7 Strategies For Business Growth in 2024

2024 will prove to be interesting for businesses, regardless of their industry. Technology is changing faster than ever, with new AI and automation tools promising to help businesses cut costs and boost productivity.

But it’s not just technology. Consumer behavior and trends are changing almost as fast as the technology they use. Customers are more selective than ever, and they are choosing brands that can adapt and change with their evolving tastes.

This means that the strategies many businesses have used for the last few years may not be appropriate in 2024 if they want to continue growing.

Businesses leveraging the latest technological and consumer trends will likely thrive in the coming year. Those that are slow to adapt may find themselves struggling and at a significant disadvantage.

To help you stay current with what leading businesses are doing, we’ve compiled a list of the seven best strategies for business growth to consider in 2024 to stay ahead of the competition.

1. Technology Will Be Central To All Business Operations

Technological adoption is one theme that will permeate almost every business strategy moving forward. You can’t talk about strategies to grow a business in 2024 without technology touching it in some way or another.

Your business may struggle with this if you don’t break new technologies down into various categories. By doing this, you can more easily manage the rapid changes that are taking place.

You can also choose which areas are most critical for your business growth. If you try to look at technology as one giant field, it quickly becomes overwhelming.

You can choose where to deploy your resources and change your operations by breaking technology down into various benefits and categories.

Technology Is No Longer Just The Domain Of IT

For much of the 2000s, technology was mainly the domain of IT departments. A business’s IT department would implement new technology, manage data, and even manage metrics and analytics related to business and disseminate that information to the proper department.

But that is changing in 2024 and beyond. Your business needs to take technology out of the IT department and put it into the hands of your departments and managers.

IT departments will still play a significant role in any business. However, your business should focus on bringing technology into various departments so managers can leverage different tools to improve internally.

Bring Self-Service Technology To Individual Departments

So, how exactly can your business bring technology into each department?

Much of this adoption revolves around self-service analytics. Your business should already be using analytics, but with self-service tools, analytics can go beyond just a tool for executives to get an overview.

Self-service analytics allows managers and individual departments to work with their data using easy-to-use visualization tools. These tools empower individual managers to identify areas for improvement in their departments.

Your business will become more nimble since each department can improve without waiting for higher-level management to notice the issue and formulate a plan.

Automation Will Unlock Growth

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation will go hand-in-hand in 2024. Taking advantage of these technologies will allow for an effective business strategy based on scaling.

Automation within your business allows you to do more with less. This results in cost savings and productivity boosts.

You can now automate many operations in your business, including hiring, product sourcing, and customer relationships. In some cases, you can partially automate these processes, while in others, you can use full automation.

The key for your business is finding the right balance of automation and AI while maintaining a personal connection with your customers.

Good strategies include focusing primarily on automating internal systems, like approval processes or creating reports. 

For your customer-facing systems, you want to use partial automation to remove many repetitive and redundant processes. This includes follow-up messages, scheduling appointments, and similar redundant tasks.

By setting up your business with the right mix of automation, you can enjoy productivity boosts and cost savings while still maintaining a customer focus that feels personal.

Another thing to consider is that AI is one of the hottest buzzwords in business right now. So, every salesperson and provider you speak with will mention that their product has AI technology.

It will be important for business owners to choose the right solutions that offer true AI benefits and not just buzzwords and talking points.

Make sure you take the time to research your technology partners to ensure they can deliver on their AI promises before committing to the implementation. 

2. Leverage Data For Maximum Growth

The next strategy for business growth is to leverage as much data as possible. We have already touched on using analytics in different areas of your business. Overall, this process falls under the umbrella term of data-driven decision-making or DDDM.

With DDDM, businesses use a wide variety of data sources to inform their decisions for strategic planning. As a business, you can include your internal and external data sources for this process.

One challenging aspect of this for your business can be the fact that there is so much data available now that it can be challenging to parse.

Your business can leverage visual analytical tools to manage all that data and discover opportunities. Big data is moving out of the domain of IT and data professionals and moving into individual departments and business operations.

Business software dashboards enable this functionality, and we will explain them below.

Business Dashboards

Businesses can use dashboards as practical data visualization tools to efficiently compile and leverage data for making informed decisions. Once set up, non-data professionals can use the dashboards to find opportunities, spot inefficiencies, or meet business goals.

You can use dashboards to track short-term metrics, such as recent marketing campaigns based on your marketing research. You can also use them to track long-term initiatives at the executive level, such as cost-cutting.

Overall, dashboards are a cost-effective solution for developing growing business strategies based on complex data.

How to Implement a DDM Strategy

Creating a DDDM strategy may sound daunting, mainly if you operate a smaller business. But the truth is, it’s relatively easy using modern tools and integration.

The key is to ensure you follow a plan to get the most out of your strategy. Below, we’ll outline the steps to create a solid DDDM strategy for any business.

Step 1 Clearly Identify your Business Objectives

Before you implement a DDDM strategy, you will want to clearly define which areas of the business you want to improve. You can choose anything from customer relations, cost savings, or growth. But before implementing a strategy, you always want to clearly define your goals.

When you clearly define your goals, it’s much easier to track your strategy’s success or make adjustments if you fall off course.

Step 2 Source Your Data

Your business likely already has a few data sources you can pull from. You can use payment processing data, customer information, accounting information, and other sources. Using software like CRMs, you can readily cultivate much of this data.

You can also survey your managers and employees for other sources of possible data they may feel is helpful for their operations and decision-making.

As a business, you will want your data sources to align with your objectives created in the previous step. If you’re trying to find ways to cut costs, you’ll want to bring in your accounting information and other data related to outgoing cash flows.

Step 3 Source A Business Dashboard Solution

Once you have chosen most of your data sources, you can look for a software dashboard. Popular options include Klipfolio, Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, and Databox.

Each dashboard has pros and cons, so choose one that aligns with your objectives, data sources, and level of data proficiency.

Many of these tools have built-in integration for many popular data sources you’re likely already using. 

Once implemented, you and your department managers can start visualizing their data and begin making faster and more informed decisions.

3. Focus On Your Brand Intangibles

Our third strategy for business growth is to focus on what makes your brand unique. Unfortunately, inflation will continue to persist for consumers in 2024. Many businesses will try to compete on price alone, but that can often be a race to the bottom that cuts into profits and margins. It’s not really an excellent scaling strategy.

Instead, a smart strategy for 2024 is to focus on brand intangibles that increase your product’s value in the eyes of your customers.

There are almost limitless ways you can add value to your product or service in 2024. 

Your products’ sourcing is one example. Consumers are emphasizing the sourcing of the goods they purchase. If a company can communicate a positive message about its sources, customers will happily pay more for that product.

4. Optimize And Utilize Personalization 

The next strategy for business growth in 2024 requires personalization. Inflation makes it difficult to compete on price alone unless that’s your business model. Other businesses will need to focus on adding value in other ways.

One of the best ways your business can quickly add perceived value is through personalization as your customers interact with your business.

Surveys have shown that consumers want the companies they do business with to understand them on a more personal level. What this means in practice is making offers to customers that the customer feels are relevant to them.

Sending highly targeted marketing messages based on your customer’s preferences and past purchases is also part of a personalization strategy.

If you implement this type of personalization, you can immediately increase your product’s and brand’s value in your customers’ eyes.

Interestingly, 2024 offers businesses many ways to improve the customer experience using automation tools.

For example, an e-commerce business can use a CRM system combined with a loyalty program to collect and segment customer data.

You can use this data to send automated marketed messages to each customer based on their purchase history and previous contact with the brand.

Once a system like this is in place, it is nearly 100% automated, so there is little ongoing expense.

5. Look For Fast ROI For Infrastructure Spending

One trend that started in 2023 and will continue in 2024 is the desire of businesses to experience faster ROI on their infrastructure spending.

This includes implementing new software or SaaS products. It also includes many of the previously mentioned tools, such as business dashboards and CRMs.

Gone are the days when a business was willing to wait years for a significant software investment to start breaking even. Instead, the goal of many businesses should be to start seeing returns within six months.

This type of fast ROI may seem complicated, but it can happen when businesses use the right strategy before deciding on an investment.

1. Choosing The Right Technology

When it comes to what businesses will be investing in, technology is likely going to be the most significant sector. 

Suppose you’ve been in business for any length of time. In that case, chances are you’ve already experienced at least one instance where software or technology with grand claims failed to deliver the promised benefits for your business.

To ensure a fast return on investment and avoid that situation, strategically choose software that solves your problem.

To do this, always start choosing a software solution by defining your objectives. Try to be as laser-focused as possible.

For example, instead of using “saving costs” as an objective, dig into your data and find which costs are topping your budget. If customer acquisition is becoming a top cost, you’ll want to focus on tools and software that lower your cost to acquire and maximize your customer lifetime value.

2. Research The Total Cost Of Ownership

One of the biggest reasons a new technology or software purchase will have a slow ROI is that the business didn’t anticipate the total cost of ownership.

Often, new software or technology can have additional costs above just the purchase or installation price. These extra fees include training, maintenance, or infrastructure costs like servers.

To avoid this, you should carefully research the total cost of ownership for any software you are considering in 2024. Make sure to look into any recurring or increased fees as you scale the usage of the software.

If you understand the total cost of ownership, you can more accurately determine your ROI timetable and make sure it aligns with your overall goals and expectations.

3. Create Metrics To Measure Success

The final step in ensuring you reach your ROI goals with new software or technology is to use metrics to track success.

If you can’t measure a change, there’s no way to determine whether the change was positive or negative. Creating metrics to track as you implement and use the software will help you determine precisely what influence it’s having on your bottom line.

Using the earlier example, if your goal was to lower your overall cost to acquire new customers, that’s the metric you can start tracking. You will also want to track associated expenses, such as spending on marketing or other outreach campaigns.

As this metric tracks lower, you can compare the savings to the cost of the software to determine the ROI.

This may seem like a simple and obvious step, but many small to medium-sized businesses overlook this. It’s not uncommon for businesses to implement new software and just assume it saves them time or money.

By creating metrics and tracking them, you can determine your ROI on software and technology.

6. Expand Your Online Presence

Our sixth strategy for business growth is to increase your online presence. Every business already has a website, but that’s not nearly enough of an online presence. A static website is a wasted resource that could be used to attract and engage new customers.

Create Content

2024 will see the further expansion of businesses creating content for their customers. Content can be anything from articles, social media posts, videos, and more. The goal is to build your brand and authority within your industry.

One key to building a solid online presence is to avoid being too sales-focused. Successful businesses in 2024 will create valuable and meaningful content for their audience to consume. 

For example, a business in the digital marketing space would create content that helps businesses manage their marketing efforts and keeps them up to date with trends within the industry. 

The more content you make, the more you build your own ecosystem to attract and retain customers. The payoff is improved brand authority and the opportunity to control more customer acquisition.

Without creating your own channels to attract customers, you rely more on expensive advertising.

7. Reconfigure For Flexibility And Adaptability

Uncertain times and market conditions mean your business must react quickly. Therefore, our final strategy for business growth is to learn how to become flexible and adapt quickly.

Setting up your business to be more agile will allow you to sidestep minor disruptions while taking advantage of other situations to outpace your competitors.

The key to creating a flexible and adaptable business is embracing change instead of resisting it. This type of attitude needs to permeate your entire organization and become a core tenant of your strategic formula moving forward.

One way to achieve a more flexible business is by offering your employees data tools that are easy to use.

We’ve already touched upon DDDM and how it creates a more agile business. But those tools need to be easily accessible to your team members. 

This may require that you invest in training for some of your employees, but the investment will be worthwhile in creating a more agile business.

Below are some other strategies to create a more agile and flexible business.

Encourage Employees To Take Risks

A good idea can come from almost anywhere. The last thing you want to do is make your employees hesitant about voicing their ideas or solutions.

Ensure you create an environment where employees can develop and present ideas that may seem risky. While not every idea will be implemented or pursued, you help create a comfortable culture with change and innovation.

Audit To Remove Waste

You also want to regularly audit your processes to spot wasted time, resources, or actions that are no longer needed.

Outdated processes can slow down your business’s reaction time. Burdensome paperwork and bureaucratic red tape get in the way of your initiatives.

Flexible Work Arrangements

With the expectation of a continued tight labor market, you need ways to attract the talent that allows your business to take on new challenges. Allowing for flexible work arrangements can help you attract the best talent when facing new business challenges or tasks.

Best Businesses To Start in 2024

Most of the best business strategies we’ve given so far are suited for well established businesses looking to position themselves for growth in 2024.

But what if you’re looking to start a new business venture? Below, we’ve compiled some of the best business ideas for 2024 based on current and projected trends.

E-Commerce

E-commerce businesses and online stores will remain a strong choice in 2024. Of course, 2023 saw the post-pandemic slump for some online sellers. But overall, the e-commerce market is still one of the hottest around.

Competition is getting stronger, which is likely to remain so in 2024. But a good idea and product line can still stand out and gain traction faster than in almost any area of business.

What’s great about e-commerce in 2024 is that there are so many tools available to launch just about any e-commerce website almost immediately. These tools include setting up your payment processing, inventory management, and even shipment and fulfilling orders.

Starting an eCommerce business has never been easier; you just need a great idea and a strong business plan.

Content Marketing

We mentioned how businesses in 2024 will need to create content to build their online presence and increase sales. Some businesses will create this content in-house, but many will hire a content marketing company.

This opens up many opportunities for you to specialize in a specific marketing area. For example, long-form video content for YouTube or shorter pieces for popular platforms like TikTok or Instagram.

Beyond agency profits from creating content, you can also provide other services to round out your business. These include services for market research or market strategy tied to your content services.

IT Services

As technology becomes more complex, many businesses outsource some or all of their IT services.

Finding the right talent to manage IT within a business is becoming difficult, and with technology being so critical, businesses need a solution to ensure long-term success.

This has opened the door for IT services to be one of the hotter trends in 2023, which will continue into 2024 and beyond.

At what stage of growth a business profitable can be a factor when starting a new business. Most entrepreneurs want to be profitable as soon as possible, and an IT service business can help with that.

An IT services business doesn’t need to land a vast number of clients to have substantial revenue. Often, just a handful of clients is enough to get your business off the ground.

Landscaping and AI

You probably didn’t think you could use AI when starting a landscaping business, but today, you can.

Robotic lawn mowers that use AI vision systems are entering the market, both for home and commercial use. New commercial landscaping companies will launch in 2024 to install and maintain these robotic lawnmowers.

Some clever small business owners are even using them for residential landscaping. The benefit of these AI-powered robot lawnmowers is that you can quickly scale your business without hiring more employees.

Landscaping has always been an opportunity when choosing a business to start. With robotics now entering the market, it has opened up a whole new opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of the latest technological trends.

Mobile Businesses

Mobile businesses will likely continue to be hot in 2024. Food trucks, mobile car washing, and other services that come to the customer are something to consider.

Mobile businesses often have far lower startup costs than fixed businesses. You also have the benefit of being able to go where your target audience is instead of spending money trying to get them to come to you.

Payment Processing For 2024 & Beyond

Digital payments have changed drastically over the last few years, and that trend will continue in 2024. This means your business will need a trusted partner in the payment space to help you navigate these trends.

Contact ECS Payments today to ensure your business is leveraging the latest payment technology.

ECS Payments is a leader in digital payment solutions, and we can help your business lower costs and increase revenue by using the latest innovative digital payment solutions. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Strategies For Business Growth in 2024