Five Easy Ways To Grow Your Business

When you start a business, whether it is pet grooming or selling cars, the setup is only part of the journey.

To stay afloat, you need to grow your business (and quickly) to help you stay in business past the first business year. Remember, 20% of businesses do not make it past their first year trading, so you will need to stay ahead of growth to keep yourself trading.

How do you do that? Here are some simple tips to follow.

Increase Website Security

So, you have a website, and you have the product or service that you offer on it. As your website is the first port of call for many customers, you will want to make sure that it is secure, attractive, and logical. Going back to security for a second, standard firewalls are not enough to keep sensitive data safe, especially in the age of artificial intelligence attacks. It is well worth looking into higher-level security options, such as Managed Detection and Response MDR, which will scan your site for signs of a potential data breach and isolate the threat, 24/7. This will keep all sensitive data safe and will help you to keep your website online, keeping sales going through.

Enhance your SEO

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is essentially tips and tricks to get your website ranking higher on search engine results. In 2026, it is predicted that enhanced security will be a core part, as search engines rank pages with better security higher and longer; unique blogs and content will also be a core part of SEO. As well as this, you will want to avoid AI-generated content (Google doesn’t like it!) and ensure that your site’s homepage is mobile optimised and loads quickly on all devices.

Market Research

It is always wise to have ongoing market research to help you understand the needs and wants of your client base. This will help you to identify gaps in your area of the market that you can focus on, as well as identify any change expectations of your client group or customers. Having this insight into your target audience will help you to make better-informed decisions, which can help you stay one step ahead of the competition and stay up to date on industry trends.

AI Chat Bots

It may seem counterintuitive to state that the use of AI will destroy SEO and to then say that AI chatbots are useful, but the two things are not the same. If you ship internationally or have a client base that is active after 5 pm, you could benefit from an AI chatbot. This can be programmed to answer common questions that customers may have, about things like shipping or orders, which will keep your business running smoothly and ticking over.

Focus on Customer Retention

24/7 access to an AI-based chatbot is one part of the way you will be able to retain your customer base.

Indeed, retaining current customers is often more cost-effective than trying to acquire new ones, so it is worth exploring avenues like email marketing, along with promotions such as 15% off for returning customers. Also, be sure to ask them for feedback when possible, to help you assess areas where you may need to improve their experience.