Last month TELUS held a contest for its business customers asking entrepreneurs to identify what their biggest challenge was. Today's winning question comes from Patty who asked: "How do I grow my business?"

TELUS asked me if I would answer Patty's question so here goes!

Dear Patty,

Without knowing the specifics of your business I'll try to be as helpful as possible.

There are three fundamental ways you can grow your business. You can:

1) Get more clients
2) Increase the frequency of purchases from current clients
3) Increase the dollar size of the average transaction

I'll explore each one in a little more detail to give you some guidance and help you plan for the year ahead.

1) Get More Clients

This is what most entrepreneurs usually focus on but it's actually the hardest way to grow your business out of the three listed above. Here are some effective ways that you can get business growth without breaking your bank account. Here are five of my favourite ways to drum up new business.

a) Give Something Away for Free

Think of your relationship with your clients as a marriage. They have to get to know you, trust you, and like you before they'll go from a prospect to a loyal customer. You have to date them before you get married and a great way to introduce yourself is with something you can give away for free. You want to let people try out your company with no risk to them.

If you have a product that can be sampled then give away free samples (think tasters for food products or free trials for software products). If you have a service consider giving away a free pilot (think free 20 minute consultation for consultants or first class free for a dance studio). If your product or service can't be sampled easily then come up with something that you can give away (think real estate agent creating a PDF overview of the neighbourhood you want to move into). Try to start the relationship building process with zero risk to the customer to so you can show them the value of working with you and then turn them into loyal customers.

b) Leverage the Media

I've always been a big fan of using the media. Most people think about advertising their products but think about your own experiences of reading a newspaper, magazine, or blog. Are you more likely to read the story or the ad? And which do you think costs most? The fact is that most people will pay more attention to the stories and it doesn't have to cost you anything to get in.

Journalists are always looking for experts to comment on hot topics. As an entrepreneur you should be an expert in your field  - so why can't that expert be you? Make a list of all the reporters who cover your industry and give them comments on the articles they write. Keep them up to date with your opinions on the hot topics of the day and let them know that you're always available to be interviewed. Journalists are looking for expert help on their stories so if you can provide insightful feedback you're making their jobs easier!

c) Leverage SEO and Newsletters

Search engine optimization (SEO) has become a powerful driving revenue source for entrepreneurs. When buyers are looking to make a purchasing decision they are increasingly turning online for answers. Optimize your website for the important keywords so your listing comes up first. You can either learn the basics of SEO yourself or outsource it but make sure you are taking action - it can be one of the highest ROI decisions you ever make for your business.

Newsletters are important because it's a way to keep people coming back to your site. A prospect might land on your website looking for something but might not be ready to buy yet. If you don't capture their information then you're hoping that when they are ready, they'll buy from you. You're hoping that your competitors aren't proactively trying to woo your prospects to buy from them instead. If you offer a free bonus to prospects who visit your site and get them to sign up for your newsletter you have a way to stay in touch with them, offer promotions, and be top of mind when they are ready to buy.

d) Get more Referrals

Referred customers are easier to deal with, buy more, are more loyal, ask fewer questions, and are more likely to become long term clients. To get more referrals I've always found it helpful to invest into your customer service. Look for ways to "wow" your clients and go beyond what's expected of you. For example, one of our customers Tweeted that her air conditioner was broken on a hot summer day and she had to work from a Starbucks. So we sent her a card and some brownies to recognize her. She sent us a glowing card back and we've earned a customer for life who sends us many referrals. It's not expensive but you have to take the time to show that you care. If you don't care about them, why should they care about you and give you referrals?

A second way to get referrals is to offer an incentive. On my website, for example, my customers are my authors who create content for me. We promote them as experts, they get exposure, and then drive more business. We give our customers an incentive to refer more authors to the system by giving them more exposure. The more customers they refer, the more exposure they get. It's not something they have to do but it's in their own interest to refer clients to us. Think about how you can give an extra value-add to your customers if they help spread the word and bring in new business for you. It can be monetary, you can offer them special discounts, or even just give them plain old recognition!

e) Form Partnerships

An easy way to get more business is to look at who is already selling to your target market and then strike up a marketing partnership. Look at where your company sits in the buying chain and think about who your customers buy from before they buy from you and then after they buy from you. Those are the companies you want to partner with.

For example, if you run a banquet hall and want to get more weddings booked make partnerships with the wedding planners (hired before you) and honeymoon travel companies (hired after you). A partnership could either be a simple marketing arrangement (you promote them, they promote you) or you can create a campaign where they earn a percentage of the revenues whenever they suggest working with you. They could even send a special offer to their customer list to announce the partnership and recommend that they use your services. The important thing is to look at who is already selling to the market that you're trying to reach and leverage the relationships that those companies have to shortcut your way to business growth.

2) Increase the frequency of purchases from current clients

As much as I like to talk about how to get new customers, a much easier way to grow your business is to increase the frequency of purchases from your current clients. In other words, get your current customers to buy more often.

For example, if you run a bakery and the average customer comes in once per month, focus your efforts on getting them to come in twice a month. You can create a loyalty program that encourages repeat business, you can run regular promotions that are time sensitive and make people want to visit more often, and you can try to develop a personal relationship with them that ties them to your store.

Even in industries like real estate where a customer might wait years before they buy another house from you, look for ways to stay in touch and update them on their current situation. Why not send an email twice per year to update your past clients on what you think their current houses would sell for? If they know their house value has gone up considerably maybe they'll think about selling much sooner.

If you've done a good job in getting to know your clients and their families then send out that house valuation email after they add a child (or another child) to their family. My wife and I were really happy with our house until our son was born. Almost immediately after we started realizing that we'd have to upsize fairly soon - talk about a motivated buyer!

If you want to double your business next year you can either try to get twice the number of customers or get zero new customers and just get your current customers to buy from you twice as often. Either way, you're doubling your business, but it's a lot easier to get your current customers to buy more.

3) Increase the dollar size of the average transaction

Another way to sell more to existing clients is to increase the dollar size of their average transaction with you. Here what you're trying to do is get them to spend more money than they usually do every time they buy from you.

A classic example is at a McDonald's store where they ask you if "you want fries with that?" Whenever a customer buys from you, chances are they are going to need something else that goes with their purchase. This means opportunity for your business.

If you already have other products or services then make sure you let your buyers know about them. If you haven't created a secondary offering then maybe it's time to consider it. What else could you offer your customers that would add value to their lives? If you've built a positive relationship with your clients then they would rather buy from you if they had the option than buy from someone else.

If you want to test out other products or services before committing to offering them yourself, why not create partnerships and see if customers are willing to buy the add-ons? For example, if you're a website designer, why not find a reputable SEO company and offer SEO services as an option? After a customer buys a website they are going to want to promote it so it's a logical offering to expand into. If customers pick it up then you can consider hiring someone onto your team and bringing that expertise in-house. You're offering more value to your customers, strengthening the relationship with them, and bringing in more revenue for your business.

So there you have it Patty - Three ways that you can grow your business! The secret to top performers is that they don't focus just on one, they work on all three. They bring in new customers, get them to buy more often, and get them to spend more money each time they buy. If you can use the suggestions above to put all three ideas to your advantage you'll be in for a year of exponential growth!

Good luck!

Readers, what are your plans for business growth this year? How have you successful grown your business so far? As always, I’ve love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my website, EvanCarmichael.com.