According to a study by kolkataonline.in MSMEs are contributing about 45% to India’s GDP; while larger corporate firms contribute only about 15%. And, West Bengal has topped the Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) 2017 list with the highest number of MSMEs in India amounting to 52,69,814 units. Kolkata, the capital state claims a lion’s share of MSMEs operating in West Bengal. With almost 11% of Indian MSMEs battling for their share of the market, it could be challenging to scale your business. Are you a Kolkata-based business owner? Read along to discover few of the best-kept secrets to overcoming the growth challenge –
Identify new opportunities – The easiest method to grow your business is to identify new opportunities. You can achieve this by researching your distribution channels, your competitors, the export market as well as potential industries. Adopt a Market Development approach to widening your target market. For instance, a shampoo manufacturer targeting adult women can adopt a market development strategy to target adolescent girls as well.
Modify your offering – Another business expansion strategy is product or service development, this aims to increase your market share by modifying the properties of your current offering. Research the needs and wants of your customers, discover their pain points and device an offering they are unable to refuse. An excellent example of the same is offering at-home salon service for busy individuals who are unable to manage time to visit a salon.
Focus on customer retention – Customer is truly the king in small-scale businesses, they help you generate revenues as well as provide (free) publicity for your business. However, retaining loyal customers is much more affordable than acquiring new customers. Hence, small businesses need to devote their energy to retain customers. Invest in a quality Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool from Salesforce or Microsoft at Rs.19,000/month/user. Indian NBFCs like Bajaj Finserv help you meet such operational expenses with affordable Business Loan.
Conduct competitor research – The goal of conducting a competitor research is to identify the best market practices. Often industry leaders are the pioneer in setting market trends. Market research enables you to identify competitor strengths and weaknesses. There are several online tools available to track competitor strategy to compare site traffic, customer behavior, advertising spend, keywords used, search engine rankings, and referrals received. Kompyte, SimilarWeb, SpyFu are some of the competitor analysis tools available online. These services come at a pocket pinch of Rs.50,000+/month. Fund the same with Flexi Business Loans in Kolkata.
Form strategic partnerships – Two or more business firms can adopt an external growth strategy to gain a sustainable competitive advantage over the competitors. A strategic partnership or joint venture is a long-term legal agreement in order to undertake mutually beneficial activities.
Most businesses enter into a joint-venture to leverage technological, geographical, regulatory advantage, share risk and capital; and intellectual advantages. Remember this is not a comprehensive list, you can still look for other business scaling options like franchising, international expansion or build a sales funnel.