How to take your family business ahead, in your own way

Thirty years ago or even earlier, your family ventured into a business with great passion and fervour. There was a rock-solid plan that was devised after much deliberation, the finances arranged, the connections made, and the effort put in. Cut to today, when the business is still doing well and why wouldn’t it? The business is well-established in the market area, there has been word of mouth advertising over the years, the quality of products has been consistent, and the service is a talking-point in the whole of town.

While, establishing and running a business consistently for years can be termed as a successful venture, it’s important to understand there is no limit to success. Therefore, it is only right that any businessman of the next generation thinks ahead and grows the family business to the next level, in their own way.

And what better way than going digital. Today, the world is harnessing the power of digital and businesses too are tapping the full potential of this medium to make the most of the opportunity. From expansion to creating a brand, from reaching out to a wider audience to offering innovative business services, brand have a lot more to explore with, thanks to the digital platform.

Here’s why digital is the best medium to take your family business ahead why and many, many business owners have switched to the medium despite having well-established businesses:

Financially workable:

The space, the time, the energy and the investment required in expanding your business on the digital medium is far lesser than what it could be if you went offline. Point being, going digital means you will not have to worry about physical stores or expenses that come with it, there will be no requirement of salesman or staff who’d otherwise need to be available all the time or the headache of incurring general expenses like electricity, rent, furniture, etc.

Acquisition of new customers:

One of the key aspects to grow in a business is to acquire new customers. While delighting the existing
customer is of great importance and should never be undermined, it will only result in survival of the business with the same kind of growth. To take a plunge into the next level and re-define the growth of your business, it is important to acquire more and more customers. Going digital ensures you reach out to a wider audience as opposed to a store where there is a limit to footfalls, and offers an opportunity to build on your customer base every single day!

Geographically limitless:

Digital, as a medium, is infinite and the reach is incredible. Sitting in a quaint town, you can sell a product to someone far away. By far away, we don’t just mean someone in the neighbouring district but someone who lives in another city or even another country. Fact that, it is equally easy for the customer who’s sitting hundreds of kilometres away, to choose, pick, buy and receive the product with the click of a single button makes it a win-win for everyone involved in the business – be it the manufacturer, supplier or the customer.

Wider audience:

There are niche products and then there are household products. Being on digital, especially for the latter, can work wonders as the business will be able to reach out to a far wider audience than a store can ever. Consider this; a store selling water bottles in a market area may be able to bring in 50 customers a day as the upper limit considering it has been around for a while, is easily accessible and has a reputation of good service and quality. But when thigs move to digital the game changes beyond belief. The same store owner can now have thousands of customers looking at the bottle on their screens, many of which will convert. Statistically speaking, a store can bring you about 50 customers a day, but your digital store can bring you 500, 5000 or who knows even more, in a single day!

Round-the-clock offerings:

A typical store opens at 9am and shuts down at 9 pm, making it an open invitation of customers to visit anytime during the12- hour slot. But what if someone wanted to make a purchase early in the morning, or maybe late
in the night, considering that’s when most people are done with their business and have some time to indulge? Here’s where going digital is a great idea because as a business you’ll never have to shut shop. And being available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year is a good enough way to ensure more sales and eventually better profits!

Innovative services:

Going digital with your business, especially with e-commence giants gives your business an edge that an
offline store will never be able to. Right from no questions asked exchange offers to irresistible discounts,
from same day delivery to acquiring points that will help you in your next purchase, doing business on the digital platform offers much more than what can average customer expects. Resulting in customer delight, and eventually better sales and higher profits!

When it comes to business – offline and online are both important and each one of them has its own charm. However, considering the way the world is progressing through digital transformation and the dependency of the consumer on the digital medium for almost everything, it is but obvious that businesses need to take the digital path quickly to stay ahead and grow. Today, digital is no more a ‘nice to have’ concept but a ‘need to have’ concept for MSMEs looking to step out of their comfort zones and embrace exponential growth and expansion.