To grow your business effectively, you need a clear business plan that sets goals and guides your next steps. Starting a business is exciting but taking it to the next level requires more than just a great idea. With the right growth plan, you can increase your market presence, boost sales and scale operations with ease.
Your plan should focus on key areas like creating strong marketing strategies, building a website that works as your online hub and staying flexible based on customer feedback. Whether you're just starting out or ready to expand, having a structured approach to growth is key to long-term success.
What is business growth?
Business growth happens when a company gets bigger and more successful over time, leading to scalability and sometimes reinvention. This can mean increasing sales, gaining more customers, expanding to new locations or offering new products or services. Simply put, it’s about moving forward and improving in size, revenue or influence.
Growth can be fast or slow depending on how well a company adapts to changes, plans strategies and makes smart decisions. For instance, a business might start with one store and later open more locations or build a stronger eCommerce presence. The goal is to create a more profitable business that meets the needs of more customers and stands out in the market.
As your business grows you need to identify which metrics best reflect your progress. Here are some ways to measure growth:
Hiring employees
Opening new branch locations
Gaining more clients
Increasing product sales
Steady revenue growth
Accumulating social followers
Seeing positive cash flow
Bringing in new investors
Some milestones might take longer to achieve, especially if your company is in the early stages. Setting the right pace for your business goals starts with being honest about where you’re starting from. Are clients asking for products that are always out of stock? It might be time to invest in faster delivery.
Read also: how to spring clean your small business
How to write a business growth plan
A business growth plan is your blueprint for scaling and expanding your company. It’s your map for success, guiding you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re boosting sales, improving customer retention or entering new markets, a solid growth plan keeps you focused and helps you make smart decisions. Here’s how to create one that sets you up for long-term success.
01. Define your vision and mission
Before scaling, know where you're going. Create a clear, compelling vision for your business. What does success look like in 1, 3 or 5 years? Be specific—whether it’s hitting a revenue goal, becoming a market leader or expanding globally, your vision should guide every decision. Pair this with a mission statement that captures your company’s purpose. Why does your business matter to your customers? What impact do you want to make? Your mission is the reason your business exists.
02. Set SMART goals
Once you have a clear vision, break it down into actionable steps. Try using SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. For example, instead of saying “I want to grow my customer base,” go with “Increase my customer base by 20% in six months through targeted online ads.” SMART goals keep things clear, align your efforts and make tracking progress simple.
03. Understand your target market
Understanding your customers is essential for growth. Knowing your target market lets you tailor products, marketing and messaging to meet their needs. Take a close look at your current customer base to figure out who fits your business best. Are they millennial professionals? Health-conscious shoppers? Once you identify your audience, explore new market opportunities that align with your core offerings.
04. Build a marketing strategy
Marketing drives growth. A solid strategy boosts your efforts and connects with the right people. Blend digital and traditional tactics. For digital, focus on SEO for organic traffic, pay-per-click ads for quick visibility and social media to engage your audience. Content marketing like blogs, videos and email campaigns builds trust and awareness. Offline, partner with other businesses, sponsor events or host your own to create real-world connections.
05. Budget and allocate resources wisely
Scaling takes resources, so it’s important to budget strategically. This might mean investing in new tech, hiring staff or kicking off marketing campaigns. Look for ways to streamline processes like using automation or tools that boost efficiency. By managing resources wisely, you’ll be ready to handle the demands of growth.
06. Monitor and optimize
A growth plan isn’t a one-and-done task—it’s an ongoing process. Track progress regularly to see what’s working and where changes are needed. Use metrics like revenue growth, customer acquisition and website traffic to measure success. If something isn’t delivering results, adjust your strategy. Optimization is key, whether it’s refining campaigns, improving your product or boosting customer engagement.
Tips for writing a strong growth plan
Know your why: Understand what’s driving your growth—more sales, a bigger customer base or expanding product offerings
Break it down: Set smaller short-term goals that build toward your big-picture vision
Focus on ROI: Prioritize efforts that bring clear results
Research competitors: See what they’re doing to grow and find ways to stand out
Stay flexible: Markets change, so adjust your plan when needed
Track everything: Measure results to see what works and improve where you can
Why is business growth important?
It’s easy to become complacent when business feels good and safe. However, you might not be able to afford taking a “business as usual” attitude as your industry grows.
Some of the fastest growing industries in the United States are in food and beverage, real estate and health care. If your market is poised for growth, you need to capitalize on relevant small business trends and shifts to stay competitive.
You can also achieve growth through practices like investing in customer acquisition, rewarding your staff with raises, and adding more value to current client relations. Essentially, business growth lets you accomplish more for your team, customers and yourself.
Pro tip: Wix Enterprise is a platform that provides businesses with an all-in-one solution for all types of growth. Create high performing websites for your business using business software and run them from the Wix mobile app, all of which is backed by enterprise-grade security as well as expert support to help you manage and scale online.
Decided to take the next step in your growth plan? Here’s an overview of the most common types of business growth strategies to implement:
Types of business growth
01. Market development
Market development is a common business growth plan designed to identify new market segments for current products. Small businesses owners can attract unaddressed markets within targeted segments.
For example, new markets can be defined through geographic segmentation, or splitting up a market based on location. People from a certain place will share similar needs, wants or cultural considerations. In turn, businesses and brands can target an area with more relevant messaging. Another way to segment a market is using demographics, with subgroups formed by age, gender, occupation and even marital status.
02. Market penetration
Unlike market development, this business growth plan is not about breaking into a new market but instead digging deeper into an existing market, and avoiding opportunity costs.
Let’s say you run an online store for pet food. While customers may already go crazy for your inventory, the following strategies will not only improve customer loyalty, but they could also increase website traffic:
Free one-day shipping
Subscriptions and auto-renew deliveries
That said, offering higher-quality products or services at higher prices could also help you penetrate a more valuable client segment.
03. Product development
As a business owner looking inwards for business growth, product or service expansion may elevate your company to new heights. You can approach this growth strategy in a number of ways, including:
Creating new products as demand grows for them
Tweaking existing products with the help of user feedback
Discontinuing underperforming products
At this point of your business growth plan, you may need to take cues from your customers and adjust accordingly. If you can provide them with everything they want, and it makes sense for your business, they won’t look for another provider to fulfill the rest. Effective product development can help you reach hypergrowth and scale your business even quicker.
Pro tip: If you’re developing a new product that’s in high demand, you can advertise it for pre-sale and start raising money for it before the product’s ready.
04. Mergers and acquisitions
You can look at this growth strategy in two ways: First, a larger company acquires yours. You make a huge profit and can walk away to start a business again. Or you acquire a company with a competing or compatible product that helps you enter a new market or eliminate your competition. While freelancers or service providers don’t usually acquire companies, it might make sense for a vendor or a software company.
On the other hand, you can also merge with another company and expand your market share. It could be a risky move to combine two companies into a new entity, but not if you research the company and the market opportunity it presents.
05. Partnerships
For small business owners, freelancers and service providers without a ton of capital, forming a mutually beneficial relationship with another company can be a viable growth opportunity. As well as a crucial part of your business development plans.
Furthermore, it won’t just boost your profits. The partnership will also improve your offering’s value, so your customers or clients walk away winners, too. As for who you partner with, it’s up to you. Just make sure it makes good business sense.
For example, a freelance web designer could partner with a copywriter to offer clients beautiful websites with professional messaging. When you partner with another business, it’s also a great way to earn more clients at lower customer acquisition costs, such as through referrals.
06. Diversification
Diversification is about expanding into a completely new market. Companies consider this growth strategy (as well as other business strategy examples) as a way to reinvigorate business by developing new products or adding services to existing ones. It's also a good way to hedge against potential economic disruptions, such as the ways inflation can affect small businesses.
Joy Cho, founder and creative director of the successful lifestyle brand Oh Joy! spoke with Now What? about her company’s own business growth through diversification. Her business growth is a result of “two-thirds” selling licensed products at Target (home decor, baby and nursery, and furniture collections), plus another portion from her writing (adult books, kids books and her blog).
07. Alternative channels
More businesses explore alternative channels such as progressive web apps (PWAs), mobile apps, Facebook Business pages, Google My Business pages and Instagram Shop to grow their business. Alternative channels have proven useful in reaching new customers, staying in touch with existing ones and engaging with your target audience.
Many online businesses have also begun to offer a mobile app when they create a website to sell products. With Wix, you can operate and grow your business with the Wix app, a multi-functional app for marketing, managing bookings and live chatting with customers throughout the buyer journey.
