Highly motivated to increase fortunes from the birth stage to the growth and maturity stages in the life of an enterprise, entrepreneurs and business owners, for that matter, adopt a number of strategies to propel their businesses to reach a varied heights.

Some of the strategies end well while others fail because wrong practices are adopted, ending in the perpetual death of their businesses. In fact, some businesses never pass to the growth stage, let alone to the maturity stage. Others, however, soon after their birth, move to maturity stage, where profits are sustained and diversification into other products can follow.

In 2015, the bottom line here really is to implement the required strategic reforms to ensure the growth and prosperity of the firm concerned. These measures come up severally and depending on the type of business and products or services offered, the appropriate measures can be implemented to ensure the success so desired. Let us examine some of the strategies that can be adopted by enterprises in the quest for growth and business maturity.

Add value Clearly, to increase sales and proportionally increase profits, business managers need to find ways of getting additional revenue from what they sell or produce. If you produce poultry products, it would be better to add delivery services to the operational lines. This will help increase sales than waiting for customers to walk in. Those in the catering services could also have a vocational/training school attached to their premises to train others for a fee.

Likewise, those in the private educational sector can venture into other levels of the education service apart from what they offer. For instance, those offering the basic level of education can venture and expand their operations into the senior high level status and even to the tertiary level status. Assess your products and services and find which ones your clients could be interested in then supply their needs in that regard for more revenue.

Cut cost In setting growth targets, examine which of the variable costs, if done away with, could still get you your gross profit and subsequently, your net profit. Once identified, reduce these costs and improve upon your cost-benefit ratio. These variable costs can include transportation and other operational expenses.

This will save the enterprise more revenue. There is, therefore, the need for a holistic audit of the operational value chain and possibly, the waste and the repetitions could be done away with. The surplus could then be channeled into other yielding investments to rake in more.

Diversify Venturing into allied or totally new product lines and services could also rake in additional revenues. This results in the broadening of markets and hence market share and corporate brand. The end result is a growth rate propelled by additional sales.

Merge/acquire or form alliances To grow exponentially, business can come together to as one entity. Other big firms can acquire smaller or distressed firms. The two companies can then integrate to take over processes and functions originally provided by a supplier or a distributor.

The new company formed then grows by producing or supplying its own products. Primarily, costs associated with distribution, access to raw materials and other important inputs would, therefore, be reduced.

Growth can also be achieved by forming alliances with similar firms in the same industry. This will help to expand the range of products and the venturing into new markets to increase sales and hence, market share and or profits.

The Managing Director of Zenith Bank (Ghana) Ltd, Mr Daniel Asiedu, sometime in the February 12, 2013 edition of the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, stressed the need for alliances in the banking industry to provide capital to undertake big-ticket projects, since individual local banks lacked the strength to undertake such huge projects.

This assertion, to my mind, can come on the back of profits to be shared and the growth to be realised as individual firms and for the industry as a whole.

Re-negotiate for better terms The availability of enough working capital always eases the pressure in meeting demands. Managers ought to negotiate with creditors for longer periods to pay off debts.

This will let them have enough cash available to meet current operational demands, and earn interest and pay off later. On the other hand, they should convince their clients to pay off their debts in time to be able to have regular streams of cash flows to meet short-term obligations.

These two pathways if negotiated well, will ensure smooth operations and the meeting of sales and profit targets. The long-run effect will be a growing company with prospects to achieve internal economies of scale.

Look at the market Assess what your customers want and provide to meet those needs. Conduct market surveys and on your products to find out from the survey if customers want additional enhanced features to what you provide. Undertake research and developments and check out to see what else more they need apart from what you offer. All these gathered will let you know which markets can be targeted for additional sales and profits thereof.

Review management functions Management’s function of running the day-to-day affairs of the business can affect growth in one way or the other. If administrative roles are not those which promote the morale of workers to give off their best, productivity will suffer and hence, sales and profits.

In the same vein, if conditions of work and the environment in which workers find themselves to work are appalling, tasks may not be accomplished on time to meet targets and all these will affect the growth and prosperity of the firm concerned.

Reviewing leadership and management skills to position them properly for work processes could yield the expected growth. Refresher courses, in-house training by experts, and the re-tooling of the CEO and departmental heads in their functions towards increased profit-oriented mindset, will spur the management staff to lead the company to its successful end.

Selecting the best option to strategically uplift operations to realise growth in this year 2015, can be satisfying if really implemented well. GB

The writer is a business and financial analyst. Email: ebojustyy@yahoo.com