There are countless examples of advice and guidance out there on how to get your startup off the ground, but comparatively little on what comes next. As you may know already, there are typically six stages to the life of a startup. As deftly spelled out by the pros at CEMEX, these are; pre-seed, seed stage, early stage, growth stage, expansion phase, and exit phase.
Much of the guidance available to founders today focuses almost exclusively on those first two stages and how to attract funding to get your business off the ground. However, your business will not succeed if you are not equipped with the necessary know-how to manage your growth in a way that leads to longer-term, sustainable success. With that in mind, here is how you can absolutely nail your growth phase, no matter what industry you are in.
Strengthen your team now
If your sales are growing and you are attracting a large number of new customers, now is the time to strengthen your team. You might have started with a small team that could handle their duties pre-growth, but this will soon be no longer possible.
Now is the time to hire new people and expand the skillset within your organization. In addition, now is the time to take stock of your current team and identify learning and development opportunities that your employees could benefit from. One great example of how to do this right comes from the world’s most successful company, the e-commerce giant Amazon.
Amazon offers all new starts the chance to get straight onto their leadership program for intensive management training, while also covering 95% of tuition costs for employees that take in-demand training. The result? Amazon always attracts and retains the talent it needs to grow.
Lock-in customer loyalty
If you’re attracting new customers to your growing business, now is the time to lock them in for life. Once the early growth stages pass, you will need loyal customers to keep the sales coming in. You can rely on one-time customers if you want sustainable, long-term growth. That’s why your growth phase is the perfect time to invest in freebies and perks that will keep your customers on-side.
There are plenty of great examples that you can take note of. One innovative approach is to give first-time customers free products or services that are generous enough for them to engage with your business without spending a penny for a while. A good example of this can be seen in the online gambling sector, where Betway Casino offers 100% matched deposit bonuses for first-time users. In practice, this means that a user could receive hundreds of dollars from the casino to buy and try games such as slots and poker for free, without having to spend their own money for while. By the time they have used up their freebies, they are loyal customers for life.
Make the right investments
Just as your growth phase is the time to bulk up your team, it is also time to make the right investments for the future. Consider carefully your growth trajectory and ask what your company would need in the future if it was, say, five times the size that it currently is. Maybe you would need better HR and payroll infrastructure for your newly enlarged team.
Maybe you would need greatly enhanced cybersecurity since your newly prominent company could become a bigger target for hackers. Maybe your business premises would need to expand, or your production technology would need to be scaled up. This is why it is crucial to develop your growth plan and ensure that your company never outgrows its capabilities.
Roll out your referral schemes
We already mentioned that now is the time to lock in the loyalty of those early customers that took a chance on you, and that isn’t just an opinion, but a valid strategy of growth. In a similar vein, you should harness your customer growth by soliciting referrals to help you grow exponentially. There are countless examples of great referral schemes that top brands have relied on since their early days of heady growth.
At the service end, some of the most well-known examples are the referral schemes of the vacation lets platform AirBnB and the ride-sharing platform Uber. Both work in the same way – existing customers get free credit for stays or rides if they successfully get someone else to create an account. These schemes have been wildly successful for the platforms and widely credited for their explosive growth in the middle of the last decade.
On the product side of things, one great example can be found in the Tesla Referral Scheme, which gives out either a souped-up EV car battery or a straight-up cash gift of $1000 to any Tesla driver that refers a friend. During your growth stage, your early customers are a powerful marketing asset.
Growth can be scary, but it’s all about how you manage it. By approaching growth the right way, you can take your business to the next stage.
