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With inflation on the rise and the price of just about everything in the United States increasing, many people are thinking of scaling their own businesses to make ends meet. Luckily, there are budget-friendly ways to work toward increasing your profits. While there’s no guarantee if you want to build up your small business to better support your family, here are some approaches to consider. 

Examine Your Marketing Efforts

In order to grow, you have to know where you currently stand. Take a peek at your marketing efforts and see what is bringing in the most customers and what isn’t. That way, you can focus on what is currently working and drop the measures that are only wasting time.

For example, look at your website traffic and determine if a certain social media site is bringing in more new and returning users than another. Perhaps your business presence on Facebook is converting better than your Instagram. In that case, maybe think about using the time spent on one platform and shift more to the other. Of course, you could try to increase your footprint on Instagram, but maybe do that after you scale up. 

The point is to use what is working and drop or scale back on what is not. Once you increase business, you could think about branching out again.

Think About the Customer

It doesn’t matter if you offer services like accounting or fitness, or if you make products like homemade greeting cards or industrial cabinets, you’re not going to be able to bring in customers without considering their wants and needs. When you started your side hustle, you likely thought about just that, but over time businesses change, and so do the people they serve.

Does your service or product still fit a current need for consumers? Don’t be afraid to survey your base and find out what they require out of your business. If you have an email list, send out a short questionnaire requesting feedback about your current services and ask if there is anything you don’t currently offer that they wish you would.

Use those answers to tweak your current product or service. Obviously, you don’t want to cater to everyone, but if you see a consensus in a particular area, it might be worth exploring.

Create a Sales Funnel

Look at your sales funnel to garner email addresses and make sales. Is it still converting the way you like? If not, you may want to create a new one just to freshen things up and pique your customers’ interest. Maybe offer a free trial, exclusive upgrade, or a short but helpful e-book. Creating something new could help you reach new people and motivate existing customers to engage more with your services or products. While making the offering takes time, it doesn’t have to cost money.

It Takes a Village

If you wear all the hats in your business, it’s hard to scale up. After all, there are only so many hours in the day, and it may be time to bring in some help for the areas in which you either struggle or you simply don’t like. Those are the exact places where neglect for your business can fester, making it impossible to build. While you focus on finding out exactly what your customer wants and where you want the business to go, it might be a good idea to hire someone to build up your social media, for instance.

Sure, it will cost money, but as long as the benefit outweighs the cost, it might be worth your consideration.

Stay on Top

Ramping up your businesses doesn’t have to be an expensive venture. Little changes here and there can make a big difference.