7 Proven Business Growth Strategies for 2025

by Brandon Boushy
7 Proven Business Growth Strategies for 2025

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When you run a business, there’s a good chance your growth is going to stall at some point. Don’t panic. We’ll show you how to implement new business growth strategies to recover from low sales, make more money, and break into fresh markets.

We’ve gathered the top strategies from over 400 successful small business owners to help you understand which growth strategies work.

We’ll discuss why you need a solid growth strategy and explore seven business growth strategies you should consider. Along the way, we’ll explain how to implement each strategy and measure progress to get your business back on track.

Keep reading or click any of the links below to jump to the section that interests you.

Business Growth Case Study: Wise Coatings

Brandon Vaughn started Wise Coatings in 2021 with just $15,000. He developed a comprehensive growth strategy with branding, marketing, and hiring processes.

During the second month, Brandon took on a job that nearly closed the company, but he pushed through and made over $100K in the first four months. Since then, he’s created a business growth strategy that includes franchising.

The support systems are centralized in the corporate office, while the franchises focus on customer acquisition and supporting their customer base.

Check out our interview with Brandon below:

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Take Our Business Growth Course

Learn how to create a successful business growth strategy straight from Brandon Vaughn. He’ll share the blueprint he’s used in 12 niches to start, grow, and scale small businesses. We share:

  • How to identify profitable opportunities
  • How to stand out against the competition
  • How to build your brand
  • How to attract potential customers and create satisfied customers in any industry
  • How to hire and manage a team
  • Dozens of templates, scripts, and worksheets to help you succeed.

Learn the most effective growth strategies in UpFlip Academy

Why You Need a Business Growth Strategy

Every small business should have strategies for business growth. As famed business coach Tony Robbins says, “If you are not growing, you are dying.”

Company growth strategies will help you create strategic growth opportunities.

The best growth strategies are the ones that expand your revenue with little to no increase in your marketing or sales budget besides a potentially one-time expense.

7 Most Effective Growth Strategies

Business consultant gesturing to an organic growth bar chart during a growth strategy presentation

Business expansion requires a variety of strategies to both find new potential customers and build better relationships with existing customers. Top strategies that business owners suggest (and that we get behind enthusiastically) include:

  • Automate your business processes.
  • Personalize marketing strategies.
  • Reward customer loyalty.
  • Cut spending on underperforming strategies.
  • Prepare customers for upcoming price increases.
  • Offer holiday discounts.
  • Celebrate your wins.

Idea #1. Automate Your Business Processes

All growth strategies should consider how you will implement automation within your business. Successful companies across every industry recommend using automation for repetitive tasks like emails, review requests, lead generation, and more.

With tools like ChatGPT and other AI software, automation will become an even bigger part of strategic growth initiatives.

Neel Parekh started MaidThis and explained how he used the automation growth strategy to help with market expansion that earns the remote cleaning business $1.5 million a year.

MaidThis uses an automated five-step recruiting process:

  1. Scheduling an initial screening call that asks questions like, “Do you have business insurance and licenses?”
  2. Holding a second Zoom call to see if they show up and how they interact
  3. Conducting a test job
  4. Officially onboarding
  5. Monitoring what they do
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Idea #2. Personalize Marketing Strategies

Small things like including a person’s name in an email, sending them a free gift during their birthday month, and other personalized marketing efforts can be automated and provide excellent growth marketing strategies.

Digital marketing offers so many tools for marketing growth strategies that there’s no reason not to include personalization in a marketing strategy. Check out our business growth course with Brandon Vaughn to learn how personalized you can make your digital assets.

Craig Watson, the owner of Baked Cravings, explained the key to his growth strategy:

The key to growing [the business] is knowing exactly who you are marketing to.

Learn more about Baked Cravings in this in-depth interview:

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Idea #3. Reward Customer Loyalty

Another marketing growth strategy small businesses should consider is creating a loyalty program. One of the best ways to grow your business is to increase sales from your existing customer base.

KPMG found that seven factors impact customer loyalty the most. Your loyalty program can help with everything but product quality and consistency.

Consider using a loyalty program as an effective growth strategy for your products or services by offering

  • Incentives
  • Quick customer service
  • Easy returns
  • Suggestive selling to your target audience

Check out Referral Rock for reviews of loyalty software to grow your business.

Mike Andes, founder of mega-successful Augusta Lawn Care, talks a lot about how to build your brand to build a loyal customer base. He used Starbucks as a growth strategy example:

Your brand has to constantly evolve, or it dies. If you look at Starbucks, they change all kinds of things: subscriptions, loyalty programs, social initiatives, and other things. All that’s branding.

Hear more from Mike below:

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Idea #4. Cut Spending on Underperforming Strategies

Another way to grow your business is to stop wasting money on products or services that aren’t helping you in the existing market. This frees up money for you to spend on your growth strategies, existing products, or services that your target market wants.

You can apply this strategy by looking at keywords with high cost-per-click and low conversion rates and removing them from paid ad campaigns. You might also want to remove products that have been on the shelf for a long time from your inventory.

Afshan Abbas explained:

When you’re starting a shoe company, figure out what your niche in that shoe business would be because it’s a very crowded market. And if you are going to do something that other people are doing, it will be a really hard sell.
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Idea #5. Prepare Customers for Upcoming Price Increases

Another growth strategy that can work remarkably well is notifying customers about upcoming price increases to existing products or services.

Given many small businesses raise their prices near the beginning of the year, you can encourage people to book and pay for your services (or purchase products) before the price change so they get the current pricing.

Your customers save money, and it helps you meet your goals in your business growth plan. Best of all, this business growth strategy costs you barely anything.

Big Frog franchise owner Sanford Booth uses a similar growth strategy when he hits slow times:

When I hit slow times, I reach out to previous customers and see if they need anything. The follow-up will often help me make it through tougher times.

Check out our interview with him below:

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Idea #6. Offer Holiday Discounts

As you enter the fall and winter months, you can use discounts as a growth strategy. Help your business grow by increasing sales during commonly slower months. This is especially effective if you own a service business that can offer to help with the challenges people face when they have family come into town.

You might also tap into untapped markets. For instance, Jackson Blackburn runs a window-washing business that makes around $100K monthly. He offers Christmas light installation during the winter months to level out some of the seasonal fluctuations.

Check out our interview with him below:

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Idea #7. Celebrate Your Wins

Business owners want sustainable growth consistently, but sometimes, they forget that a crucial part of the business growth is the employees who work with them.

Whether you are a solopreneur or leading a small business that has sustained growth for decades, take the time to celebrate when you meet growth strategy goals, complete a project, or someone has a memorable life event.

A great company culture will refresh you and prepare you to concur new markets or goals. Mike Andes experienced this as he pursued his market expansion strategy and sold more than lawn care franchises. He told us:

When a business grows too fast, it becomes a mess; you’re always playing catch up, you are bringing on more people, and it can cause chaos. This is typically the time when owners give up on small businesses.

Take the time to celebrate wins before taking on the next leg of your market expansion goals.

Editor’s Pick

We have some fantastic editors at UpFlip who sometimes share their stories about small businesses and strategies that inspire them. Forest & Meadow, an herbal shop, shared the post below to celebrate their team—and it got our editor thinking about which Forest & Meadow teas and tinctures she might want to buy now that it’s getting cold outside.

How to Implement a Business Growth Strategy

Business owner Mike Andes holding cash and gesturing to a residential property in the background

To create a successful growth strategy, you’ll need to:

  1. Download a growth strategy template.
  2. Identify how you want your company to grow.
  3. Perform market research.
  4. Define your growth goals.
  5. Plan for growth.
  6. Get the tools you need.
  7. Execute the growth strategy.

Step #1. Download a Growth Strategy Template

One of the best ways to start working on a growth strategy is to download a template to help you get started. Download our growth strategy plan template.

Step #2. Identify How You Want Your Company to Grow

Consultant in a board room presenting a market expansion plan

In this section, you’ll explain the growth strategy you are trying to achieve. Some standard growth strategies include:

  • Market expansion
  • Strategic partnerships
  • Product expansion
  • Acquisition strategy
  • Diversification strategy

Market Development

A market expansion strategy focuses on entering a new geographic market once you can no longer increase your market presence in your current market. You might also hear this called market development or a market penetration strategy.

This strategy must consider new regulations, cultural differences in the new market, and how currency conversion might impact your company.

Achieving a market penetration strategy will also require comparing the demand and benefits of entering potential markets to decide which new market is right for your company.

Strategic Partnerships

Owner of Mt. Baker Window Cleaning next to a diagram showing strategic partnerships

Companies form strategic partnerships in numerous ways to increase business growth. They might form a partnership to enter new markets using each other’s distribution channels, or they might share valuable insights, internal resources, and technology for new product development.

Product Expansion

When a company’s existing products are not creating revenue growth, it might choose to start product development to expand its product line. Using product expansion helps you increase revenue by providing new products to both new and existing customers.

This product-led growth may be costly, depending on the industry. Increasing a product line can cost thousands to millions of dollars through the product development process.

While product expansion can increase returns, you should conduct market research to verify that the current market needs the new product. Otherwise, a significant investment in research and development (R&D) may fail to create the product-led growth you’re after.

Acquisition Strategy

Screenshot of a DealRoom acquisition strategy article

Acquiring assets can be a successful form of business growth. You see growth strategy examples using the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) business model in most major corporations.

The higher cost of capital has slowed some growth in business mergers, but industries like healthcare, materials, and energy are still seeing significant market consolidation.

When you buy a company, you get its existing market share, its customers, and industry research, and you may be able to save money by consolidating systems and positions.

This strategy can be a great way of increasing your market share in the same market or entering a new market. You’ll be able to pursue new customer segments, reduce customer acquisition costs, and increase your company’s market share.

That doesn’t mean this strategy is without its problems. While there are plenty of growth examples, everything from paying too much for a company to a lack of synergy and poorly integrating the two companies are risks of an acquisition growth business.

Diversification Strategy

Another market growth example is diversifying to increase your total addressable market. There are four primary ways to diversify:

  • Vertical integration: In this scenario, you would buy the market inputs used for your product. For instance, a gas station might buy oil fields, pipelines, refineries, and tankers to deliver the gas.
  • Horizontal integration: A cleaning company might add power washing, window washing, or other cleaning services that service the same market.
  • Concentric diversification: You see market development using this strategy when cell phones and other technology companies upgrade existing products to use new technology.
  • Conglomerate diversification: This involves buying companies in completely unrelated industries. Berkshire Hathaway is the most well-known conglomerate. Finding ways to market to the new audience using this strategy may be challenging.

Step #3. Perform Market Research

Screenshot of UpFlip’s market research article next to a business owner holding a globe

You’ll want to research how other businesses in your industry are approaching growth, what customers want, and what software and tools are available to pursue your growth strategy.

Pro Tip: Learn more about performing market research.

Step #4. Define Your Growth Goals

Whichever growth strategy you use, you’ll need to define your goals, the metrics you’ll use, and the level of improvement you’ll need to see to call the strategy a success. We discuss more about key performance indicators in our one-page business plan.

Step #5. Plan for Growth

At this point in the process, you need to detail the exact approach you’ll use to accomplish your growth strategy. You’ll want to define the tasks, time, resources, and parties involved to achieve the market development strategy you’re going to try.

The more detailed you can be in this step, the better. You’ll have a resource for keeping yourself on track and helping others picture how the process will work.

Step #6. Get the Tools You Need

Someone attending a meeting on Google Meet with six other people

Once you’ve created the plan, it’s time to gather everything and everyone you need to accomplish the task. You might need Zoom or Google Meets communication tools if you are working with remote teams. If you aren’t using one yet, you may want to invest in a CMS for small business too.

Pro Tip: Make sure to get multiple bids if you are using external service providers.

Step #7. Execute the Growth Strategy

The final step is executing the growth strategy and measuring its market penetration. Whether you’re lowering prices or using increased paid advertising, you’ll want to make sure that your business growth strategy is meeting your goals and adjust as you go.

Next, we’ll discuss ways to measure your business growth strategy to understand if it is successful.

How to Measure Business Growth

A person using a ruler to measure upward growth on a bar graph

You’ll need to measure the success of your business growth strategies, and there are numerous ways to measure the growth. Some common ways to measure the success of business growth include:

  • Revenue: The easiest and most immediate way to measure the success of any business growth strategy is your revenue growth. You’ll be able to see year-over-year trends quickly if you are keeping records of daily numbers.
  • Profit: Profit is another excellent way to identify whether business growth strategies are working. If your gross and net profit is higher, you’re making more money, but it’s even better when your profit margins increase with your revenue.
  • Market share: When your business growth strategy includes goals to increase your market penetration, you may not measure pure revenue but the change in your existing market share. This is good when you want to verify that you are growing faster than overall market expansion.
  • New customers: Along with measuring your market share, you may also want to measure the number of new customers you’ve attracted since implementing your new strategy.
  • Customer lifetime value: Achieving growth from existing customers means you increase sales to the customers you already have. One of the easiest ways to measure increased revenue per customer is by looking at the change in average lifetime customer value.
  • Customer retention: Measure customer satisfaction to establish whether you are meeting the expectations of your customer base. You can also use churn rate to measure the amount of your customer base you are losing.
  • Team size: A business owner can also measure their growth goals by looking at their team’s size. You might also use revenue per employee to measure whether your growth in revenue is increasing faster than you’re hiring.

What Are Your Favorite Business Growth Strategies?

One of the reasons we love what we do is that we get to learn from hundreds of brilliant and successful people. We have a feeling that’s why you keep coming back, too.

We love hearing about other people succeeding. Share your stories in the comments below. What business growth strategies have you tried, and how did they turn out?


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Author

Brandon Boushy

Our lead writer, Brandon Boushy, has been a business consultant, business owner, and marketer since 2017. Brandon is committed to the pursuit of knowledge and continuous improvement. He measures his success based on how many business owners he helps succeed. Brandon started Raising Daisy Photography in 2017 with Stephanie MacIver. His role was focused on marketing, estimating, and managing customer interactions. He is also a freelance business researcher and has provided over 3,800 hours of business research for more than 50 clients. His blogs are read by over 2 million people every year. Brandon told us: "My motto is never quit learning. I bring this motto to everything I do, and find writing the best way to help share the data I obtain to assist business professionals pursue their dreams." He empowers companies to improve their communication and brand awareness through creative content strategies and blog writing.

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