The term “growth hacks” has become so much of a buzz word that it tends to be used even for normal business processes.
But if you look at it closely, a hack requires a certain level of innovation that gives you an edge and puts you ahead of the competition.
At Evoma, we have our share of such brilliant and innovative startups, small businesses and founders who have used these hacks to move fast from idea to successful startup and onwards to huge exits.
This is something that you will typically only learn from experience. It’s an invaluable list of five growth hacks that have a surprising capability to drive uninterrupted business growth.
1. 24/7 office space.
Pre-Requisite: Business address
Requisite: Office space.
Uninterrupted: 24/7 access to your office space.
In terms of location, the legal requirement is for you to have a business address. The technical or logistical requirement is for you to have an office. But the simple truth is that a new business needs 24/7 attention and hard work if you want to stay afloat and grow it. For this, you need office space that is accessible 24/7.
It’s something that a lot of startup founders and small business owners don’t think about when taking a shop or office for rent in a commercial complex.
If the building doesn’t allow you to work after 9 pm or 10 pm, you have to close up shop and go home.
You can’t come back until 7 am or 8 am when they open the doors. Meantime, you can’t do any work, and your customers know you’re closed during this time, which means they’ll go to a competitor who’s open 24/7.
Without realizing it, you’re giving away 10-12 hours of business time. Since your office is closed, you won’t even think about work during this period. It’s a mindset that can be unlocked by a growth hack – an office that is always open.
2. Clean energy.
Pre-Requisite: Electricity meter
Requisite: Pay your utility bills
Uninterrupted: 24/7 UPS backup power, with onsite solar array to generate clean energy.
Power cuts are so common that we just factor it into the way we do business. You simply shut down your plant until the power comes back. Workers are idling. Customers call and ask for a quote, product or service that requires you to make use of electricity. You just tell them there’s no power, and they should call back afterwards. Many of these customers won’t call back again.
Also, the utility bill for all that electricity you consume is one of the major expenses that has to take into account as part of your product pricing.
There’s a very massive growth hack here that could make you incredibly competitive. Install enough solar arrays on-site to fulfill all your power needs, with a huge battery backup and UPS to ensure uninterrupted 24/7 reliable and steady power supply.
Not only will you be able to keep your business open round the clock, but you will also eliminate the electricity bill. The cost savings makes you more profitable, and it reduces the per unit cost of your product or service, making your business more competitive compared to businesses that are paying for electricity and shutting down their business when there’s no power.
Again, this is a growth hack that business owners don’t realize they’re missing out on, until you actually install a solar-powered UPS. Then you realize its impact on cost, revenue and productivity.
3. Online paid ads.
Pre-Requisite: Domain name, website, email
Requisite: Optimized website, social media marketing
Uninterrupted: 24/7 online leads and sales from paid ads.
All sales is now online. Anyone who finds you offline will also checkout your website first. Most buyers will wait for you to contact them on Whatsapp, email or the phone afterwards.
You can get a domain name, build a nice website, optimize it, and start reaching out to people on social media. But that is exactly what a million other businesses are doing, so it’s very hard to get a decent amount of website traffic, and then convert it into leads and sales.
The easiest and fastest growth hack to get a steady flow of revenue from online channels is to run paid ads.
With a fairly decent ROI, it’s possible to get hundreds of leads every week from Adwords, Facebook Lead Ads, LinkedIn sponsored ads, Outbrain, etc.
Within a week or two, you could be swimming in leads and planning to expand your sales team.
4. Branding.
Pre-Requisite: Customers
Requisite: Happy customers
Uninterrupted: Referrals from happy customers who become brand ambassadors.
You can buy books about branding and download tons of guides and case studies to show you the way. You can hire ad agencies to run a branding campaign and put your brand in front of millions of people. But they’ll forget it soon as the campaign funds run dry. The key missing ingredient that makes you a known brand is the customer.
Just keep your customers happy. They won’t switch to your competitors, and they’ll talk about you to their family, friends and online through social media and blogs.
The growth hack here is to seek out reviews and testimonials from your most satisfied customers, and turn them into your brand ambassadors. If your customer is a business, you can post their testimonials and reviews on social media, and make them share it so that it reaches their fans and customers.
Combine the power of testimonials and influencer marketing to generate a steady flow of referrals from your existing customers.
5. Expansion.
Pre-Requisite: Planning for growth
Requisite: Sales revenue and funding for growth
Uninterrupted: Scalable office space for supporting growth.
Once the startup pains start easing and your business is going along smoothly, the next logical step to think about is expansion. You need a business plan that factors in growth and expansion phases, and you must have the sales revenue and additional funding needed for the expansion.
But you don’t need to worry about additional funding and growth plans if you have scalable infrastructure.
For instance, we have startups that have taken up office space for rent in Whitefield, in our business center. There’s also a coworking space on the top floor, where they can setup additional offices and freelancers as needed for projects.
So when you have a new project or two, you don’t need to take our bank loans for capital expenses related to expansion.
Get a project now, and expand into your new office within 5 minutes. Finished the project? Stop paying for your new office and reduce overheads back to the minimum required.
This is how our startups are lean but capable of taking on and delivering more work than competitors outside.
