5 growth principles small businesses can steal from startups
“A startup is a company designed to grow fast,” says longtime startup guru and investor Paul Graham. Growth is the one thing that sets a startup apart from any other company in the world. But that doesn’t mean that startups are the only companies that can grow at a rapid pace.
Because startups are hyper-focused on growth, SMBs can learn a lot from them. Try applying these 5 growth principles to start seeing more rapid growth.
1. Incentivize sharing
70% of people trust brand recommendations from their friends, but only 10% trust advertising. That means that people talking about your business is 7x more impactful than any advertising your company is doing. So how do you get people sharing your brand with their friends? People won’t share your brand out of the goodness of their hearts. There is always a reason or an incentive for them to share. You’ll have to get creative with how you want to incentivize your customers, but let’s see how it’s done in the startup world.
Robinhood is a startup that allows you to trade stock for free on their online platform. They had 500,000 people sign up to use their product before they even launched because they offered early access to the app for people who got their friends to sign up too.
You’re probably familiar with Dropbox, a service that stores your files online and allows for easy sharing. They offered .5 GB of free storage for every friend that signs up based on your recommendation. It’s tactics like this that have helped Dropbox achieve a $4 billion valuation.
Here’s another example: Square Cash, an app that makes it easy to pay your friends, gives $5 to you and to a friend when they try the app.
I recommend that you think about services or good that your business is uniquely positioned to offer. The offer should be attractive enough that people will take you up on it, but not so generous that you’ll be losing money in the long run.
2. Act big
If your business is online, you can act bigger than you really are and attract more customers. If you act like a big deal, people will treat you like a big deal. Fake it till you make it? Yeah, it’s a real thing.
You can spend relatively small amounts of money to look just as big as (or bigger than) your competitors. Think extremely well-designed website, professional packaging, invoices, etc. Future customers who visit your website don’t know how big you are, and won’t have any reason to doubt that you are big and important.
Take a look at what the websites of even the smallest startups (2–6 employees) look like:
One caveat: Successful is a great look for small businesses. Arrogant and distant is not. In your quest to look big, don’t forget the importance of maintaining connections, delighting your customers, and apologizing when you screw up.
3. Progress indefinitely
The world is constantly changing, and so are all of the world’s successful businesses. It’s easy to stick with what you know best, but small pivots in your business model can mean big growth.
One company that wasn’t afraid to act on new insights? Amazon.
Amazon started out as an online book store, expanded to books and music, and then eventually became the global e-commerce giant they are now, selling everything under the sun.
Another example is Buffer, whose blog has been insanely successful at generating traffic over the last few years. But recently, they announced that they’re changing the direction of the blog. Tampering with your recipe for success can be terrifying. However, if you’ve done your research and you’re acting on sound principles, don’t be afraid to try something new. It just might be the next big thing.
4. Appeal visually
Nowadays, people like (pretty) pictures more than words. It’s true that there is more visual content online now than ever before, but it’s easy to forget that this trend is likely the result of changing consumer behavior.
Because people are increasingly sensitive to visual content, you can appeal to more people, (and thus grow faster) if you put an appropriate focus on compelling visuals. Brands that have visual appeal, that create visually appealing content, will appeal to more paying customers.
To understand the visual message that your brand is sending, find out what type of feelings your customers associate with your brand. You can do this with an in-person focus group or an online survey (we love Qualaroo for on-site mini-surveys). Once you understand how people outside of your office perceive your brand, you’ll know how to invest in additional visual content.
5. Utilize disruptive technology
Gain a competitive edge by using better technology than your competitors. Like every competitive startup who uses disruptive technology to solve their problems, you can too. There’s definitely no shortage of ever progressing business tools to help you work smarter, faster, and cheaper.
So how do you find disruptive technology to turbocharge your business?
Search for lesser-known startups that solve your problem on Angel List. See if anyone else has answers on Quora.
Recently I was feeling very unsatisfied with traditional e-commerce shipping solutions, so I searched shipping startups on Angel List. In moments, I found tons of useful services like Shippo.
I hope this post has inspired you to break out of the small business mindset. Technology is your friend, and startups are great at utilizing tech to grow their businesses. Follow in their footsteps and you’re sure to discover great things!
Originally published at www.lucidpress.com.
