Growth Strategies Every CEO Should Use To Get Ahead

8 min read

September 6th, 2024

Experts from ITR Economics predict the U.S. will enter another Great Depression in the upcoming decade. Currently, 50% percent of U.S. CEOs reported experiencing a slow economy or expecting the economy to slow soon, and 46% believe that we are or will soon be entering an economic recession, according to the Vistage CEO Confidence Index. While the inflation rate has slowed, prices are still much higher than they were a few years ago, and consumers are feeling the squeeze. As a result, businesses are struggling to achieve growth in this stuffy, slow-moving economic climate. 

To work toward achieving growth and getting your business ahead of the curve in preparation for future economic challenges, consider implementing the following growth strategies. 

10 Growth Strategies for Businesses

1. Gain an Edge With New Technology

Being an early adopter of new technology certainly poses risks to businesses. However, failing to try out and adopt new technologies in your business will result in you falling behind the competition. Of course, the most frequently talked about emerging technology of today is artificial intelligence (AI), and an increasing number of existing developers are integrating AI into their products every day. 

While the technology is not yet perfect, AI stands to revolutionize business in every industry, market, and business department. It has the power to rapidly increase efficiencies, reduce errors, and streamline operations. 

If your business isn't harnessing the power of AI - at least at an experimental level - then it risks falling behind and missing out on major growth opportunities. 

2. Focus on Employee Retention

Employee turnover is one of the biggest hidden costs in businesses. While the mass employee migration of the Great Resignation has stabilized, employers must continue investing in their employees to retain talent and avoid the significant loss of knowledge, resources, and morale that occurs when employees quit. 

By retaining your employees, you save money that can be reinvested in your business while also retaining talent and increasing employee loyalty and engagement which can be leveraged to help you identify new, creative ways to expand.

Read More: Why Employee Retention Is Important And How To Improve It

3. Optimize Pricing in Your SME

In a shifting economy, a CEO must keep a close eye on costs, prices, and the market to ensure that their prices are optimized for value and profit generation while remaining competitive. When approached with the right mindset and objectives, businesses can actually use pricing as a growth strategy. 

4. Know and Retain Your Customers

In a slow economy, especially, customer retention is key because there isn't necessarily as much opportunity for attracting new customers when spending has slowed. Keep a close watch on your clients' evolving needs and the changing trends within your market and industry. You want to be sure that you continue to meet your customers' needs, exceed their expectations, and maintain their loyalty to your brand. 

In addition to retaining customers, it's also important that your business is primed and ready to handle the right level of demand. If you notice that demand is slowing down, you'll need to determine whether or not the slowdown represents a trend that is likely to continue. In this case, you might need to consider reducing your operating capacity. If demand grows, you might need to increase your workforce so that you'll be ready to meet the growing need.

5. Use Strategic Budgeting

If you understand which investments and expenditures drive profits and growth in your business, then you can use strategic budgeting to accelerate growth. This budgeting method closely ties your business's spending plan with its goals for growth. As a result, it devises an agile plan for spending and investing that is designed to foster and quickly respond to growth. 

Read More: Budgeting vs. Forecasting for Your Business

6. Invest in Customer Acquisition to Penetrate the Market

Retaining existing customers is your first priority, but to achieve real growth, your business will likely also need to invest in customer acquisition. Take a close look at your sales funnel to revamp your strategy for finding potential customers and persuading them to choose your business. This endeavor will likely require your business to focus on and invest in new marketing strategies and channels such as taking steps to expand into or increase grassroots marketing, digital marketing, and more. 

7. Consider Diversifying

While it is important to lean on your unique selling proposition, diversifying your business with new services or products can help you grow faster. Diversification can be a risky and expensive proposition, though, so it should be approached with caution.

Diversification should be achieved smartly by thinking specifically about how your business could gain an edge over the competition with diversification that makes sense given your current services, products, and/or expertise. Diversifying should be affordable and help you attract more customers. It should create more opportunities than challenges, shouldn't divide assets that need to be kept together, and should create unique value for your business (rather than simply putting you in a new market where you don't stand out). 

8. Grow With Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

The prospect of acquiring, merging with, or partnering with another business is also risky. The right merger, acquisition, or partnership, however, could help your business, its market, its customer base, its talent, and its products or services grow. Be sure to do proper and thorough due diligence, revealing all closet skeletons, before making any definitive decision about a merger, acquisition, or partnership because joining forces with a struggling business (or a business with misaligned core values or a toxic culture) could damage or destroy your otherwise healthy company. 

Read More: The Dos and Don'ts of Navigating Successful Mergers and Acquisitions

9. Use SMART Goals and Make Data-Driven Decisions

Every business strategy should exist within a well-organized operating framework. Within this framework, business leaders can set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) goals aimed at achieving growth. For example, the company's set of goals should include long-term goals for the future (for example, 10% revenue growth within five years) and short-term benchmarks that split the larger goals into smaller milestones. 

The goals your business sets for growth should be tied directly to key performance indicators that you can measure and track to evaluate your performance and progress. You can use these metrics to assess your operations and evaluate productivity to make changes that will improve and strengthen your company's drivers of profit and growth.

10. Spend Smarter With an Outsourced Accounting Department

On its own, an outsourced accounting department can significantly reduce your business's overhead, back-office costs. In addition to the money generated by better financial management and strategy, an outsourced accounting department can generate a significant ROI. You can then reinvest the money you save and the money you generate with outsourced accounting to grow your business. 

A Smarter Way To Run Your Business

57% of businesses cited cost-cutting as the primary reason for outsourcing.

👉 Download the Guide to Outsourcing Your Back Office

Outsourced Accounting for SMBs Delivers the Financial Insights You Need for Better Business Strategy

Every growth strategy has one thing in common: they all rely on timely, accurate, and reliable financial data and financial management insights for success. Outsourced accounting is one of the best back-office strategies for SMBs looking to grow within any type of economic climate. A highly affordable solution, outsourced accounting establishes sound and efficient systems for bookkeeping, accounting, data collection, and enterprise resource planning. Business leaders can use their data to take charge of their businesses, maximize profits, and make data-driven decisions geared toward growth.