It’s an exciting time to be a business owner, and with the new year comes new technologies and opportunities to grow your startup and expand your business venture. With drastic changes to many industries in the last couple of years, business owners will surely be reevaluating how they plan for growth in the next year as well as long term.
Finding new revenue sources, marketing channels, and ways to protect your business have always been key considerations for a developing startup, but with a massive shift in aspects of work like increased demand for remote options and reliance on digital channels unaffected by a lack of in-person shopping, CEOs have to be even more creative with their strategies in 2022.
Protect Your Business Growth
Keeping in mind that with the drastic changes in shopping habits and opportunities in the past year, business owners have been forced to examine how stable their marketing channels and related revenue streams are. Brick and mortar businesses that hadn’t prioritized a digital presence really felt that void when foot traffic was non-existent. Now those businesses should be looking for ways to get their product and name out there regardless of their physical location.
For other business ventures that did have digital marketing channels and automation set up, some of them found those aren’t as reliable as they’ve hoped in recent months. For example, marketing managers highly reliant on Facebook advertising and their paid channels are likely looking at other ways to find their customers online since the tech giant has been under some scrutiny recently and has already taken steps to limit ad targeting over the years following similar circumstances.
The bottom line here is that you don’t want to have all your eggs in one basket in case one of your marketing channels goes down. So maybe that means it’s time to rethink your search engine optimization strategy so you’re not as invested in paid media, or it could also mean finally going after untapped consumer bases. Ultimately, all of that will depend on your business, but knowing where the gaps are in your current marketing strategy is step one.
Embrace Remote Working
One of the biggest updates impacting many large industries is the major push towards remote work. This means businesses have had to adapt quickly, but also have realized some of the benefits of taking on team members from across the country or globe.
A key ingredient for most startups is remaining lean and being able to execute a new plan quickly, which remote working allows for in different ways. You can search for a larger applicant pool and also have more opportunities to take on specialized help for one-off projects like designing a blog or performing a website audit.
Being able to recruit from a larger group means new opportunities to attract talent. This also acts as a benefit for employees, so many businesses are adopting this measure because of the demand for flexible working conditions.
In order to qualify remote applicants efficiently, you might consider investing in some type of pre employment screening to save your hiring team some time. Companies and culture managers who can make remote work an option for employees will have a big advantage at attracting top talent in the next year since it’s becoming more common, especially among tech companies.
Make Social Impact a Priority
One of the most salient themes of the last few years has been a heightened focus on societal changes and how businesses can impact that change in a positive way. New buyers entering the market more commonly look to spend their finances on products and services that take ideas like sustainability or social equity into consideration. This also acts as another way for businesses to attract top young talent since many new members of the job market are looking to join a team that gives back to the community,
Business owners can think about taking on initiatives within their community or find other ways to support critical social causes, but it will help to ensure the project aligns with the business and its mission. Taking on a social cause that aligns with your business are great stories to share with your audience and give them more reasons to get behind your product.
Growing your startup is a process that won’t be completed overnight. However, following these steps can help you get where you want to be as a business owner.
