Grow Your Startup Firm with Three Effective Strategies

Starting the journey to business success with any startup firm takes time, dedication, and a significant amount of effort. There must be a clear understanding of what your firm seeks to achieve (ideally with an initial 5-year business plan) along with a full understanding of the target market that you intend to serve and how your products and services can be differentiated from the competition. 

In all startup firms, there’s the risk of failure. It’s estimated that around 20% of all new businesses fail in their first year. Often, this is due to a lack of in-depth knowledge of the market they intend to serve and an overestimation of demand for the new product or service they’re offering. 

However, if you have managed to successfully navigate the extremely tough first stages of getting your startup firm ready for the market and generating healthy profits, you may be looking for growth strategies. A growing firm is much more resilient to changes in the marketplace and can seek to cement its place in its chosen sector of business. 

In this article, three specific strategies for startup firms in the early stages of growth will be explored. These strategies can be applied to many business forms and can be cost-effective ways to grow a business.

• Promote from your vehicle 

When it comes to advertising, some forms of promotion can be extremely expensive and may present a financial barrier to smaller firms. For example, TV advertising is one of the costliest forms of promotion and is only suitable for firms with larger advertising budgets. 

In the US, a 30-second advert on a major network, shown during a popular broadcast, can cost upward of $150,000 and may be significantly more expensive during major TV events such as the Super Bowl. In 2023, a 30-second advert during a Super Bowl break was estimated to cost an incredible $7 million, making such forms of promotion out of reach for all but the biggest corporations. 

However, it’s important to consider that you can undertake effective advertising, albeit on a much smaller scale, for a fraction of the conventional advertising costs. For example, many startup firms seek growth by advertising their company on corporate vehicles. By using a vehicle wrap, company logos and key slogans can be produced as a mobile form of advertising. 

You may be thinking, just what is a vehicle wrap? Put simply, it’s a decorative vinyl print that can cover all or some of the surfaces of your vehicle. These wraps are printed digitally and can be completely customized in terms of color schemes, the text, and art that’s produced. In short, it can be an affordable and effective way to market your startup, allowing company branding and key messages to be viewed by the public wherever the vehicle goes.

• Hire interns

When a business seeks growth, there’s generally a need to hire new staff members. New teams or even whole new departments may need to be created to allow an increasing range of business activities to take place. With extra staff members comes an increased cost to the business through staff salaries. 

It’s important to find the right balance in any new business that allows enough staff to be present to fuel business growth without increasing staffing costs to the point where they significantly impact overall profitability. 

One key way to keep staffing costs down while benefiting from talented new team members is to hire interns. These staff members are typically younger adults who may have recently graduated from college or are seeking to work on a short-term basis during breaks from study. 

The wages paid to interns are typically far less than expected with full-time staff, thus helping the business achieve scalable growth without massively increasing staffing costs. In addition, many talented interns have the latest knowledge and expertise in key areas of business due to completing or still being educated on the most up-to-date programs. 

• Seek out investing angels

Finally, a growing startup firm will inevitably need extra capital. This is commonly used to finance new products or expand the range of services that the firm provides. However, sourcing this extra funding can be difficult, and in the current economic climate, it may be more challenging to receive business loans from traditional lending establishments such as banks. 

It’s important to consider other sources of outside finance. Investing angels are a key way to gain funding for your business expansion plans. These business people have already gained significant wealth from their working activity and are seeking to invest in smaller firms. 

Typically, they may require a percentage of your business in return for the funding, but you may also be able to gain some other benefits, including their time and expertise in business. Ensure that you have a comprehensive business plan and key financial statements that illustrate the profitability of your business and how the funds will be used to drive business growth.