Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Scaling is something that pretty much all business owners want to achieve. The crux consists of figuring out how to achieve this all while operating within a range of constraints. Having to abide by some kind of budget is often the biggest perceived limitation, but it doesn’t need to be.
There are a number of things you’ll have to keep in mind if you want to scale your e-commerce operations effectively without exceeding your budget, a few of which we’ll take a look at below. From prioritising key goals to automating, here’s how you can scale your business on a budget.
No matter how much cash your business has, you won’t be able to try to achieve every single business goal simultaneously. If you’re operating within certain budget constraints, then this becomes even more of an important issue.
The key in these situations is to figure out what your most important scaling goals are, and to prioritise them. Whether that’s expanding your target audience to a certain demographic, or building a presence on a new platform, you should focus the resources you have available to you on specific goals to see tangible results.
If you want to scale your business, then you need to use the right marketing agency. Trying to do it alone will almost always end up being a waste of resources – for example, you simply won’t be as efficient at navigating the nuances of selling our products on Amazonas a specialised agency such as Fluid Marketplaces.
It can seem like a costly investment at first, but it will almost always pay dividends in the long-term. You don’t want to try to take a shortcut and save money, just to end up tying your business in knots further down the line.
While it can be enticing to try to grow your business all at once, in most contexts, this simply won’t be feasible. Even with an unlimited budget, piling resources into facilitating short-term growth will often fail to result in long-term, sustainable effects.
Instead, try to think about how what you do now can start to build something much bigger in the long term. Balance this with your short-term need to get new customers, of course, but keep that bigger picture, long-term perspective in mind wherever possible.
Automation may be a bit of a buzzword at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not one without substantial merit. If you have limited resources, then it’s imperative that you focus them where they’re most needed.
To do this, try to automate as many tasks as possible. Whether that’s report writing or compiling mailing lists, try to think outside the box a little and make the most of various automation tools that are hitting the market at the moment.
Operating within a budget can seem like a constraint, but it can also be a positive thing. It forces you to be more efficient and focused in your scaling attempts, and you’ll often end up with better results in the long run.
It can be tempting to try and front-load budgets to get as much data back from your campaigns as possible, but it’s simply not a realistic approach to take.
Ensure that you’re using the tips in this guide to take a strategic approach to budgeting from the outset, with the view of data-based scaling rather than front-loading without the data to justify your decisions.
Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.