7 Ways to grow your business with the resources you already have

All too often we think that our growth can only come from out there, somewhere. From something we don’t have yet. From reaching more people and chasing more strangers. 

While it’s true that you can grow when you expand your reach, you can also grow naturally, joyfully and effortlessly if you harness the power of the resources you already have.

For example: 

… the email list you already have.

… the customers you already have.

… the network you already have.

… the strengths, personality, willpower, and desires you already have.

Regardless of how much or how little we already have, we all have something. What we already have is meaningful, because we already have it and we wouldn’t have it if it weren’t meaningful. 

To grow, we have to learn to not only get more, but to also receive the full bounty of what we already have. 

Here are 7 ways to grow your business with the resources you already have. 

#1 REACH OUT TO YOUR PERSONAL NETWORK.

One day, I got an email from a woman whose name seemed familiar, but who I didn’t remember meeting. It was a short email in which she announced her new startup. Then, I remembered I had met this person about six years prior, when I was interviewing for a job in her old company. It turns out, she saved all the email addresses of people she had met in that old company, and now that she wanted to drive more traffic to her startup, she emailed everyone she had ever met. 

Kudos to her! 

It takes courage to email your entire network. 

Because of that email I received from her, I became her customer. I also told several friends about her new startup, and they became customers too.  

Think how big your email address book is. It’s big! You don’t want to email your entire address book often, but in my opinion, it’s completely understandable to do this once in a blue moon, when you have an important message to share. 

After all, we’re all here to support each other. 

#2. FIND THE GEMS.

Take a look at your numbers. Are there strategies, emails, messages, ideas, offers that have worked particularly well for you? Find your marketing gems, polish them and amplify them. 

For example, is there a particular email that gives you outstanding results? Capitalize on it by passionately sharing that message elsewhere or by re-sending that one email to the people who haven’t opened it the first time. 

Personally, I don’t recommend to frequently re-send your emails to the people who haven’t opened them, but when it comes to important, gem-like messages, I say go for it. 

Or, is there a particular product that everyone loves? Introduce it in different formats, in different colors, in different languages and create more marketing about it. 

#3. MAKE PEOPLE FEEL RESPECTED AFTER THEY BUY.

One of the lessons I’ve learned in my experience is that the moment when people decide if they will ever buy again is right after they bought for the first time. Therefore, the way you make people feel at the end of their buying experience is like your sales pitch to get more people to buy again. 

Do you make them feel respected, acknowledged and appreciated? Say thank you wholeheartedly. Recognize their unique contribution to your business. Make them feel included. 

Unfortunately, most people do the opposite in business nowadays. They make strangers feel appreciated in an effort to get them to buy. Meanwhile, they forget all about the people who already bought. 

#4. ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS TO BUY AGAIN.

There are all sorts of incentives you can create to build urgency and get people to buy. 

But when it comes to getting your customers to buy again, I encourage you to create incentives that not only create urgency, but that also make your customers feel respected, appreciated and acknowledged.

That, in my opinion, is a true win-win. 

One example I give inside my program Lifelong Customers is to offer your past customers the ability to take advantage of a new offer first, before you open your offer up to your general audience. Launching a new product? Tell your customers first, and everyone else after. 

At the end of the day, a business wouldn’t exist without its customers. Therefore, making your customers feel included is not just an ethical way to run a business, but also a business necessity. 

#5. CREATE NEW PRODUCTS SPECIFICALLY FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Apple Care (free repairs for Apple products) is a product Apple created specifically for its customers. 

Amazon Prime is a product Amazon created specifically for its customers. 

A monthly support service with office hours, monthly Q&As, classes or other relevant options can be a product you create specifically for the customers you already have. 

#6. ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS TO REFER OTHERS TO YOU.

Ask, and you shall receive. But you’ve got to ask! Most of the time, we take past customers’ future purchases and referrals for granted. We assume they will buy and they will refer others if they want to and when they want to. 

But think about all the products you bought in the past couple of months. Didn’t somebody ask you to buy, before you bought? It’s the same with referrals. If you ask your past customers for referrals, you are more likely to get them. It is not sleazy or un-elegant to ask them for referrals. 

#7. STAY GROUNDED IN YOUR STRENGTHS.

We all have unique personalities, we’ve all lived unique lives and we’ve all interpreted the events in our lives uniquely. We are all unique. Therefore, we all have strengths that are unique to us.

It is tempting to want to jump on every opportunity wagon, but in my opinion, those who stay grounded in their unique strengths are those who will succeed in the long run.  

A strength is something that comes easy to you and that you enjoy doing. You may not excel at it from the get-go, but that doesn’t mean it’s not your strength. A strength is akin to a seed. If you keep watering it, you have the potential to rise to the top fast.  

Take communication for example. Within communication, some people excel at speaking in front of a camera, others excel at speaking in front of a live audience, recording podcasts, writing, or communicating through actions or speaking one-on-one.

While we all communicate with each other through various means, if your strength is in one specific area, my opinion is that you should use that particular channel as your main avenue to communicate with your customers. You don’t need to write weekly blog posts just because others do. You don’t need to create videos just because others do.

To make the most impact, use your strengths and stay grounded in them.