Good question.

I’ve done a fair bit of growing in the last few years, so in this blog I shall highlight what I have learnt over those years.

I started my business without a clue. Honestly. Not a scooby. I’d been a primary teacher for 30 years with no experience of business at all.

But I listened and learnt, and consequently my business went from trading at a few markets, to getting major wedding bookings, and running training for other bakers.

In this blog I’ll be giving you what I think are the 5 most important things to know about how to grow your business.

1. Know what you want to grow your business into.

Answer the question ‘what do I want to achieve?’ and really dig deep. If all you can think of is ‘I want more customers’, then you’ve a bit more work to do. Trust me on this.

Think long term, 5 or 10 years, and let your imagination go. What do you actually WANT. Is it a six figure business? A shop? Tea room? Teaching studio? Long family holidays? A bigger house? Don’t let the ‘but’ stop you either… ‘but I can’t because’… ‘that’ll never happen because’… we’ll come to those later.

All you need to do for now is really think about what it is you want. Once you have that, you can start building a strategy, and the growth will start to happen.

2. Know who you want to serve.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times…. Once I started learning about ‘ideal clients’, everything changed. Yes, yes, of course, we want to sell to anyone and everyone… and I’m not saying you can’t. But, knowing who your product is aimed at, means you can focus your messaging, and those people who want exactly what you are offering will find you.

Time for an analogy. Let’s imagine you are going fishing. Imagine the lake in front of you. Your aim for the day is to catch some quality fish.

So, do you…

a) get a net and start pulling it through the water to see what you catch.

Or

b) Decide that you are going to aim for one fish. You research trout. You find out that they like… nightcrawlers, earthworms and mealworm. You go to the fishing bait shop and get the required amount. You get a fishing rod, and use the correct bait.

Of course, you know which is the better choice. The first might get you a handful of tiddlers… but the second will get you the quality. You may find yourself with some carp or bream as well as trout, but that’s ok, they are still quality.

So, know what type of customer you want to catch. Use the correct equipment, and get the right bait to reel them in.

This then leads to…

Be visible in the right places.

Once you have decided who you want to attract to your business, you can then look at where to find them. Go and look where they will be.

The owners of Lamborghini were once asked why they didn’t advertise on television. The answer was simple. ‘Our customers don’t watch television’. Now, of course, they aren’t going to turn away anyone that does watch television, and I daresay a good handful of their clients do spend an occasional evening in front of the box… but that wouldn’t be the top of the list for the clients they want to attract.

So, some detective work is needed.

You want customers who will be willing to pay the prices you need to charge to make a good profit. And they are definitely out there. Yes, the cost of living has affected many people, but not everyone. People still shop at Waitrose. People still want quality and are willing to pay for it, you just have to work out how they will find you.

In my business, it was Instagram, Pinterest and google searches. I followed wedding venues, florists, planners. I engaged on their posts, and tagged them in where relevant. I even had a number of couples contact me because I regularly commented on threads that their wedding venue had posted.

I had many contacts from google searches. My SEO was such that I come up on the first page of local searches for wedding cakes. I actually got lots of birthday cake bookings that way… even though my website and socials have very little about birthday cakes on them.

I am strategic with my PR… I’ve appeared in Hello online, the BBC and Woman Magazine. I’m looking to get coverage in other major national titles this year too, but only ones that will be relevant to my ideal client.

So, get seen. By the right people, in the right places. Allow the right people to really get a good look at what you do, so they can realise that you are exactly what they need.

I’ve persevered. Things haven’t worked. Often. But I’ve squeezed as much learning as I possibly could from every mistake and failure and now things are slotting into place. The thing about growth is that it isn’t always an upward curve. It’s up, down, up down, and the learning and growth will often happen in those ‘down’ sections.

And I’m resilient. Far more than I was 5/10 years ago. I embrace things that go wrong, or don’t work… as they teach me things. I know my own skills, I know what I can do, and I know what I need to improve.

And it’s knowing what you need to improve that will lead to growth.

5. Connect

I can hand on heart say that one of the main reasons my business has grown so much over the last 5 years is because I surrounded myself with other business owners. From 7/8 figure successes to others like me just starting out, they all taught me so much. I listened to how they run their businesses, I watched as they shared successes and failures. I made my self known and made valuable connections which has led to some amazing opportunities, and a good handful of friends.

I’ve learnt about strategy, sales, PR, website, SEO, ideal clients… the list goes on. I’ve found free groups, free training as well as investing some significant sums in some good quality learning, which has ultimately led to higher sales. But it was all strategic. I decided what I needed to learn and then went and found quality training in it.

So, there you have it.

5 ways to grow your business.

Look at the big picture, know where you are wanting to go, and you’ll be in a much better position to get there.

Annie ran her baking business, Leading Lady Cakes, for 10 years, following a career in primary teaching. She is now combining her teaching experience and her passion for baking to teach and support others who wish to set up for themselves.

Find out more about the Home Baking Business Academy here;