There Are Really Only 3 Ways to Scale Your Startup

There are only three ways to grow a business:

• Get more customers.
• Get them to buy more often.
• Get them to spend more.

Fancy growth frameworks only offer variations. The list is complete, so tape these to your wall and revisit them weekly.

Get more customers

Don’t rely on one traffic source, one demographic, one market, or one geography. Brainstorm ways to get in front of people who’ve never heard of you.

Identify new markets. You’re selling to 35-year-old women. Have you considered that 45-year-old men might have a parallel problem? What about niched professions, small businesses, kids, or pets? Think broadly about the problem you solve and who else has a version of it.

Find new traffic sources. Search, social, cold email, affiliates, partnerships, direct mail, PR, referrals. A friend of mine discovered Bing leads spent more than Google leads and that Pinterest was a great source for B2B leads. Don’t ignore channels until you’ve genuinely tried to master them.

Locate new geographies. If something works in one market, it can usually be tweaked to work elsewhere. Language and distance used to be barriers but with the internet and AIthey aren’t anymore.

Employ new sales methods. Use different strokes for different folks. Websites, landing pages, lead magnets, webinars, long-form, short-form, videos, infographics, text ads, email, snail mail… what attracts some, repels others. Giveaways might skyrocket conversions, or it might clog your list with freebie seekers who never buy. Start testing everything, so you can find what works best for your business.