How to Build Business Momentum With Limited Resources

How to build business momentum

The following strategies can help you build business momentum with limited financial resources, as long as you have plenty of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.

Find the essence of what you do best. 

Many businesses with a growth mindset focus on expanding the options they offer customers. While this can expand revenue sources and open the company to a larger market, it comes with a potentially crippling problem: choice overload.

Offering buyers too many options can lead to “analysis paralysis,” where buyers get overwhelmed and frustrated while comparing choices and then give up without making a purchase. This common pitfall highlights the importance of understanding the psychology of choice and why narrowing your focus can lead to stronger results. 

To avoid overwhelming your customers, pinpoint what your business does best. “Put money into what customers love most … since happy buyers spread the word for free,” advised Joanneke Schuurman, chief operating officer and marketing manager at Custom-Lanyards.net.

In other words, skip the flashy extras and validate new ideas on a small scale before you make bigger investments. The goal is to spend wisely on what actually moves the needle — not just what looks good on paper.

Listen to customer feedback.

To build momentum, your business needs to understand what most customers actually want. By listening to customer feedback, you can adapt your offerings to better meet buyers’ needs. For new businesses in particular, it’s important to look closely at your target audience and identify what the majority of customers — not just the loudest voices — are saying.

While customer loyalty is highly sought after, these long-term buyers’ opinions aren’t the only ones that matter. Be sure to listen to feedback from a broad customer group so you can identify blind spots and uncover unmet customer needs. This broader perspective will help you make more informed decisions that drive growth. 

Pay attention to the right metrics.

How you measure your company’s progress will shape its growth plan. Metrics like customer satisfaction and profitability are solid indicators of success, but what matters most is that you choose the metrics that reflect your strengths. If your business already excels in a particular area, focus on that. Use this momentum to your advantage to accelerate growth.

For example, Zoriy Birenboym, CEO of eAutoLease.com and eAutoCollision.com, found that zeroing in on customer service has been the key to building momentum. 

“I built momentum with customer service, following a strong foundation of reviews that speak for themselves,” Birenboym explained. “That gave my customers enough confidence and [peace] of mind to do business with my organization.”

Plan for the long term.

Momentum doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a clear, strategic business plan that balances all the moving parts. What your company does today should set the stage for future growth by giving you something solid to build on. In other words, lock in what works; then expand steadily when the time is right.

“You’ll need to be hyper-focused on your strategy to determine where you’re going to get your first customers,” advised BJ Wright, chief strategy officer for Empowered Cooks, FabulesslyFrugal.com, and Pine & Pepper. “Once you get some traction, you’ll learn to repeat that process to scale.”

Every long-term plan adds force to your business’s momentum. When you stay focused on your strategy and keep building on past progress, your company creates the kind of sustained growth that becomes self-reinforcing.

That’s why it’s critical to keep your long-term goals in sight. It’s easy to get distracted by short-term issues or daily demands, but losing track of your strategy can stall momentum and pull your business off course.

Prioritize transaction efficiency.

Transaction efficiency means creating a seamless, frictionless purchasing process for your customers — a critical factor when you’re trying to generate momentum. Efficient sales transactions keep purchases flowing regularly, boost customer satisfaction, and help generate a steady profit — all of which are essential to achieving profitable growth.

Working with one of the best credit card processors is an easy way to ensure transaction efficiency and to help your business grow. Without a dependable, accurate payment system, your business’s momentum — and sales — will come to a screeching halt.

Keep an eye on the competition.

While you’re busy building momentum, your competitors are paying attention. They can quickly copy or tweak your strategies to fit their style. When you monitor the competition, you know when others start adopting your tactics and when rivals are gaining ground by using your ideas.

“The big players are getting bigger, and small businesses have to come up with something unique,” Schuurman emphasized.

Instead of slashing prices — which won’t necessarily attract more customers and can hurt your bottom line — focus on standing out through top-notch service, smart marketing and a personal touch that bigger companies can’t easily replicate.

Mistakes to avoid when building business momentum

It feels great when your business is in a “flow state” and things are going well. However, it’s just as important to stay alert and avoid common mistakes that can stall or stop your momentum, like the following: 

Losing sight of profitability

You might be gaining new customers — but at what cost? If deep discounts are eating into your margins — or erasing them altogether — your growth may not be sustainable. Make sure your promotional pricing is temporary and doesn’t set long-term expectations for prices that are too low.

Also, be intentional with spending. Every dollar should have a purpose. By staying lean, cutting business costs when possible, and making smart investments, you will keep your business moving forward, without draining your resources.

“Track every penny, cutting waste like unused subscriptions, so cash stays free for growth moves that actually pay off,” Birenboym advised. 

Forgetting to plan for increased production

Production must expand along with sales. If you’re a manufacturer, that might mean adding shifts, expanding facility space, investing in new equipment, or hiring more workers. Wholesalers may need to increase orders from current suppliers or bring in new ones. 

Avoid getting caught in a situation where demand far outpaces supply — it’s one of the fastest ways to frustrate customers and lose them to the competition. Ensure you have a plan to scale production in line with both current and near-future needs.

However, you must also scale carefully. It’s easy to overload your team or overhire too quickly.

“Salary/staff is invariably the largest expense category,” said Paul Dashevsky, co-CEO of Maxable. “So try to keep it as lean as possible, and make sure every person on staff is wearing many hats.”

Instead of trying to ramp up everything at once, take a smart, conservative approach by following these tips: 

• Make the most of your current team and its talents. 
• Consider using outsourcing partners.
• Find tech tools that can help lighten the load.

Resting on your laurels

Achieving your goals is great, but it’s not time to rest. Each win should inspire new business goals and push you to keep evolving. Remember that your competitors are watching and may try to copy your success — and some may have the resources to do it faster.

To ensure ongoing forward movement, focus 80 percent of your effort on growth and sales and 20 percent on operations, Dashevsky recommended. That balance helps ensure you’re always building for the future while maintaining what’s already working.

It’s crucial to harness team innovation in this process. Make sure your management team includes forward-thinking leaders who keep up with tech and industry trends. Encourage input from across your team, especially marketing, to stay ahead of shifting demands and uncover new ways to serve your market.

Dwelling on your failures 

Even when things are going well, mistakes are inevitable. But spending too much time analyzing a failure — or trying to force something that isn’t working — can stall your momentum. Instead of doubling down on underperforming programs, products or marketing efforts, aim to fail fast, learn the lesson and move on.

Dashevsky noted that you may need to experiment with different strategies to find what works best for your business.

“You have to try various techniques. Most won’t work, so … hone in quickly on what works for you,” Dashevsky said. “If you see competitors in your market successfully using a specific marketing technique, copy it and see if it can work for you.” 

This process includes trial and error. If something doesn’t stick, don’t dwell on it. Instead, adjust, test again, and keep moving forward.

The importance of building business momentum

When it comes to building momentum, success tends to fuel more success. Momentum creates a positive cycle that helps your business grow faster and more efficiently. Here are a few examples.

Momentum boosts cash flow.

When your business is on a roll, you’re generating the revenue and profit needed to reinvest in your operations, fueling even more growth. To make the most of increased cash flow, consider buying more inventory, ramping up marketing, hiring new employees or opening another business location. These types of moves expand your capacity to sell and increase your long-term earning potential.

Schuurman emphasized the importance of maintaining healthy cash flow and clear financial expectations. “Because we sell a custom product, we always ask for 100 percent payment in advance,” Schuurman explained. “This way, we are sure of our costs, and we can grow slowly and stably.”

Momentum boosts word-of-mouth advertising.

Successful businesses naturally attract attention — from customers, the media and potential partners — which amplifies word-of-mouth marketing across multiple channels.

• Customers may offer testimonials, leave positive customer reviews and even become brand ambassadors. 
• The media can give you free exposure by profiling your company in publications, thus adding a heavy dose of credibility to your brand.  
• Potential co-marketers may see an opportunity for mutually beneficial business arrangements, which allow you to expand your reach.  

Momentum opens up more financing options.

Growing businesses often need outside capital, and when you’re building momentum, you’re in a much stronger position to attract that funding. A track record of increasing revenue, profitability and customer growth makes your business appear lower-risk, which can help you secure funding on more favorable terms.

That said, even when momentum is strong, business owners still need to manage spending carefully.

“Every dollar needs to be measured,” Wright cautioned. “If you put $10 into an advertisement, it needs to, at a minimum, return at least $10 [in] net revenue. Ideally, it returns more, and then you can start to scale it up.”

Jennifer Dublino and Chris Porteous contributed to this article.