1. Boost Productivity

Whether streamlining your manufacturing process by investing in new equipment or creating new partnerships to deliver your products or services in more efficient way, boosting productivity saves you more than time. Advancing your the productivity of your business also saves you money, can lead to increased revenue and make positive contributions to our climate emergency.

3 ways to boost productivity:

1. Follow Circular Economy principles creating a more sustainable and efficient business model
2. Make use of available funding and financing programs to understand and improve your supply chain or invest in new equipment
3. Consider boosting employee engagement levels by reviewing your compensation, benefits, and employee working conditions.

2. Innovate With New Products or Services

Creating new products and services can help expand your customer base and create lifetime customers for your business. But creating new products and services is risky business. According to a survey by the Harvard Business School, estimates that 95 percent of consumer products fail. Approach product development strategies to enhance your chances of success.

3 tips for successful product development:

1. Understand your customers and how your product or service meets or doesn’t meet their needs. Learn about research methods and available support here.
2. Make your product or service stand apart from the competition. How is your product or service offering different? Use these useful resources to provide insights into the product development journey.
3. Don’t go it alone. There is lots of support to help you innovate to create new products and services. Get a round-up of available support here.

3. Grow Sales

Whether boosting your online sales with an e-commerce strategy or developing an export strategy to sell abroad is your growth goal, growing your sales can help you increase revenue to re-invest into your business. 

3 strategies for growing your sales:

1. E-commerce is a great extension to your bricks and mortar sales channels and there is lots of help out there to get you started or grow your e-commerce presence. Check out our related resources below for more inspiration.
2. Did you know that of all BC-based good producing businesses that exported in 2020, only 6 percent were small businesses?  But of those small businesses that did, they accounted for 36 percent of the total value of goods exported from the province and $15.1B worth of goods. Learn more about developing an export strategy for your business.
3. Selling to the government is a great way to boost your sales. According to Buyandsell.gc.ca the federal government purchases roughly $22B per year while the Province of BC spends over $6B, according to Small Business BC. The District of Squamish, with a recently adopted social procurement policy, lists its procurement opportunities online. Check out government procurement opportunities.

4. Develop Talent

Attracting and retaining talent is a key challenge faced by businesses across BC including the Sea to Sky region. That is why investing in the staff you already have has never been more important. One way to grow your business is to support the development of your staff. Better trained and skilled staff equals better productivity and innovation and is proven to increase revenue.

3 ways to develop talent:

1. Access affordable training for staff via organizations like the Squamish Chamber of Commerce and Small Business BC. Sometimes it is even free!
2. Access funding for on-the-job and technical skills training from WorkBC and the Province of BC.
3. Consider co-ops, internships and work-integrated learning programs from accredited post-secondary institutes.

5. Access Funding

Have you considered offsetting business expenses in one area by using tax credits in order to make investments somewhere else? Use this strategy and others to make use of available funding in the form of grants, tax credits, and low-interest business loans.

3 financing sources to grow your business:

1. The Province of BC has an online database of available funding support for businesses and non-profits as well as a portal dedicated specifically to COVID-19 support.
2. The Federal Government through Innovation Canada has a funding concierge service dedicated to helping you identify the right type of funding for your business.
3. Low-interest financing is another great way to scale your business. Organizations like the Community Futures Howe Sound, WeBC and Futurpreneur can help you with business advising and accessing low-interest loans.