You’re proud to be a small business owner, but you’d probably like to see your brand reach new audiences and expand beyond your current bubble.

Growing your small business takes time. You have to gamble many responsibilities from marketing, training, and sales.

With all of this on your plate, it’s understandable that mistakes are made. But you’ll only find success when you identify these mistakes, remedy them, and know not to make them in the future.

Learn more about the five most common mistakes you’re probably making in your attempts to expand and discover how you can fix them.

1. You’re Not Adding Value For Existing Customers

Getting a new customer is five to twenty-five times more expensive than keeping one. This means keeping the right customer is invaluable to small businesses. If you’re more focused on adding new customers than improving the experience for your current audience, you’re missing out.

The Solution: Being proactive and connecting with your audience regularly will allow you to monitor your customers’ sentiments. This will enable you to take action if your team detects a decrease in their satisfaction with your products or services. Try a predictive dialer to maximize productivity as you attempt to grow without sacrificing quality services.

2. You’re Avoiding Social Media

Today, an online presence isn’t optional for small businesses. Unfortunately, just having your company’s website may not be enough. Social media searches are even posing a threat to Google, which says a lot.

The Solution: Ensure you reach the correct market by collecting data, creating targeted content, and spending resources on your customers’ platforms they frequently visit.

3. You Haven’t Created A Strong Sales Funnel

The sales funnel is designed to send potential customers from initial contact straight through to a final sale, and it generally comes in three parts:

1. The top – This is your marketing, how you attract your clients (email campaigns, landing pages, and your storefront are examples of this level)
2. The middle – This is the process before the sale (people reading about your products, trying your products in-store)
3. The bottom – The final purchase (customers paying, online customers adding credit card info to purchase)

The Solution: Focus on perfecting each step in the funnel process to keep people coming to your brand.

4. Your Team Isn’t Growing And Developing

If your team has grown stale, so has your business. It’s not just about adding new employees, it’s about adding and maintaining valuable team members.

The Solution: Keep strong employees, help them develop, and attract new recruits. You can do this by following these tips:

• Clarify your business vision
• Involve, challenge, and mentor your employees. Also, remember to celebrate their successes.
• Establish clear roles

5. You Lack A Mission Beyond Your Business Plan

In today’s business environment, businesses must adapt their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies. If you haven’t considered your wider, positive impact, now is the time. More people want to work with companies that share their values.

Not only are potential customers looking at what you offer and if you are being authentic, but CSR can also help with your recruitment drive.

The Solution: Create a mission that’s tied to a larger cause. Increase your giving and volunteering efforts, and get involved with local communities.

Stop Making These Mistakes And See Your Business Grow

There will be times when your small business grows and times when it stagnates — this is normal. Your role as the owner is to be on the lookout continuously for opportunities, trends and ideas. Don’t be afraid also to test them.

You will make significant progress in developing your business and sales by implementing the above strategies.