Growing Your Business
At the end of the day, what is every business trying to do? Grow. More customers, more sales, positive cash flow, larger deal sizes, higher volume, more billable hours, justification for higher prices, etc. Ask any hard-working entrepreneur what he or she is working on and you’re bound to hear a comment related to growth. Why? Because if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking. It’s why we are all in business – to build or create something bigger than ourselves.
The classic growth strategies include partnerships, market expansion, acquisition, product extension, and franchising. While these strategies are well known, how does an organization come to select one over the other as a means for growth? And once decided, how is the company run? Ultimately, I believe growth is determined by providing value to your customers, the people you hire, the processes they develop, and culture you choose to build.
So instead of thinking about the detailed strategies themselves, here are some practical considerations to keep in mind on your constant quest for growth…
Drive the organization with big vision. Growth requires thinking big, then executing like crazy. Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent persistence. But that 10 percent is critical, otherwise the 90 percent is lost, aimless, and unproductive. According to Alvin Toffler, “You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing the small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” Growth comes from pursuing a worthwhile plan with measurable rigor.
Account for big goals. Every organization sets goals, but sometimes they aren’t big, and sometimes they are not written down! A big vision is achieved through accomplishing big objectives and goals. That’s all execution really is – your organization’s ability to achieve goals. First, objectives and goals must be understood. Everyone needs to understand how they contribute to and impact the goals. Second, they must be measurable and actionable by having someone responsible and a due date. Review regularly and hold people accountable. Create a culture that people that people feel responsible for “not missing a due date here.” That’s all there is to it – it doesn’t have to be complicated, confusing or time consuming.
Celebrate wins along the way. Publicly share big accomplishments, milestone, project completion, revenue goals. This sharing drives growth in two ways: 1) It motivates the people driving those accomplishments to press on. 2) Success and profit sharing breeds confidence, fueling enthusiasm for further growth. Everyone wants to be appreciated and we often dwell on what we failed to achieve, instead of celebrating the small wins. Do something special for yourself and your team. After all, it’s the journey, not just the destination that matters. Enviable growth business happens when you create something with ‘a feeling that we’re in this together.’
