3 Tips to Boost Your Business Growth Strategy

With the rise of e-commerce, social media, and digital technology, we now live in a “move fast and break things” world. It’s no wonder so many startups and entrepreneurs often put off thinking about business growth strategies in favor of prioritizing speed to market.

But the reality is, running a successful business that effectively reaches your target market audience with the right product at the right time requires a solid company growth strategy, especially if you want to secure funding and compete with (or be acquired by) leading brands.

To scale your business and gain credibility, here are three tips to help you design an effective business growth strategy.

1. Improve Your Efficiency

Entrepreneurs usually have no problem articulating their passion for their business and their products. But in hindsight, many founders realize that focusing on operations and efficiency from day one could have helped create stability, manage costs, attract key retail partners, and set up their ability to forecast accurately.

For example, making inventory management a part of your startup’s product-led growth strategy can help you prepare to sell your products across multiple channels. Whether you choose to sell direct-to-consumer (DTC) or to a distributor or work directly with a retailer, being aware of your product levels and location helps to ensure you can meet orders on time and avoid out-of-stocks. This has a major impact on long-term success and brand loyalty. Even companies with the best marketing growth strategy can’t sustain their business too long if the products aren’t available to satisfy and delight their customer base.

2. Work With Partners

If selling across multiple channels is your goal, then your growth strategy should include vetting the right partners to accomplish tasks that you can’t do alone.

Many entrepreneurs start out making products in their kitchens, garages, or home offices but ultimately need manufacturing partners, brokers, retail software, and other outsourced assistance to take their businesses to the next level. These partnerships help brands move beyond the daily struggles of keeping the lights on to build sustainable business growth strategies.

The GS1® US Solution Partner Program offers a vetted network of trusted strategic partners with services, hardware, software, business intelligence, and database applications that can help startups scale efficiently. Their solutions can help with barcoding, product data management, easier data transmission with distributors and retailers, and more. In addition, their services can be the key to unlocking additional goals for your company, such as boosting sustainability or traceability in your supply chain.

3. Understand Your Target Market Audience

Defining and understanding your target market audience is essential in today’s competitive retail world. For example, small consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands have thrived in recent years by targeting specific niche markets with unique needs such as dietary restrictions and ESG values. According to the “Growth Leaders” report from IRI and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which spotlights top-performing CPG companies, small brands gained approximately four sales dollar share points from 2018 to 2022, going from a 20.4 share in 2018 to 24.6 in 2022. Meanwhile, large brands (greater than $6 billion in sales) lost approximately 3.7 share points over that same period.

Your business growth strategy should include a deep demographic analysis and detailed buyer personas, the findings of which you then align with the retailers, distributors, foodservice operators, marketplaces, and other sales channels that can offer you lasting connections with your target market audience. To gain entrance into these types of business relationships, you will need a barcode sourced from GS1® to ensure your products can be sold on a mass scale.

A properly set up UPC barcode is an important part of establishing yourself as a credible, legitimate brand. Most retailers and marketplaces check the identification number from a UPC in the GS1 database to make sure your product is specifically linked to your brand and not someone else’s. If the two don’t match, you may be rejected or you might need to relabel your products—both will cost money and delay your company’s growth.