If you want your business to reliably keep flourishing, continue reading to learn why sustainable business growth strategies are the key to ongoing, long term success, how to ensure growth and where to get help.
If you need professional business growth advice, call Taggart & Partners on (07) 3391 1188, or e-mail us at enquiries@taggartandpartners.com.au and discuss your situation with our business accountants today.
What is Sustainability in Business?
“Sustainability in business”, as a term, tends to be interpreted in one way only and is usually associated with running a “green business” these days, but it is absolutely not just about environmentalism alone. A sustainable business is an organisation that adopted a business model projected to allow it to continue existing and be profitable into a long term, even unforeseeable future. Indeed, sustainability in business can be thought of as a way of futureproofing a company by focusing on what can be done to enable its business activities to be sustained over a significant period of time.
What is Sustainable Growth?
Sustainable growth in business then, is an approach to reliably, consistently and continuously helping an organisation to keep growing – in other words; business growth that can be sustained over an indefinite period of time. The maximum growth rate at any given time, will vary from business to business and it is important to consider the factors supporting an organisation’s ability to grow – an overenthusiastic growth strategy can cause a business to collapse under its burden (under its own weight so to speak). Any sensible growth strategy needs to be well-informed and should account for whether the company in question has enough resources to support an increased number of clients or a higher frequency of sales. Resources in this case may mean finances, enough staff, or adequate infrastructure. There are both a “floor” and a “ceiling” to business growth:
- The “floor” is the absolute minimum your business needs to do to reliably continue operating.
- The “ceiling” is the maximum your business can do without financing, putting on more staff or investing in infrastructure.
It is worth keeping in mind that it is not necessarily true that the faster you grow your business the better. While working out a sustainable growth rate and developing an actionable strategy around it can be complicated, help is only a phone call away – call Taggart & Partners on (07) 3391 1188, or e-mail us at enquiries@taggartandpartners.com.au and discuss your situation with us now and we will help you create a bespoke plan that works for you.
What Are the Four Drivers of Sustainable Business Growth Strategies?
The prevalent opinion in small business is that in order to increase profit, a business has to cut costs, but that is only a slice of the whole truth. At the core of business profitability there are four key drivers, out of which only one is directly related to costs, with other three being primarily revenue drivers. Those are:
- Increasing the Number of Customers – an increased number of customers, even at sustained average sale value will improve the revenue of your business insofar as your business can handle and adequately support such an increase.
- Increasing the Frequency of Sales – likewise, increasing the volume of sales also contributes to revenue generation even where the average sale value never increases.
- Increasing the Average Sale Value – raising the average sale value does need not necessarily equate to increasing the prices of your products or services across the board (which may drive customers and sales away), but rather improving what you make per sale on average across your range of products or portfolio of services.
- Driving the Costs Down – driving the costs down has an immediate effect on your bottom line and is easily an example of a “most bang for your buck” type of strategy.
There is a certain “sweet spot” where skillfully balancing all four of the above key drivers can help you achieve reliable long-term growth,
Need Help Developing Sustainable Business Growth Strategies for Your Small Business?
Actioning any possible improvement in the four key areas outlined above will typically be business-specific and depend largely on your organisation and on what exactly it does to generate revenue.
For professional, informed and sustainable business growth strategies, tailor-made for your business, call Taggart & Partners on (07) 3391 1188, or e-mail us at enquiries@taggartandpartners.com.au and discuss your situation with us now, to get started today.