Clever Ways To Grow Your Home-Based Business

Running a home based business can be a challenge at the best of times. However, when you want to expand and grow that business things can get very tricky very fast. After all, home based businesses usually don’t have all the resources including funding, employees and space that other types of enterprise have.

Fortunately, even though growing a home based business can be hard there are a wide range of resources that can help make things easier. You’ll find one of these resources below, in the form of a detailed list full of suggestions on the topic. Read on to find out more.

Do your homework

Before you can grow a home business you will need to do your homework. This means completing the proper research not only on your target market but also on any new products you are considering introducing.

Unfortunately, many people come up with what they see as genius ideas about a product or service and forge ahead without ever testing the market to see whether there is a real need for what they are offering. The result of this is a great deal of effort, time and money being wasted creating a business around a product no one wants.

To that end, be sure that you establish there is a market for any product or service you are offering, as well as get to know that market inside out before making a move with your home-based business.

Get a mentor

There are two ways to learn how to successfully grow your business. The first is to roll up your sleeves and do it, while the second is to learn from others that have been there before you.

The major advantage of the latter over the former is that you don’t have to experience the pain, heartache, embarrassment, or financial loss that making a mistake will cost your business. To that end, finding someone that has plenty of experience in business that is willing to act as your mentor can be an incredibly valuable resource.

When looking for a mentor, consider things like their experience in business, and in your field, whether they have the time to dedicate to you, and whether they will mentor you for free. It’s also a good idea to set up an initial meeting before agreeing to go ahead, because then you can check that your communication styles and personality match.

Secure your funding

Before expanding your business you will need to work out where you will get the additional funds you’ll need. Usually for small home based businesses funds for growth come from one of three options. The first of these is redirecting previous profits into the growth of the business. The second is seeking a loan from your lender such as a bank that will cover your expansion costs. The third and last option is to garner investment from an outside source. This could be an angel investor, or more commonly with home based business a friend or family member that is willing to invest.

When sorting your funding for your home business expansion be sure that you consider the interest rate. Remember the higher the rate the more you will pay back, and this can really add up and eat into your profits over the long term.

Create a website

No matter what size your home based business is, you are going to need a website. Your website is the foundation of all your online presence, and as such it needs to reflect your brand, help you get found online, and please the customers that use it.

Many businesses choose to have a site especially created for them by a web designer or developer. The advantage of this is a more professional look, and improved UI and UX which can help ensure the customer experience is maximized and people stay on your site for as long as possible, thereby increasing the chance of a sale.

However, there are also drag and drop website options that you can DIY. These can offer a much cheaper alternative for when your budget is tight. There are plenty of platforms to consider as well including wordpress.com, and squarespace. You can even spend some time getting to grips with WordPress.org where you can build your own site and add plugins to help enhance its features.

Optimize your website for SEO

If you want to grow your home business you will need to make sure that it’s found online, and that means you’ll need to use SEO. SEO or search engine optimization as it is also known is all about taking actions both on and off your site to ensure that the search engines rank it highly. It’s important that your business ranks in the first page of the search engine results pages (SERPS), because this is where the majority of click through happen. Therefore if you want traffic to come to your site, you need a high position in the SERPs.

To achieve this there are many things you can do, and you’ll find some of the most crucial by category below:

On page SEO

Title tags

Meta tags

Keyword optimisation

Good content

Internal linking

Off page SEO

Link building

Social media

REviews

Technical SEO

Technical seo is all about the technical aspects of your site that can be improved including:

Improve loading times

Repairing broken links

Using HTTPS

Build your brand

You cannot grow your home based business without a strong brand. Indeed, every size and type of business needs effective branding because it is this that will instantly convey your company’s personality, and values to customers, making it instantly recognisable against your competitors.

There are several things you will need to consider when branding your business including visual aspects such as :

typography,
color scheme,
logo

Then there are the written aspects of branding which include:

Brand story
Brand voice and tone
Brand mission and values

After you have established these aspects of branding for your home business you will need a brand identity document to ensure consistency when working with outsourcers and freelancers.

Once you have established a strong brand you can use it across your business. There are several effective ways of doing this. The first is making sure your color scheme, typography and logo are across all your visual business assets. This will include your website, any paper products like letterheads, business cards, and invoices, as well as on any signage. You’ll also want to use visual branding on any branded merchandise like custom tote bags that you can give away to potential customs. This will then help to keep your brand in their mind, and so increase the chances they will come to you when they need your product or service.

Be prepared to pivot

If you want to successfully grow your home based business, it’s crucial that you remain flexible. This is because things change incredibly fast in the world of business right now, and that means if you can’t pivot with them you could be left behind.

With that in mind, it’s always a good idea to consider multiple ways of how you can expand your business. For example, if you offer home hairdressing services, you may wish to upskill with nails, and waxing to appeal to more customers.

Similarly, if your home based business is centered around selling pre-loved baby clothes, you could consider adding new from the box items to your range, expanding it to offer pre-loved toys, or even add and monetise a blog where you provide advice for new mothers.

Invest in marketing

Marketing is crucial if you want to expand your home based business. This is because you need to make sure the right people know about your company and the products and services you offer. There are a wide range of marketing options and channels to consider including flyers, magazine adverts, podcasts, social media, text messaging, and email.

Then there is PPC advertising, sponsorship, and working with influencers. The key here is to choose the channels that best suit the market you are trying to appeal to. For example, if you are selling clothes for women between 40 and 60, social media marketing especially on platforms like Facebook is the best option. This is because that is the platform that most women of that age use.

Make sure your marketing returns a good ROI

While marketing is crucial when it comes to growing your business, you also need to carefully weigh up any ROI or the return on your investment that it offers. This is because marketing can be expensive, especially for those not familiar with running their own campaigns. It can also often seem like it’s working but actually be costing you too much of a chunk of your profits in the long run to be viable.

Don’t be afraid of culling problematic clients

When growing your home-based business you will only have a limited amount of time and energy to give. This means you need to be careful about the types of clients you take on, and get rid of ones that are using up too much of your time.

Look for high maintenance clients that don’t spend that much, and eliminate those first. This should help your expansion become more profitable and succeed over the long term.

Do your homework

Get a mentor

Secure your funding

Create a website