How to Approach Business Development as an SME: 6 Helpful Tips

For small to medium enterprises (SMEs), business development is a must to drive growth, attract new customers, and build brand recognition. This is because business development encourages a more strategic approach to identifying and pursuing opportunities, which small businesses sorely need to stay relevant and achieve growth in an increasingly competitive market. 

[image: pexels]

However, business development is also a multi-faceted process. Hence, various aspects also need to be addressed—from goal setting and financing to marketing and pricing—to truly achieve the desired growth. If you’re a small business owner looking to approach business development strategically and effectively, then here are some tips to get you started.

1. Define Clear Business Goals 

When it comes to business development, having clear goals can guide your efforts and ensure that all your activities and resources contribute to your objectives. When setting goals, be specific. For example, you may set a goal of increasing your monthly revenue by 20% in a year. This gives you a quantifiable number and a timeframe, which makes it easier to assess later on if you’ve reached your goal or not. 

Larger objectives can also be broken down into smaller, actionable steps. Going back to the example, you can create more detailed plans to achieve that 20% monthly increase goal such as expanding your business’s existing product offerings or coming up with new marketing campaigns. 

2. Manage Your Finances Wisely

Your business development plans rely heavily on how stable your finances are. If you don’t manage your finances wisely, your SME will be severely limited in the growth opportunities it can pursue. So, for starters, make sure you’ve got a small business banking account to store funds separate from your personal money. In addition to simplifying your tax filing, having a separate business account also makes it easier to monitor your business’s cash flow, which is helpful when making financial forecasts.

Having a business bank account also gives you access to benefits such as high interest earnings and business loan offers, giving your business further financial boost. Setting up a Maya Business account, for instance, lets you open a Maya Business Deposit account that can give your funds a 2.5% interest rate. Signing up also qualifies you for Maya Flexi Loan, which can provide your SME with up to PHP 2 million in funding. By handling your finances strategically, you’re able to put your business in a better position to grow and thrive.

3. Leverage Digital Marketing

Marketing is another important aspect of business development, although nowadays it’s not enough to just stick to traditional methods. Instead, you should take advantage of digital platforms such as email, social media, and online advertising to help your business reach a wider audience at a lower cost. Also, make sure your business has an online presence, either through a website, social media page, or online store. This makes it much more convenient for customers to get in touch with you or purchase your products and services.

In addition, you can boost your online reach by running social media campaigns or posting content such as blogs or videos about your business. Not only can this help your business reach new people, it can also make your existing customers feel more invested in your brand as they get to know your business better.

4. Evaluate Your Pricing Strategy

The price of your products and services directly affects your revenue as well as influences how customers perceive your brand. To come up with prices that are agreeable to customers, analyze your competitors’ pricing models to ensure that your own is aligned with market expectations. 

If you do intend to charge higher than competitors, then make sure to emphasize what value customers can get from your product or service that they can’t from others. For instance, perhaps your product is made with more premium materials compared to your competition. You can then leverage the quality of your product to justify your pricing while highlighting the benefits of choosing your offerings.

5. Build Relationships, Not Just Sales

Building strong relationships with customers is also an essential part of any effective business development strategy. Don’t just look at each customer as another sales opportunity. Rather, come up with ways to personalize your interactions with them to nurture loyalty and support. Invest in tools like customer relationship management (CRM) software which tracks your customer’s purchase history and preferences, allowing you to offer better services in the form of personalized recommendations or exclusive discounts.

6. Stay Agile and Ready to Adapt

Tracing its roots from software development, agile methodology is a project management approach that emphasizes flexibility and the ability to quickly adapt to change. You can apply this approach to your business by establishing a feedback loop from customers, thus always keeping you informed on the ever-evolving demands of your target market. Doing so allows you to better equip your business to adapt to quickly changing market conditions. 

For example, if you’re getting customer feedback about service time taking too long, then you can take this as a cue to make adjustments in your operations such as streamlining workflow or giving additional training to your staff.

Growing a small business can certainly be a challenge, but a strategic business development plan can effectively guide you toward that goal. By employing the strategies discussed in this article, you’ll be able to help your business achieve sustainable growth and remain relevant even in a dynamic market.