How To Grow Your Small Business Online
With everyone social isolating in their homes, the internet is a fantastic means of connection with the outside world. The fact is, many people are now relying on online shopping every day. Therefore, increasing the demand for a number of products and services. So what does this mean for your business? Read through our tips to grow your small business online.

How Have Things Changed?
In order to establish how you can grow your small business online, it is important to look at how things have changed since the start of the pandemic:
- More people online. Australia Post has reported record days of parcels during the COVID panic. Many people are now shopping from home and staying away from the shops.
- People moving to the competition. With an increased demand for particular products, consumers are moving away from well-known, recognised businesses who have been unable to keep up with demand. Instead, they are placing their business elsewhere and giving competitors more of a chance.
- Everyone working from home. Another huge change is that people are no longer working from traditional offices.

Tips To Grow Your Small Business Online
While you may have taken a hit when COVID-19 first sent the world into chaos, now is your chance to take a deep breath and pivot.
What does this mean?
1. Re-assess your current plan
Take a look at your business and whether it still holds value in today’s society. If not, how can you pivot your business to cater to the needs of at-home consumers? For example, if you run sports classes for kids, these obviously can’t go ahead at the moment. But can you run them virtually? This is the perfect chance for you to change your offering to suit the current climate.
2. Understand your platform
Do you need to grow your website to sell your products and/or services online? Maybe you are a fitness trainer and can’t currently teach in-person classes. You might need to set up at-home online training. Or perhaps you are a restaurant with a clever takeaway idea. While it may not have seemed very important in the past, now it is more so than ever. When looking at how to grow your small business, you need to ensure you have somewhere professional to send your customers. It could be worth outsourcing this task to a professional digital marketing company to ensure it is done correctly. It will save you plenty of time and money in the future.
3. Set up social channels
Another important avenue to explore in these changing times. One of the best tips to grow your small business online at the minute is through social media. Do you have social channels for your business? Each channel has its pros and cons, so it is worth taking a look at your target audience and finding where they hang out. You are better off picking one or two platforms and doing them properly, rather than spreading yourself too thin across them all. Social media is growing at an accelerated rate, so it is important to jump on the curve and take advantage of this form of mass publicity!
4. Build brand loyalty
This step is perhaps the most important in this current time we are in. People are looking for connection and to build trust in a brand. When there is so much going on in the world, they want to be able to shop with a brand that has their best interests at heart. You can cater to this by making the experience as personal as possible. Build your brand on your socials and show off a lot of the behind-the-scenes of what is going on with you.
5. Check your processes
Once you have set yourself up online it is important to check all your processes are in place and working. Get people to test your site and make sure it all works, as this is one of the most obvious and easiest ways to lose a potential sale.

Embrace The Changes
The most important thing you can do when it comes to learning how to grow your small business is to embrace the changes. It is the businesses who stand their ground and refuse to adapt who end up being left behind.
Shake off any losses from the past few months and set into motion some wins. Look at where your business is, how it currently caters to people and how this can all be changed to drive customers through to you.
While (we can only hope) this pandemic will come to an end, the business world will have changed for the long-term. Any changes you implement now will stick. See your small business on the path to success in these uncertain times. Don’t be afraid to dive in and give it a go.
Look For Help
Do you need some help learning how to grow your small business? You are not alone. It is a hard road in hard times, but it isn’t impossible. In fact, the online world is actually levelling the playing field, and with a bit of direction you can get a foot up on the competition. If you are after some more advice, be sure to speak to the experts at ALC Commercial today.