Is your business growing as quickly as you’d like it to? Is it growing at all? Or has your business reached a plateau and you find that you just can’t get past that certain number of clients?

All businesses need to grow, in order to survive. You might not be looking for massive growth, or for extremely fast growth, but you do need your business to grow. Clients will come and go, so you will need to replace them. The market will change, which means that you might need to change the services that you provide to your clients; or that you might need to look for different types of clients to work with. Your competitors can change what they’re doing, which can lure your clients away to them, so you need to keep on your toes and watch what’s going on. A stagnant business will not attract new clients or new challenges. Being complacent and happy to stay exactly where you are is dangerous too – trust me, I’ve learnt from making that mistake!

So why isn’t your business growing as well as it could? Have you reached that plateau or that complacent place? Here are some of the main reasons that I believe prevent businesses from growing:

1. Look after your clients. Once you’ve spent time and energy working hard to bring in a new client, the hard work has only just begun. You need to look after each client and nurture them. You need to develop a strong relationship with each one, really understanding their business, their issues and their needs. Only then can you provide them with exactly the right service, which means that they will stay with you for the long term.

2. Sell to your clients. Too many service businesses spend time looking for new clients, forgetting that they could sell more to their existing clients. If you provide a monthly coaching service, why not offer a fortnightly service, thereby doubling what a client spends with you?

3. Watch the market. If you understand your market and you keep tabs on developments, you will be able to easily adapt to changes. When I set up Appletree in 2000, social media didn’t exist. Now we help all our clients to use online marketing, whereas most of the work we did in the early days was off line. Use market changes to develop new services – an online course to teach what you know and share your expertise – and you will be able to reach a new market and new clients.

4. Watch your competitors. I believe that there is enough work for all of us, so I don’t suggest that you spend too much time worrying about what your competitors are up to. However, it is useful to keep an eye on them. If they keep changing and reinventing themselves, the best thing that you can do is remain consistent in your service and your message. This really shows off your experience and longevity.

So those are some of the main reasons that cause businesses not to grow at the rate that they want. Could one of them be what’s stopping you from growing?

In next week’s blog I’ll expand on the importance of consistency in the service you provide and the marketing that you do, to show you how to grow your business without too much hard work. Get in touch now if you’d like to know more by calling 01635 578 500 or click here to email me and I’ll share some of the secrets with you straight away.