How Five Entrepreneurs Grew Their Business

Scale scale scale – it might be the magic word, but how do you make it happen? Ever wondered how successful entrepreneurs manage to grow their small businesses into wildly profitable empires? We spoke to five inspiring entrepreneurs and asked, “How did you grow your business?”

“I bought out the competition”

Professional matchmaker Geneviéve Zawada took over one of her competitors, Elect Club. “It was the best decision I ever made,” says Geneviéve. “I merged the ideas from my other agency, Love Match Weekends, and opened up their services to Elect Club. So now the members are getting new ideas for the same price.

“The feedback has been amazing. Not only have we had the best two months in two years for people signing up, but our existing members are excited about our new services too.”

“I changed the business model – and moved online only”

When David Bird launched his price comparison business, Find a Mortgage Online, in 2011 he struggled to keep up with the enquiries. “It was very hard to grow a brick and mortar business – keep up with the employment, training and infrastructure – at the same pace as the website was growing in terms of traffic and online enquiries,” he explains.

“So we decided that, rather than create our own mortgage broker business, we would become an introducing business for other advisers. We dismantled the website and rebranded as Online Mortgage Advisor, to reflect us being a specialist advice style company, and we were then able to scale the business in line with increases in traffic. It allowed us to focus more on growing and less on managing the business.”

“Build your public profile”

Eight years ago Ed Tyson was working from his parents’ spare room. Now he’s Founder of the Institute of 3D Printing, and has successfully scaled multiple product based businesses on a variety of platforms and been featured in online 3D printing publications.

Ed built his business by growing his public profile, which helped him to connect with his target market. “Building and maintaining a larger than life public profile should be a priority for anyone looking to take their business up a level,” says Ed. “Don’t treat your customers like customers, instead treat them like people. You’ll be amazed at how an ordinary company can be transformed into an extraordinary story.”

“Think big from the start”

Founder of The Lakes Distillery, Paul Currie scaled his business by thinking globally from the very beginning. “It’s all about developing brands that are suitable for the international market,” says Paul.

“From the offset, don’t think small, think bigger than your home market. Know where you’re going to sell next in the future and plan years ahead. Think taste, branding, packaging, the name – and check that your name means the same in all languages!”

“I learnt to delegate properly”

For Jenny Knighting, founder of Nutcracker Agency, it was the art of delegating and outsourcing that took her marketing agency to the next level. “I scaled my business by looking for any piece of work that was repeated, at any point, and outsourcing it, or delegating it within the team,” says Jenny.

“This ranged from buying stationery to invoicing, entering receipts and repurposing content for social media. If it’s repeated, I allocate it to someone else. That way my team and I are able to get on with the creative stuff!”

If you need to know more about how to best reach your target audience, Nutcracker are here to help. Call us on 020 3941 0305