How To Upscale Your Home Business With Little Investment

Author: rodney laws

The ongoing coronavirus crisis has put the damper on many entrepreneur’s spirits. The future looks uncertain, and many businesses are battening down the hatches in anticipation of a rocky few months.

But for many, this disruption is temporary. Things will return, if not to normal, then to a new normal in which you can still thrive. Consequently, it’s important to use this time wisely spend some time adjusting and finessing your business so you can hit the ground running when they do.

With budget an issue for many (if not all) home entrepreneurs, it’s worth looking for simple and cost-effective ways to do this yourself. Read on to learn how.

Audit your social media and trim where necessary

You don’t need me to tell you that social media is, for businesses, a good thing. From lead generation and engagement to customer research, social media is a bountiful growth opportunity for businesses large and small alike.

But when upscaling your home business, it’s worth taking a granular look at your social strategy to decide whether it actually brings value to your business.

While you should certainly lean on social media, it’s important to lean on it in a smart way.

This might even mean reducing time and resources for (or even getting rid of) some social channels altogether. If it doesn’t generate you leads or engagement and serves only as a vanity project, why use it?

Conduct an audit of your current social media channels. Pull key metrics from each — engagement, referral traffic, audience demographics, platform-specific metrics, and so on — and compare them against each other.

If you spot one or two platforms that offer the least tangible value to your business (that is, value in terms of what helps you meet your business goals), consider reducing time and resources on them. Focus on more productive platforms and capitalize on the success that those already offer — there’s no point pouring time and money into a platform that offers little in return for your business.

 

Adjust your niche to a more cost-effective positioning

Whether you already have an existing home business or you’re starting one in 2020, it’s worth considering your niche as part of your upscale strategy.

Certain niches offer greater room for profits and expansion — something well worth considering during coronavirus. The pandemic has seen a myriad of businesses fall apart and yet, at the same time, many others have flourished.

Indeed, it’s worth bearing the dire financial situation caused by COVID-19 in mind when selecting your own business niche. You don’t need to break the bank to achieve this — there is any number of great (and profitable) business ideas that require minimal investment and can also withstand (if not thrive during) the disruption caused by coronavirus.

While financial costs should certainly play some part in your choice, it’s important to remember that your business will fill your life, especially as a home business. Find something that you could feasibly do for a prolonged period of time without getting weary of it. Don’t just tolerate your idea — have a passion for it.

Take simple steps to enhance your user experience

User experience (UX) is an essential and yet surprisingly-overlooked element of business infrastructure. The way that your customer interacts with your website, your online store, your email marketing, and so on all play an important part in the perceived value of your business.

Take your payment process, for instance. This is an essential element in UX — a prolonged or confusing process detracts from your brand image and deters customers, losing sales as a result.

Take time to optimize your payment process from start to finish. Keep customers on a single page wherever possible and strip down forms to only the bare minimum. Finally, test the process yourself to ensure it’s as easy and streamlined as possible.

Your payment process is just one aspect of user experience you should consider when upscaling your home business. Customer service, content readability, feedback forms — these all play a role in positive UX.

 

Tweak your aesthetics for a cheap revamp

There’s a lot to be said for a lick of paint, especially when it comes to home businesses. Even the most simple aesthetic design can make a tired website or social media page feel fresh and new.

This is particularly important for home businesses. With limited resources and budgets, it’s easy to opt for a basic website at the start of your journey as a temporary solution, only for other, more pressing tasks take center-stage.

But good aesthetic design is essential for silently conveying brand value. It speaks volumes about quality, style, position within your industry, even your target customers. As such, your design is an effective and, crucially, affordable way to upscale your home business.

Your design also ties into the customer experience outlined earlier. A clean, minimalist design reduces visual ‘noise’ and keeps visitors onsite. In design, less is more — avoid excessive use of images on your homepage, sticking to no more than three high-quality images as a general rule.

Consider your color scheme too. Audience tastes and preferences change all the time, and what might seem a la mode at one point can easily feel dated today.

The tips above are just a few simple ways you can upscale your home business with little to no cost. You can make dramatic improvements to your business with just the minimal investment on your part. Use this downtime to tweak your position and enjoy a flying start when things return to the new normal.

Rodney Laws is an ecommerce expert with over a decade of experience in building online businesses. Check out his reviews on EcommercePlatforms.io and you’ll find practical tips that you can use to build the best online store for your business. Connect with him on Twitter @EcomPlatformsio