7 Tips To Grow Your Business In 2022!
As we near the end of the year and gear up for 2022, we’ve done what most companies do around this time… we celebrate our growth but most importantly prepare for what’s next.
This year Creative X Entertainment is celebrating 300% growth in revenue, a metric that we normally would leave within our internal company meetings.
However, as a young start-up, especially one that exists in the digital marketing and media space, we’ve discovered seven unique strategies that have helped in our growth this past year.
So if you’re a business owner looking to grow (or start) your company, these are the seven components we did to grow our business in 2021!
1. NETWORK. NETWORK. NETWORK: Power of Our Sphere
As cliché, and sometimes uncomfortable, as networking can be, it’s arguably the greatest component to any company’s success. At the early stages of our company, we reached out to everyone and anyone we thought could be a great potential client.
That’s what networking is, right? We’d beg to differ.
Although this was definitely a great first step, it was our extensive network of creatives, our friends, who proved to be our biggest selling point and form of advertisement.
The people with who we had developed both professional and personal relationships were our greatest allies, as we were theirs. They were individuals who had worked alongside us at one point and would call us from that new company they began working at to hire us.
Without realizing it, the relationships we took the time to nourish ended up being our greatest investment.
2. SET BITE SIZE GOALS: SMART Goals
Although writing down your goals isn’t a foreign concept, properly breaking them down is where most people set themselves up for failure.
When prepping for our upcoming production it would be pretty crazy to say, “Make Epic Commercial,” as our only to-do. As a company, we wrote down our objectives and specified every tiny step it would take to get there.
You have to start somewhere right?
3. INVEST IN YOURSELF: Sales Engagement Software/CRM
It’s been said that playing it safe is often the greatest risk you can take. Of course, you have to do this within reason, but it’s something we really took into account at the start of 2021.
We invested in anything we believed could grow our business ranging from top-of-the-line software, gear, subscriptions, and even branded content (shameless plug: feel free to check out our services).
If you’re hesitant about making that investment (big or small ), ask yourself this: If you’re not willing to make that bet on your business, why should your clients or consumers invest in it?
"As soon as you can afford to, hire your weaknesses." - Sara Blakely
4. HIRE YOUR WEAKNESS: Build around expertise.
CEO and Founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely, has famously shared that when first starting her company, she “hired her weaknesses.”
As individuals, we are quick to brush our weaknesses under the rug. We lean into our strengths in order to give off the illusion that we can do it all…that we are perfect.
But as creatives, especially ones that have gone through the grilling experience that is film school, we’ve learned that the closest we can ever come to perfection is through collaboration — particularly with individuals whose strengths lie in our weaknesses.
5. WEBSITE: Web 2.0 Redesign
Although every company has a website nowadays, you’d be surprised to see how many take a back seat when it comes to keeping their site up to date. As a company that offers website design and creation as one of our services, this is something we took seriously (especially in 2021).
Although we understand this is definitely an investment, particularly if you’re a small business, we first-hand saw how essential our website played in our growth.
Truth is, the way you present yourself matters. Your website is a chance for others to get to know you and your company at a glance. Most importantly, It’s an opportunity for you to share your story and the personality of the company… not just your services.
What we recognized as a company that’s quickly growing, our website needed to grow with us — allowing our potential clients and collaborators to have the best chance at knowing who we are today.
"Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come." - Dwayne Johnson
6. CONSISTENCY: Integrated Marketing Communications
Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson once said, “Success isn’t about greatness. It’s about consistency.” Man, isn’t he awesome? Well, we couldn’t agree more. As we reflect on our growth in 2021, it’s easy to believe that it was due to the big stuff, the grand wins.
The reality is that our success really came from the little things, the small efforts, and our consistency towards them.
From sticking to an Instagram posting schedule, even when we had one follower (Hi Mom!), to committing to a reach-out strategy that worked for us, we never gave up. As hard as it may be, being consistent, even when it may feel like it’s never going to work out, has been the main ingredient in seeing growth.
For every 100 tries, maybe we would get one success. So imagine if we had quit on attempt 90? What if we had gotten tired or discouraged on attempt 99? Chances are we wouldn’t be doing what we love with the people we adore.
7. DO IT YOUR WAY: Differentiation sells
Have you ever heard the phrase “Jack of all trades is master of none?” When we first started out, we heard that being niche and specializing in one area was the only way to become successful.
What we later learned was that the complete phrase was “Jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”
If you’ve seen our website, you’ve probably noticed that we offer an array of services. Most of our clients love it because it means they pretty much have a one-stop-shop for all of their needs.
There were a few, particularly when we first began, that claimed we had to stay in one lane in order for our company to succeed.
That wasn’t us. Our filmmaking background made us experts in making high-quality products on shoestring budgets, forcing us to become skilled in several departments—to become a jack of all trades.
So we decided to have our services reflect the skills we knew, to do it our way, to pave our own path. And hey, we think it’s worked out pretty well.
To read more about our unique approach to Bumble's full-service production, click here