your partners, fellow business owners, and other successful people in your network. Nonetheless, they shouldn’t make decisions on your behalf; but rather offer helpful guidance and insight.