Small business growth strategies for QuickBooks users in 2024

As a small business owner, you have enough tasks to juggle during your workday. There isn’t much time left to work on a new business growth plan.

That’s why we’ve compiled a list of key small business growth strategies you can implement to make your year even more profitable than the last.

Continue reading this article to learn:

What to consider when creating your plan.
The best strategies for small business growth.
How to grow alongside QuickBooks.

Let’s jump in!

Small business growth strategies summary: Essential points

What to consider when creating a small business growth strategy

Every industry varies, but there are a few places you can look to help predict where your business is going in the future — and how you can steer it in the right direction to increase profitability and market share.

Here are three key areas you can focus on to achieve the growth small business owners strive for.

Reflect on 2023

Reviewing the previous year’s performance is a great way to know what to expect in the future. As QuickBooks stores your historical financial data, you can easily analyze this information to understand your business’ strengths and weaknesses.

Identify patterns in customer purchases, such as popular months for certain products or services. This helps you identify growth opportunities and areas for improvement in 2024.

Amplify growth strategies for success

Focus on strategies that proved successful in the past while also staying open to new trends and technologies. You can take advantage of your QuickBooks data analytics tools to make informed decisions about:

Marketing efforts.
Sales.
Product development.

The best strategies take your strengths and fine-tune them to be even more effective for greater market development.

Prioritize effective strategies for small business growth

Prioritizing strategies that offer the highest profitability means you aren’t wasting time on a small business growth strategy with a poor return on investment (ROI). While this might seem obvious, you may not realize a sales or marketing strategy isn’t effective if you aren’t tracking its metrics.

For QuickBooks users, this means automating financial processes and using the software’s insights to target profitable customer segments more effectively.

To make your QuickBooks account even more effective at tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), you can integrate your account with Method. This powerful third-party application gives you detailed reports so you know where to spend your time and money.

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Grow your small business with these three steps

Understanding your ideal customer profile (ICP) is the best way to determine who your best customers are and target them effectively. QuickBooks provides data for you to define your ICP so you can better direct your marketing and sales efforts.

To find your target audiences, consider factors like:

Your industry.
Geographic location.
The budget your customer base needs to afford your product or service.
Ideal age range.

After you identify these areas, you can use this information to design a business model that caters to your ICP.

With this in mind, below are three key steps for your small business growth strategy.

Build an effective sales funnel

A well-designed funnel guides your potential customers through the journey from first contact to final sale. As they move through the sales funnel, they become increasingly likely to convert.

Evaluate prospects with lead scoring

Lead scoring helps you prioritize potential customers based on their likelihood to convert to paying customers, so you can focus on the most promising leads.

While you can manually make notes about customers in QuickBooks to track their lead scoring, integrations like Method automate the process for you.

With Method’s real-time, two-way sync, you can quickly tag leads with their sales funnel status and have that information carry over to your QuickBooks account. This keeps your customers organized and saves time on manual processes, so you can focus on your small business growth strategies.

Leverage automated lead creation, estimate creation, and follow up

Automation tools save time and standardize your workflows. As a result, you get an organized and professional database that avoids the risk of human error.

Integrating QuickBooks with an automation tool like Method provides:

Seamless lead tracking.
Customized estimate and invoice creation.
Automated follow-up tools.

Features like e-signature capture and automatic customer data sync with QuickBooks to simplify and speed up the sales process. This simple way to enhance your QuickBooks account is a great small business growth strategy that frees up more time for the important parts of your business.

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Test and iterate on growth tactics

You won’t know if your small business growth strategies are working until you put them to the test. Use your QuickBooks account to analyze financial outcomes so you can better understand which strategies are working and which need improvement.

If your QuickBooks account is integrated with Method, you’ll have access to detailed reports that can guide your growth small business strategy.

Keep your current customers happy to increase retention

Customer acquisition is one way to grow, but your business plan must also strive for customer retention.

High customer satisfaction drives repeat business and encourages brand ambassadors who promote your business to new customers. You can even consider a customer loyalty program for your current customer base that rewards long-term business.

Consider how a social media presence provides an alternative channel to engage leads and customers. These are free platforms that give you an opportunity to increase your online presence with little investment.

Also, collect user reviews and take the time to speak directly with your customers to learn about their experience with your business. Developing small business growth strategies around customer retention results in loyal customers who return to your business.

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Features to look for in a lead-to-cash automation tool for QuickBooks

Selecting a lead-to-cash automation tool helps you simplify and organize your sales process to improve your workflow efficiency.

Let’s look at a few ways to help you choose the right platform for your small business growth strategy.

Enhanced user experience matters

As a small business, you don’t always have the funding or time to take your critical employees away from their tasks to learn how to use new software. That’s why choosing an automation tool with a user-friendly interface is crucial. This way, your team can pick up the new tool quickly and intuitively.

Look for seamless integration and two-way sync

Your automation tool should integrate seamlessly with your QuickBooks account. This ensures that your data stays consistent and up to date across both platforms.

Two-way sync capabilities, like Method’s, mean that updates made on one platform are instantly reflected in the other in real time.

Method also includes online customer portals that sync to QuickBooks, so your customers can self-serve when you’re not on the clock.

Small business growth strategies: Key takeaways

Your future small business growth strategies require you to use customer and financial data for informed decision-making.

By following the above strategies for small business growth and integrating with advanced automation tools, you’ll improve the efficiency and accuracy of your current workflows.

To summarize your key strategies for small business growth:

Reflect on past performance and adapt future strategies accordingly.
Prioritize strategies with a high ROI.
Identify and target your ideal customer profile.
Plan campaigns around your target market.
Simplify your sales processes with lead-to-cash automation.
Continuously test and adjust your tactics to make sure they’re working.
Focus on customer retention as much as acquisition.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs): Strategies for small business growth

Does Method integrate with QuickBooks 2024?

Yes, Method integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks 2024 to offer you enhanced automation and efficiency in managing your sales and financial data.

Specifically designed to work with QuickBooks Online and Desktop, Method’s integration with QuickBooks is a top priority. As a result, you can expect less downtime than platforms that cater to a broader audience.

How can small businesses benefit from integrating QuickBooks with a process automation tool?

Small businesses benefit from integrating QuickBooks with a process automation tool because it:

Simplifies business processes.
Reduces manual errors.
Saves time.

This lets you focus on small business growth strategies and customer engagement.

Are there specialized process automation tools for specific industries?

Yes, there are industry-specific process automation tools that cater to unique business needs and integrate with QuickBooks. For the greatest flexibility, consider an automation platform that offers customization services so you can add your own processes.