Growing takes grit – and these small businesses have what it takes. Here’s how they plan to grow revenue across the next 12 months.
At a glance
Here’s a snapshot of advice from our interviewees:
- Raising the price of goods and services is an obvious strategy to boost profit – and could also counteract lost revenue.
- Small businesses are updating their approach to marketing by prioritising organic search and email marketing.
- Fostering customer loyalty and rewarding repeat customers are other strategies small business owners are taking.
Aussie small businesses know that thriving in the current market takes grit, but nearly two in five business owners expect their revenue to increase over the next 12 months.
Six small business owners share what they plan to achieve this time tomorrow – and how they intend to make their growth plans reality.
Price increases
The first decision Janine Earl, owner of event health and beauty service Pure Chica, made to boost revenue was to increase pricing to make up for the loss in capital across the past few years.
“Many businesses are trying to reduce staff costs and increase pricing to stay competitive while making a decent margin,” she explains.
An uptick in pricing has been necessary for Pure Chica to keep moving ahead and make a profit, says Janine.
“It is becoming ever harder to make the same profits with increased award rates for staff and contractors, plus superannuation, so we are being transparent with our clients about our costs to justify price increases.”
Organic search
Louise Brady founded children’s clothing line Sukoo the Label with the aim of bringing a more sustainable approach to the fashion industry. Now, she’s bringing that same innovation to her social media and organic search strategy.
“We’ve set up a TikTok account, where we focus on genuine storytelling,” she says. “Instagram content does not work on TikTok. Consumers no longer want highly curated, perfect branding – they want more of a stripped back, personal connection to brands.
Ninety per cent of Louise’s sales used to come from Instagram. Now, however, revenue from organic search on Google has risen to become almost a third of her gross revenue.
“I also got on top of my KPI trackers this year, using data to identify where we were losing people on our website, and trying to solve our high page-exit rates.”
Her data-driven strategy to customer engagement has helped Louise both foster her brand and drive sales.
Email marketing
Paula Glynn, director of marketing agency and small business Pixelstorm, will take a similarly data-first approach by introducing a new email marketing strategy.
“Over the next 12 months, we will focus on segmentation and targeting, as well as email marketing campaigns with offers for our clients,” says Paula.
“Email marketing automation is an amazing way of generating leads and revenue. Once properly set up, all you need to do is optimise to achieve results.”
Customer loyalty
Zoe Gordon, founder of online gift retailer Byron Bay Gifts, says she’ll be taking a people-first approach to customer relations in 2023.
“Our approach over the next 12 months will be to scale the focus of our corporate manager to work with our existing corporate customers and ensure they are getting the best out of their relationship with us,” she says.
It won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution, however, as Zoe plans to take an individualised, rather than blanket, approach to new and existing customers.
“This will include a cold calling approach where we contact prospects who don’t have an existing relationship with us, such as in real estate and finance,” she says.
Expansion plans
Sarah Greenaway’s 12-month strategy for growing her girls’ sportswear business Eltee Sydney is two-pronged.
“My plan is to build community-level brand partnerships to increase awareness locally, while also reducing advertising and shipping costs,” she explains.
“We will concentrate on buffering the winter slumps we’ve encountered since we started by shifting our marketing efforts to the northern hemisphere. That plan is already in action with a number of influencer and content partnerships being forged over the past few months.
“We’ve also been expanding our wholesale marketing efforts to increase our order volumes and decrease unit costs.”
Repeat customers
Blind and awning wholesaler ICL SA has its sights set on rewarding repeat customers.
“Repeat customers are the bread and butter of businesses,” says founder Peter Monkhouse. “They provide a steady stream of revenue that businesses can count on, and are also more likely to spend more money with each purchase than new customers.”
Peter is encouraging more repeat customers by enhancing the quality of their shopping experience.
“Our team always goes the extra mile in understanding the needs of our clients,” he says. “Our team spends a lot of time identifying the kind of results our customers want and guiding them on how to achieve that goal.
“From dealing with them in a friendly and efficient manner to providing after-sales support, we’re always looking for ways to improve the customer experience.”
A challenging market environment has prompted these fellow small business owners to take tangible steps towards growth – and the next 12 months are an opportunity for strong revenue growth.
*Prospa x YouGov SME Sentiment survey, August 2022
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