Introduction
Our 9 tips on growing a business is for people who are already doing something whether as freelancers, entrepreneurs or small business owners. Your business is doing well but you don’t know because you are not doing proper bookkeeping. Can you confidently say that you know how much you made last month and how much you are projecting this month?
The little money you earn can buy you a house if you learn to start doing proper bookkeeping. The essence of bookkeeping is to show you how much comes in and how much goes out. It also makes you aware of when you are using your business income to sponsor your luxury lifestyle instead of reinvesting into the business.
Whether you are still freelancing or you are an entrepreneur, you can have a business mindset so that your business can grow adequately. Bookkeeping opens your eyes to see that your business is doing well.
Let me give you 9 tips on growing a business:
BOOKKEEPING
- As this is still the beginning of the month, start now to do proper documentation. Let the past be in the past, now is the time to do things differently.
- Record each sale. Every record should include the item, amount, capital, profit, payment method, name of the customer and other necessary details. Remember that sales don’t just mean selling a product, it also means selling your services.
- Record each outgoing transaction. Whether you purchased fuel, hired a taxi, subscribed for internet data and so on, put it on record. Also, record your welfare spending like food and so on.
There are various software and applications that you can use to keep track of your sales. We will recommend Kippa which is available on Android and Apple at no cost. Remember to use our referral code “BXAVR” and you will enjoy the maximum benefits of Kippa’s bookkeeping app.
- At the end of the month, sum up your earnings and your expenses. Know who your customers are, the products or services that you are selling the most. Using the information on the record, you can also develop a rate card for your business whether products or services. This way, you don’t need to waste time telling people your price. Let your price be your price. With the available data, you have useful information at your disposal.
- Your best selling product or services
- List of your current customers
- Monthly income
- Monthly expenses
- etc
Discipline Yourself, Reinvest
- After you have done your calculations to see your earnings and your profit, determine how you will be spending your earnings and how much you will be investing back into the business. Place yourself on salary and discipline yourself to stick to the new plan. This way, the business money is no longer your money. Even as a freelancer, you are getting yourself ready to transition into a business.
- With the record available, you can also know if you have the capacity to hire someone. Let’s say that at the end of the month, you made NGN180,000 rendering services and you made expenses of NGN80,000, you have a profit of NGN100,000. You can decide to place yourself on a salary of NGN50,000 monthly while you reinvest the other part of the money into the business. Depending on the amount you earn monthly, you may also want to hire someone or outsource some projects.
- With the data available, you can develop metrics or how you measure the success of your business. You can develop goals, strategies and action plans on how to beat your current record. So, let’s say that after everything, you had NGN50,000 remaining as your profit, you can decide to run ads for your best selling product or use the details of your current customers to create an avatar. An avatar is a representation of someone (your target audience). If most of your customers are entrepreneurs and small business owners, you can target those kinds of people. There are various other strategies that you can develop for your business.
Own Your Brand
- Decide if your business can run remotely or if you need an official place for your business. In this age, several businesses can run remotely but with time, there is always a need to have a dedicated office building for your business where day to day administrative activities can be carried out.
- Don’t take chances, secure your brand by registering your business name with the Corporates Affairs Commission of your country. Registering your business name helps you create and own the brand identity. When you start building a brand without proper name registration, you will be shooting yourself in the leg because, at the end of a stressful journey, you may realize that you don’t own that name. It may also cause legal issues for you and can halt your business to a stop. It is hard to get people to trust a new name. So, as someone building a new business, don’t take chances.
Own Your Business
- As you grow financially and in experience, it may be time to expand. As long as you are running it alone, you are not yet a business owner. A business owner, in my own opinion, is someone who has developed a system and oversee its running. A freelancer is not a business owner. To be a business owner, you must own the assets of a firm and profit from them. Begin to hire people or begin to seek partnerships. You can’t be doing everything yourself. Don’t just hire people anyhow, it is right to hire from the top and allow the business to grow with them. Here is a list of the first persons you need to hire
- CEO (Most founders fill this position themselves)
- Manager (Depending on your business, you may need a product manager, brand manager)
- Chief Marketing Officer
- Sales Manager
- Chief Accounting Officer (You can outsource this)
- Customer Relationship Officer
- Human Resources Manager (You can outsource this)
Let me explain something here. These top position needs to be filled by qualified people who understand your business and are willing to take it to the next level. They can decide when to hire more people under them as the business grows.
- Never stop growing, never get used to the new normal and never accept any normal. You must keep brainstorming with your board to ensure that your business is growing creatively. Don’t be scared of making mistakes and always remember where you are coming from… A business that was earning NGN180,000 to a business that now earns about NGN5,000,000 monthly. Your failure starts the day you begin to think that the purpose of growing a business is to fund your luxuries. Your business can fund your luxuries. However, before then, make sure your business is getting all the support it needs from you.
Recommendations may be endless, but we hope that with this 9 tips on growing a business, you are able to get one or two points that will tremendously boost your business. Do you need help with growing your business? You may reach out to us for a streamlined guide that is unique to your business. The service is free for a limited time.
Onyedikachukwu George Nnadozie is the creative director of Funtrick Technology, an author and a public speaker. Aside from his creative job at Funtrick Technology, he takes time to write on his personal blog, George’s Diary. He also founded FunIQ Skills Academy, an online learning platform where he teach Digital Skills.
