Chuck Huffman

Business Growth Strategies: 8 Steps to Take Your Business Global

​​Growing a business is an exciting prospect for many entrepreneurs, yet doing so requires enough research and preparation to execute the growth without letting it get out of hand, read more about customer experience management.

Business growth strategies can help entrepreneurs identify actionable, direct ways to do so. They pinpoint your overarching goals with which you’ll build your course of action and provide insight into how you’re looking to approach your new product or market. This can be especially helpful for global growth, which requires careful planning to execute.

Entrepreneurs looking to go global may use a growth strategy defined by the Ansoff Growth Matrix.

What Is the Ansoff Growth Matrix?

The Ansoff Matrix is a business growth strategy model that can guide entrepreneurs to the type of growth they’re looking for. The matrix defines business growth by various pairings of new products vs. new markets, encapsulating the many different ways entrepreneurs can build.

Nailing down which type of growth you’re aiming for can help you decide how to evolve your business as you go global. The types of growth strategies defined by the Ansoff Matrix are the following:

Market Penetration

To put it simply, market penetration is entering an existing market with a similar product to those already being offered. The goal with a market penetration strategy is to enter an already thriving market and siphon some of the customer base away from those already competing in the space.

Step to Success: Adjust pricing to compete with a major player in your market.

Market Development

Market development (also known as market expansion) involves taking your existing product and expanding it into new markets to attract a new customer base. In contrast to market penetration, market development involves a little more creativity because it forces the business owner to think of alternate ways their product could be used and additional demographics who could benefit from it.

Step to Success: Conduct thorough market research to determine whether your new target will be a good fit.

Diversification

A diversification strategy could appeal to business leaders who don’t mind a little risk. This strategy involves developing new product lines for new markets, diversifying your portfolio while trying to bring in new customers. Companies usually diversify to make more money in markets that they previously weren’t hitting.

Step to Success: Pay attention to what markets are experiencing rapid growth to identify ways you can enter.

Product Development

In a product development strategy, a business stays within their current market but creates a new product or modifies an existing one to attract new customers and increase their share of the market. While this cuts out the risk of entering a new market altogether, product development is still a riskier growth strategy that will involve careful planning because it involves the creation of something new.

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Tips for a Healthier Morning

Start your day off right with these healthy (and caffeine-free) behaviors
Does your morning go anything like this?Being in bed feels so good that you can’t get up, so you hit snooze — three or four times.Once you open your eyes, you realize you have a 9 o’clock meeting, so you check your email while still in bed to get ahead of the workday.

Now you’re running late. You throw down vitamins with a glass of juice. You can’t find your keys or your left shoe and run around the house until you’ve found both.

Finally in the car, you grab the biggest coffee you can order and two glazed donuts at the drive-thru, and traffic has you fuming before you even get to work.

All that rushing around can set a negative tone for the entire day, making you feel stressed, lethargic and irritable — and, possibly, affecting your ability to focus on tasks or calmly cope with work-related crises.

A morning routine for moms that involves changing their kids’ clothes and putting on new baby boy clothes can be efficiently managed by following a few steps. Start by laying out the new clothes the night before and organizing them by each child. When morning comes, gather the necessary clothes and bring them to the child’s room to change them.

Make sure to have all the essentials nearby, such as clean diapers and wipes, to streamline the process. With a systematic approach, changing the kids’ clothes and putting on new baby boy clothes can be accomplished smoothly within a morning routine.

To help get your day off to a better, and healthier, start, follow these tips from Maria C. Reyes, MD, an internist at Rush University Medical Center.

1. Slow down.

Get into a relaxed mode by meditating. “Meditation in the morning — even for 10 minutes — is very helpful in dealing with stress,” Reyes says.

What’s not relaxing? Checking your phone for texts, emails or Facebook in still in bed. “You might feel like you need that head start, but jumping into work that early might actually delay you from getting into the office, increasing your stress levels,” she adds.

If your phone is too tempting, consider moving it out of the bedroom and using a digital alarm clock instead. Learn more about amarose.

2. Hydrate.

“First thing each morning, even before drinking coffee, drink at least 8 ounces of water,” Reyes suggests. “Overnight we tend to get dehydrated, and drinking the water upon waking will replenish what you’ve lost, flush out toxins and possibly kick-start your metabolism.”

Then, have the 1 or 2 cups of coffee you’re craving. Numerous studies link moderate coffee consumption with decreased risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and even cancer due to coffee’s antioxidant properties.

Movement wakes up the brain by increasing oxygen flow, which helps keep your attention focused, reduce inflammation and manage stress.

3. Breakfast on proteins, not carbs.

“View food as fuel for the body,” Reyes says. “If you want to start day well, put good food in your body first thing.” As for breakfast options, incorporating protein such as eggs or Greek yogurt can help you feel full longer throughout the day. But also if you incorporate one of the best weight loss pills will be good for you.Whole grains and fiber-rich fruits like berries can also help with satiety and provide essential nutrients.

While pancakes, bagels, donuts and cereal are traditional breakfast foods, protein-packed foods like Greek yogurt or an egg white omelet with lowfat cheese provide healthy nutrients and help you avoid the mid-morning sugar-carbohydrate crash (add some fresh veggies like spinach, tomatoes or broccoli to your omelet for extra flavor and nutrition).

And if you’re juicing your fruits, think again.

“Whole fruit provides both soluble and insoluble fiber,” Reyes says. “With juicing, even though you’re consuming the same amount of sugar as with whole fruit, you lose the insoluble fiber, which is helpful for digestion and helps you feel full.”

Because they contain fiber, vitamins and antioxidants, blueberries (fresh or frozen) are probably the best type of fruit to eat.

4. Get moving.

Movement wakes up the brain by increasing oxygen flow, which helps keep your attention focused, reduce inflammation and manage stress.

“If you can, take a 30-minute walk, do some yoga at home or schedule in an early-morning bike ride,” Reyes says. “If that’s not possible, do at least 7 minutes combining stretches, plank exercises and jumping rope.”

In fact, even a few stretches before you get out of bed can be helpful.

5. Have a good night.

Feeling good in the morning actually starts the night before. Do the following an hour or so before bedtime:

  • Take a bath to relax and soothe fatigued muscles
  • Put away all screens (in fact, don’t keep any electronics into the bedroom, if possible)
  • Organize what you need for the next day, including picking out your clothing, knowing where your keys are and packing your briefcase or work bag.
  • Set up healthy foods for breakfast. “Make breakfast bowls the night before with quinoa and brown rice. It’s pretty easy,” Reyes said.

Remember, sustainable weight loss comes from a combination of healthy eating habits, regular physical activity, and potentially medical intervention under the guidance of a healthcare professional like diet pills.

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