As an entrepreneur, there will often be times in your business where you are chasing down new ideas, new revenue channels, new opportunities. It is very easy to get excited about something new or cool and get distracted from your main goals.
It is important as a decision maker to periodically review your goals while keeping in mind what actually drives growth in the economy of your business.
Focus On Economic Drivers
Think about your business or company for a moment and ask yourself this question, “What drives economic growth in my business?”
If you have a SAAS app, the answer would be more users. If you have a consulting business, the answer is more clients. If you have a blog, the answer may be more readers. If you are like me and work in ecommerce, the answer is new products.
We realized at the Portable Bar Company that the biggest driver of growth in the company was launching new products. More so than any customer appreciation program or social media strategy. Even more so than revenue channels such as PPC or SEO.
For our business, we generate tens of thousands of dollars in revenue every time we create and launch a new product.
Double Down on Product
At one point in 2014, we were stuck in our business. Things were going well enough but strategically we felt like we hit a brick wall.
We were stagnating and, as a result, considering a whole bunch of suboptimal ideas such as starting a business in a new niche, selling one of our ecommerce businesses, or building out our product line of portable bars.
When we analyzed the pros and cons of each decision we realized that developing new mobile bars had the biggest opportunity of driving significant growth over the next five years of the business.
We decided to double down on our current product line and went to the drawing boards to create a new, innovative portable bar that our customers and audience would love.
The result was the Flash Bar– a completely new type of portable bar that was made of modular segments that customers could easily transport and set up for their establishments and events.
Innovate and Launch
The launch was a hit and the Flash Bar has become a huge driver of economic growth for the Portable Bar Company. This one product has nearly doubled the sales of the company. We are now continuing to build out the product offerings with portable ice bins, sinks, and custom panels and countertops.
Focusing on the economic drivers allows you to leverage your existing assets. When we launched the Flash Bar we had an existing audience and customer base to show it to. We also had revenue channels like PPC, high rankings in Google Serps, and strategic partnerships already worked out that we were able to plug this new product into.
We went from a state of stagnation to a state of excitement and growth by not allowing ourselves to get distracted with new shiny objects, but by focusing in on our core value proposition as a company.
Author Bio:
This guest post was written by Derek Szeto, online marketing manager for the Portable Bar Company– a premium manufacturer of portable bars and other event/hospitality equipment. Derek is a rambling lover of all things ecommerce and currently resides in Mexico.