How to Grow a Small Business: 7 Ways to Scale

When you look back in time, you probably want your business to be a success story. Starting small is the usual route many business owners take. However, it’s about where and how the business grows in the future that will be the defining moment for you.

That’s why you’re probably here, wondering how to grow a small business. In this guide, we share a few proven methods that work. It’s up to you to select those that speak to your business most and apply them.

So, with this in mind, let’s look at some of the best ways to grow a small business, giving you the lift you are searching for.

Introduction to Growing a Small Business in the UK

By reading this article, you’ve got one major question on your mind. And that is how to make a small business grow. Below, we share important tips that you can implement and enjoy increased business growth.

However, let’s take a step back and explore what growth really means for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

What growth really means for SMEs

Every small business owner wants growth. But for each one, the outcomes and ways of measuring success differ. 

While some may want to focus on growing revenue, others may choose to focus on scaling their operations.And there are also those who aim to expand their market share. 

In short, ways to measure business growth differs across businesses. 

Challenges faced by UK small businesses

While growth may be top of mind as you seek to expand your business, it’s important to have a deep understanding of the environment you operate in. Many small business owners face stiff competition.

Then, of course, there are economic conditions to consider. High interest rates can increase your cost of borrowing with the purpose of expanding your business through purchasing equipment or stock. On the other hand, high inflation could mean lower purchasing power for your customers, resulting in fewer sales or orders.

Additionally, some businesses face regulatory burdens such as compliance with industry standards. This means that you may have to dedicate a lot more time and resources to ensuring that your business is compliant with norms.

Another challenge is the major digital shift taking place in our business environment. From artificial intelligence (AI) to customer relationship management (CRM) software and tools as well as point-of-sale (POS) payment systems, the digital aspect could be challenging to understand.

This is especially true if you have used traditional methods such as pen and paper or spreadsheets to document your business activities. All this comes with the need to constantly learn, compare different software service providers and choose the best option for your business.

Apart from constantly informing yourself, keeping up with trends and new developments and narrowing down your choices, you also need to implement and apply the software so that your team knows how to use it. Investing in quality education and training is key for your business’ success.

The role of technology and payment infrastructure

Speaking of high-tech and digital development, perhaps the most critical aspect for your business is the need to offer multiple payment methods that help your business grow. Yes, accepting cash is one of them.

But today, an ever growing number of customers are choosing to pay by using their debit or credit cards. Yet others find it more convenient to pay through their phones or smartwatches. And, of course, there are vouchers to consider as well as virtual cards. 

Is your business ready for this? If not, you need to upgrade your tools like your POS system to accept all payment methods. That’s because varied payment acceptance is critical to your growth.

7 Ways to Scale Your Small Business

Want to help your small or medium sized business grow? Let’s look at a few key methods that work.

1. Strengthen your sales and payment capabilities

Firstly, you need to use finance and payments acceptance to strengthen your sales capabilities. But how can finance help a small business grow? 

Here are three important ways:

• Accept more payment methods: More ways to accept different payment methods means more revenue your business earns. The different methods you should keep in mind include: adopting card machines to accept card and contactless payments, payments via QR codes and Pay by Link for convenience and higher conversion.
• Use a smart POS system: Data is crucial for businesses today. But does your business have the tools needed to measure all the key metrics? And is it challenging? It doesn’t need to be if you use a smart POS system. This allows you to gain access to sales insights and customer data plus it offers stock management tools to drive smarter decisions.
• Enable online and omnichannel payments: If you sell in a brick-and-mortar location but you also have an online store, you’ll want to combine in-store and digital sales with integrated payment solutions. myPOS Online or Payment Links do a sterling job at this.

In short, making sure that you offer your customers multiple methods to pay you, allows them to enjoy more convenience in shopping at your business. This drives more sales and improves your revenue. No more lost sales and lost potential customers. Only smart payment acceptance that helps your business grow.

2. Build a scalable business model

Next, you’ll want to build a scalable business model. 

This means taking the following considerations into account:

• Standardise core operations: Your core operations need to be standardised across your entire business for greater levels of consistency. But what do standardised processes mean and how can you streamline them? Examples include inventory, staffing, and payments. Standardising across one of your business locations allows you to enjoy easy replication across other locations when your business expands.
• Automate where possible: We already touched on the digitalisation of businesses. And your business should not be left behind. Regardless of whether you offer tangible products or services, you need to use the right tools to assist you with automating invoicing, payment collection, staff scheduling or even sending marketing emails.
• Plan for multi-site or remote selling: Curious about how to grow a small business into a big business? You need to plan for multi-site and remote selling. This necessarily entails preparing your POS and card machine setup for mobile, multi-terminal or multi-location growth.

To sum up, in order to build a scalable business model, you should start by standardising your core operations such as inventory, staffing and payments to ensure consistency and make expansion easier. Next, automate tasks like invoicing, staff scheduling and marketing using the right digital tools. 

Finally, prepare for multi-site or remote selling by setting up POS and payment systems that support mobile and multi-location growth.

3. Expand your customer base

Our tip number three is all about expanding your customer base. The more customers you have, the greater your revenue and return on investment (ROI). But how can you make it happen? 

Here are a few strategies to think about:

• Leverage local SEO and digital advertising: Local search engine optimisation (SEO) is your key to appearing for online local searches. Want to appear in UK-based Google Maps and “map pack” search results? You need to work on this. Use professional help to ensure that your local SEO works for your business so that you are more discoverable online. Apart from local SEO, make sure you have a strong presence in local business directories and searches. Also worth considering is having a strong social media presence, whether organic or paid. The combination of organic and local SEO with paid digital advertising can attract more attention and thus foot traffic to your business.
• Offer loyalty schemes or gift cards: It’s been carefully analysed by many specialists in the market: it costs more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Customer retention is crucial because it’s not only more affordable, but customer loyalty means greater financial security for your business. To encourage repeat business, use POS-linked rewards and prepaid gift card systems.
• Collect and act on customer feedback: If you want to keep your customers happy and ensure that your relationship marketing efforts work, you need to listen to what your audience is saying about your business and how they feel about your products or services. This means making a concerted effort to collect and act on customer feedback. To do this, use POS receipts, online forms and email follow-ups to learn and adapt.

Expanding your customer base is essential for long-term growth and stability. By combining digital strategies with customer-focused initiatives, you can attract new audiences while keeping existing customers engaged.

4. Boost your marketing reach

Proper marketing is the key to giving your small business more visibility and attracting new customers so that you can grow. 

A few ways you can strengthen your marketing game include:

• Invest in content and social media: Content is a broad term that covers the written word, video and digital assets such as infographics and images. Make sure that whether you use a combination of these or just one avenue, yours work for your business. That’s why you need to invest in and grow your brand through video, blogs or Instagram/TikTok that are tailored to your local audience.
• Email marketing for repeat sales: Email is one of the most affordable and yet powerful ways to grow your marketing reach. But you need to do it right. That’s why it’s highly recommended that you send segmented campaigns based on sales data from your POS system.
• Partner with complementary UK businesses: Partnerships with local businesses can also enhance your business’ visibility and send more customers your way. To achieve this goal, focus on cross-promoting with local cafés, gyms or boutiques that target similar demographics to your business.

To boost your marketing reach, focus on increasing visibility through content creation, social media and strategic partnerships. Use tools like email marketing and POS data to target repeat customers and collaborate with local businesses to attract a wider audience.

5. Improve financial management

Looking for more ways to help a small business grow? We’re here for you. 

Take a look at these ways that focus on improving your financial management:

• Track cash flow and profitability in real time: Data is wealth at your fingertips. But real-time data is king. You need access to instant data from your business to make the right decisions. And if you want to know how to achieve that, all you have to do is use payment analytics and instant settlement tools, such as myPOS, to monitor your business’ performance.
• Get the right funding: Sometimes, a cash injection in your business is what’s needed to help you lift off. To source funding, we recommend that you explore different UK funding options, ranging from government schemes and startup loans to merchant cash advances.
• Control costs without cutting quality: You’ll also want to control your costs and minimise financial leakages where possible, all without compromising on quality. To do this, regularly review suppliers, payment processing fees and software subscriptions.

To support small business growth, strong financial management is essential. This includes tracking real-time cash flow with tools like payment analytics, securing the right funding through UK-based options and controlling costs by regularly reviewing expenses without sacrificing quality.

6. Invest in staff and leadership

A less frequently encountered way in terms of how to scale a small business, but which is very important for your growth, includes investing in your staff and leadership. 

Here’s how:

• Hire and train for growth: Apart from performing process management related to your operations, you need to focus on upskilling your staff. This means you should aim to create roles that support your next phase, including sales tech or marketing support. Empower your team to speak up and share creative ideas to help your business grow by encouraging participative management.
• Empower staff with the right tools: Another way to help your team, apart from hiring the right team members and training them well, is to ensure that you equip them with the right tools. Examples include mobile POS devices, software that helps track sales targets, and scheduling tools for aspects such as scheduling marketing emails and more.
• Develop yourself as a business owner: Investing in your team is great. But what about you, the business owner? You constantly need to stay on top of your game by learning new things and expanding your knowledge and awareness of the industry and niche you operate in. To achieve this, focus on attending UK-based SME workshops, joining trade groups and/or getting a mentor.

Investing in staff and leadership is a powerful yet often overlooked way to scale a small business. This involves hiring and training for future growth, providing your team with the right tools to succeed and continuously developing yourself as a business owner through learning, mentorship and industry engagement.

7. Use data to make informed decisions

And now, for our last recommendation on how to grow a small business fast: using data to make informed decisions. 

Here’s what you should consider:

• Analyse sales and inventory trends: Did you know that you can pull reports from your POS to identify peak hours, popular items and get low-stock alerts? The good news is that you can. With the right payment solution provider, of course.
• Set measurable goals: Also, focus on using key performance indicators (KPIs) tied to your revenue, transactions, repeat customers or average basket size.
• Make iterative improvements: Finally, it’s about making iterative improvements. Do this by regularly testing new products, pricing strategies or marketing approaches.

Using data to make informed decisions is key to accelerating small business growth. By analysing sales and inventory trends, setting clear KPIs and continuously testing and refining your strategies, you can make smarter choices that drive better results.

How myPOS Helps Small UK Businesses Scale

myPOS plays a vital role in helping small UK businesses scale by providing affordable, flexible and user-friendly payment solutions.

From enabling seamless in-store and online transactions to offering real-time sales insights through smart POS systems, myPOS equips business owners with the tools needed to boost revenue and streamline operations.

With major advantages such as instant settlements, varied POS devices perfect for every business, online payment tools, multi-location support and much more, myPOS not only enhances customer experience but also empowers businesses like yours to grow efficiently and confidently in a competitive market.

Conclusion: Scaling a UK Small Business With Confidence

Scaling a small business in the UK takes a combination of smart strategies: from strengthening your sales capabilities to investing in people, processes and technology.

By focusing on the seven key areas highlighted above (payments, scalability, customer base, marketing, financial management, leadership and data) you can build a foundation for long-term growth.

Fintech providers like myPOS make this easier by simplifying payments, offering valuable insights and supporting both in-person and online sales.

As you plan your next steps, take time to review your payment infrastructure, customer insights and operations to ensure your business is ready to grow with confidence in today’s fast-changing market.

Frequently Asked Questions