A Business needs money to grow. You should have a considerable size of budget to be able to manage your day-to-day overheads along with investing capital in an expansion project.

Well, many entrepreneurs are out there who are able to cut it financially with a small budget. In this day and age, it is possible to compete against companies leveraging more considerable capital by using low-cost methods of expansion.

Experts suggest that you should have a growth mindset. Before you think of expanding your business, you should have a strong network. Identify what is working for your business and then double down on your marketing strategies to give it a big boost. This is the best way of saving thousands of pounds on the scaling of your business.

Here are some of the fast and low-cost methods to scale your business:

You must have a sales funnel

Not until you have a sales funnel can you scale your business. It is paramount to have sufficient funds to use for inventory, marketing, introducing a new product line, and the like. 

To build a sales funnel:

• You should create a landing page to tell about the features and benefits of your products to your customers.
• Send educational content to your customers about your offering.
• Upsell by giving a special discount, free trials, etc.
• Keep identifying customers who did not make a purchase and nurture them with a new series of products.

Create a customer loyalty programme

Increase your sales by offering loyalty programmes to your customers. It will allow some cash in that you can utilise to bring in a new product line or establish your business in other areas. 

Experts suggest that “customer loyalty programmes can help retain existing customers as well as acquire new customers.” Clients want to be valued. You can make them feel that they are special customers for you by offering additional discounts or special schemes exclusively available to them. 

Leverage social media marketing

Leverage the power of social networking sites, especially if you are on a small budget. Find out which social media platform your target audience uses and then share informative and engaging content. This approach will help build a brand. A large number of people will come to know and interact with your business. This will result in increased sales. 

Higher sales will generate higher revenues, and then you can utilise that money for the scaling of your business. Social Media Marketing does not involve too much money. However, you can fund it with bad credit personal loans if you do not have enough money to meet its cost. 

Identify new opportunities

Identifying new business opportunities is crucial if you want to scale your business. 

• Understand where your target audience is present. You may find several places where they are located.
• Gauge the level of competition. See what your direct competitors are doing to target customers there.
• Are there any opportunities to grow to sell the same products?
• Do customers have a demand for different products?

Get franchise

In order to grow your business fast, you can consider a franchise. Building a brand from scratch can take a very long time. In addition, you will also need a lot of money. Business loans are an alternative to meet your business expenses, but you might struggle to get them signed off on.

Get a franchise of an established business. This is an excellent way to develop your business in a new location. However, it is not inexpensive. You will have to be sharing a fixed portion of your profits with a franchisor. But the good thing about this model is that you will grow quickly.

Focus on only core operations

Having control of your cash is a must when you are to expand your business. It is always suggested that you focus on only core activities. Avoid wasting your energy on doing tasks that are not necessary. Further, you should avoid introducing any product that is low value to your customers. 

You cannot scale your business unless you invest money. But you should try to invest in projects that help your business grow faster. 

Find out the impact of your marketing

You will need software solutions to track how your business is doing constantly. You must have software that helps you have a bookkeeping record and that enables you to analyse the impact of your sales and marketing.

It is crucial to know the conversion from your sales and marketing methods. Your business will grow only when you are able to draw in new customers. The customer management system will let you know the following:

• how much people visited your landing pages
• how much time they spent there
• how they navigated from each page to another
• which source they used to know about your website
• how many people read your email newsletters
• Are they clicking call-to-action?
• What is the response from your users to your social media content

International expansion

International expansion can cost you an arm and a leg, but the profits will be very impressive.

• Does your product have the potential for the foreign market?
• Could you introduce another product or service that has a demand abroad?
• Do you have enough funds to establish your business there?
• What marketing methods will you use to reach out to your customers?

The bottom line

Expanding a business is not a cinch. It requires planning, identifying the needs of customers, and above all, money. The aforementioned fast and low-cost methods will certainly help you scale your business. 

You do not need a lot of money to expand your business. However, you may still need some cash. You can take out a loan to finance your expansion. However, be careful about your repayment plan. You should not borrow money if you are not sure about your repaying capacity. 

Take the opinion of an expert before expansion so you do not end up wasting your money.