How To: Take Your Small Business to the Next Level

You've built a successful business, you have an established customer base and you are well known in your geographical area or your industry or both; so now what do you do to stay ahead of the pack? How do you take your business to the next level?

Here are 9 ways to grow your business and take it to the next level:

1. Delegate
Stop doing things in your business that don't directly make you money. Delegate them to an assistant or other professional to free up your time to work "ON" your business instead of "IN" it at least 80% of the time.

2. Develop new products or services
Develop monthly continuity programs and coaching or informational products such as e-books, home study programs, books, live workshops and teleseminars. Combine your current products or services into packages, record audios of presentations or teleseminars and sell them.

3. Increase repeat business
Keep yourself on top of your customer's minds by consistently sending out reorder postcards, thank you, birthday or holiday gifts and cards, monthly, bi-monthly or weekly email or mailed newsletters. Introduce new promotions, discount offers, affiliate program and referral rewards.

4. Update your website
Add monthly specials, discounts or promotions to attract attention. Make it so people have to sign up in order to receive anything so you can add them to your funnel. Add a shopping cart selling your informational products or services. Fine tune your sales messages, keywords, headings, call to action and content of your site is appealing and makes people want to buy now and come back often.

5. Maximize online potential
Find ways to be found more online through article marketing, blogs, groups, webinars, discussion boards, search engine optimization, pay-per-click ads, reciprocal links - collect leads, get them in your funnel, follow up, close the sale, and consistently upsell them.

6. Continue to learn
go to conferences, workshops or read more about new technology, marketing or industry strategies, techniques and lead generating concepts.

7. Position yourself as a speaker and expert
Write a book and/or develop presentations that will interest your target audience and promote yourself to groups reaching that target audience. Take advantage of media exposure.

8. Form strategic alliances
Develop ways to co-promote with professionals such as in newsletters, articles, ezines, workshops, teleseminars, mailings and more.

9. Expand the business
Open another location, target another market, franchise yourself or merge with another existing complimentary business.