4 Factors That Can Help Your
Product-Based Business Grow
See also: Leadership Styles
Many people dream of running their own business. Running your own business offers you flexibility, independence, the power of decision-making, as well as financial security.
However, running a successful business requires a few skills along with smart work. Whether you already run a business or plan to start your own soon, you should make a few important considerations that will help your business grow.
In this article, we will highlight a few factors that can help your business grow. Read on!
Custom Packaging
We start with one of the important and often underrated factors, which is custom packaging. Both service and product-based businesses need to invest in packaging. Product and service-based businesses rely on custom packaging, especially for branding purposes.
Let’s take the example of an IT Solution Provider Company. You will find many packaged items such as tissue boxes, envelopes, and boxes. Custom packaging provides businesses with an opportunity to grow while printing their branding information on various items.
Moreover, the global custom packaging market is expected to grow from $45.92 billion in 2024 to $71.10 billion by 2032. The reason behind the surge in demand for custom packaging is its useful benefits for business growth.
On the other hand, the packaging industry is evolving rapidly due to the immense benefits it offers businesses. Likewise, packaging trends are also changing, and custom packaging is no longer limited to just printed boxes, bags, or envelopes. The styles, shapes, and unique designs now available are some other important factors of custom packaging that can help make a difference to your business in a competitive market.
For example, if you run a gift shop or a food business, using gable boxes can differentiate your product and brand due to their unique shape and style. When you get in-depth knowledge about custom packaging, you will understand how significantly it can help your business to grow in many ways.
Customer Service Skills
If you run a product-based business, your ultimate objective will be high levels of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty and can lead to your business growing rapidly. High customer retention builds a good brand image for your business.
For this, you need to learn and improve your customer service skills. People will naturally assess the quality of your products when they start buying from you, and so your products and services must prove your commitment to quality. Selling your products is an art that revolves around making your customers feel valued, and you can do this by exceeding their expectations.
The way you sell your products plays a crucial role in the buyer’s journey. The higher dependence of your product selling ratio on good customer service makes customer service skills a significant factor for business growth.
Various factors play an important part in improving your customer service. If your business doesn’t provide a good customer experience, you should consider improving your communication channels. Introduce loyalty programs for your valuable customers. Train your staff to enhance their customer handling and feedback management skills.
Competitive Analysis
One of the reasons behind the failure of a business is that business owners do not perform a competitive analysis before starting a business. If you are facing challenges in your business or starting a new one, you must do thorough research about the competitive market.
For this, you have to make a list of at least 5 to 10 of your competitors who are doing the same business. Now start comparing your products’ features with their products. Also, analyze their marketing strategies for selling products and services.
Undertaking a competitive analysis will also help you make your unique selling propositions for your business. Find out how differently you offer your services and products. While doing a competitive analysis, you should consider the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business.
This is known as SWOT analysis and it helps you build on strengths, minimize weakness, and seize opportunities. Performing competitive and SWOT analysis will lead your business in the direction of success. You can smoothly run your business operations if things are defined in a better way.
Here are three competitive analysis strategies besides SWOT Analysis:
- BCG Growth Matrix
- Porter’s Five Forces
- Directional Policy Matrix
Financial Management
Another thing some new businesses lack is their financial management. You have to be very thoughtful about your financial resources when starting a business. You should write a proper business plan in which the financial plan should be clearly defined.
One of the best ways is to make a financial plan of 3-5 years and keep updating it annually. Having a long-term financial plan will save you from making mistakes that can prove to be fatal in the long run.
Another thing to remember is never to put all your eggs in one basket. Make sure you diversify your financial resources. Always keep a secure portion of your capital aside when making a financial plan as it can keep you tackling risk management.
Business owners should learn and improve their money management and financial skills to achieve financial stability. As a business owner, you must train your staff, such as educating your finance team about techniques for controlling, protecting, and reporting a company's financial resources. Never forget to allocate a specific budget for marketing and branding as it can help promote your business.
Conclusion
The emergence of personalization has made custom packaging a must for just about every business. Moreover, the relationship between brand image and customer services makes branding an important means of achieving your business goals. Competitive analysis and financial management also help you go in the right direction to reach the heights of success. If you follow each of the above factors, you will see a noticeable difference in your business growth.
About the Author
Salman Shahis is the CEO of OXO Packaging, a custom packaging company with operations in the USA, UK, and Australia. His exceptional business development skills have helped many expand multiple brands and turn them into successful enterprises.
As a BD and marketing thought leader, his mission is to help others build successful businesses without having to go through challenges and turmoil.