If you’re ready to grow your small business, you probably know how tough it can be to work on building your company beyond its startup status while you’re running the day to day.

Expanding your customer base and increasing revenues will indeed take effort and planning on your part but check out these 6 points of advice from entrepreneurs and startup experts on how to grow your business successfully:

Take it slow.

Part of being a successful entrepreneur is that go-after-it attitude you have. Once you set your sights on growing your business, your natural urge to jump on it ASAP is not surprising. But you might want to hold back. 

“Many small-business owners want to grow their companies, and they want to do it fast. But if you rush into expansion without a plan, you risk losing everything you’ve worked so hard to build,” says entrepreneur Syed Balkhi, co-founder of WPBeginner, OptinMonster and WPForms.

In his blog post for Entrepreneur, Balkhi cited a specific business that did just that, grew too fast. The company hired more employees and bought additional equipment before it had the revenue or startup capital they needed. And it went bankrupt in just a few years, he said.

Listen to Customers.

Use your current customers’ opinions to help guide your business expansion. Gather info about what you’re getting right, and where you can do better, whether that means ways to improve products or customer service. 

“You should be constantly inviting them to provide honest, even brutal feedback,” writes Jeff Charles, founder of Artisan Owl Media, in a blog post for Small Business Trends.

“Reviews and surveys are the best ways to get inside the mind of your customers,” he writes. “This makes it easier for you to develop products and services that are suitable to the current demands of the market.”

Find the right staff.

The “take it slow” rule applies here too. Whether you’re just starting with initial employees or adding to your staff as you work to expand your business, remember every new hire is critical to your growing successfully. 

“It’s important to take your time and find the right people for the job,” writes Balkhi in his post for Entrepreneur. “Do so and things will go swimmingly. Hire the wrong people, and all of your hard work will come crumbling down.”

In addition to identifying candidates with the skills and experience for the specific job, Balkhi says it’s important to check if they’re also a good fit for your small business culture, particularly one that is in growth mode. 

Remember your customers.

As you try to grow your business, don’t let that focus on getting new customers be at the cost of your current ones.

“Many small-business owners focus too much on getting new customers and not enough on keeping the ones they already have,” Balkhi says in the Entrepreneur post. 

Yet customer retention and customer loyalty are imperative to your business growth - so make those current customers feel valued.

“After all, customers who are happy with your business will be more likely to spend more money and recommend you to their family and friends,” writes Balkhi.  

Outsource to a larger company.

Consider becoming an outsourcing partner with a large company as part of your growth plan.

New departments are often set up at large companies for handling project-specific needs then dissolved, notes William Johnson, editor at Big Eye Deers, in a Small Business Trends post. So it can be a good opportunity for an outsourcing partnership.

He suggests small businesses find ways to set up what would be a temporary “cohabitation” with a big company as a way to grow their business. 

Don’t let fear hold you back.

A fear of failure or perceived risks can keep you from pursuing next steps and opportunities that could help you grow your business.

“When you let that go, you can see opportunities for what they are, and decide whether they’ll be valuable to your business or not,” writes Jessica Thiefels in a blog post for the business mentoring organization SCORE.