Business Growth Fundamentals – The Top 10 Priorities For Growing Successful Businesses

Statistic doesn’t lie. Numbers don’t stack in your favour when you are commencing a business venture on your own. There are numerous researches that prove my point, where 80 % of business fail within a 5 year period from inception. Harsh reality for some who ignore basic principles and massive opportunities for those that do it right way from the start.

Being overly critical and somewhat pessimistic certainly doesn’t pay in the long run but you need to know these numbers and do whatever is necessary to avoid the path. You see I am firm believer in great starts because I am yet to see a business that started poorly and ended, for the right reasons, spectacular.

You see all that momentum builds with early wins, no matter how small they may be. Positive expectations accompanied with right initial moves will make your journey enjoyable. With every positive encouragement and acknowledgement you not only build mental muscles, you build mental resistance to future difficulties and obstacles that you will almost certainly experience.

Many of my clients are small business people, just like you. We help them grow and design their businesses by optimising operations and providing guidance. We face their problems, issues and dilemmas often. We study good practices and define great performances. We measure and align so that our vision guides us.

We came to these 10 business principles that define great businesses and entrepreneurs that run them. List is not excessive, common wisdom that is not so commonly applied if you consider statistics above. You and I we both know this, but what stops us from getting it to the root of our problems is daily dose of urgencies, false priorities and trivial things. So, now, take your time and read these few lines and above everything else compare where you and your business are on or off desired course. How do your business, people and practices compare to the list bellow?

Our list goes as follows:

1 – Know what you want.

Most people that are successful in their endeavours know what they want. Vision guides & reminds them to perform consistently. Clarity of thought is precious to the commitment of any sort. And to persist in your efforts you absolutely must know what it is that you want.

2 – Have realistically unreasonable expectations

Hey, life is too serious to be taken seriously. You must dream with passion. Your life, business, career or whatever you dream about, will shrink or expand with your dreams. Recognise the need for your inputs. Recognise necessities not yet fulfilled. You matter and you can make a difference. What you will become depends on you. Don’t let negative thoughts and small people to prevail. I purposefully used term realistically unreasonable to stretch you thinking into a new dimension. You see what is possible for you won’t be given without the efforts from your side; you must deserve it and want it stronger than what is normally expected. You are the best one to decide what it will be.

 

3 – Know your strengths and limitations.

Get real. Be critical. Earlier you find your purpose, natural talents and your passion for what you intend to do, faster and more strategic you become. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself. Find your unique points of difference, your strengths and inborn talents. You are most likely to get results you want if you utilise everything you already have. By all means expand. Be an early adopter. Follow the relevant trends, learn and grow daily. Success is built on strengths and there is no difference with personal leadership, great businesses and superior performances. The idea is that you find what you are good at, what you love and then work on it till you develop some form of competitive advantage. You can’t be good at everything but you can be great at something. Be informed and stay relevant in your desired area of expertise and influence.

You should learn something about everything and everything about something.

Weaknesses serve you by pointing out your limitations and you must address them or potential risks may be way too large to comprehend.

My point here is that you absolutely must utilise everything you’ve got in the form of strengths, experiences, knowledge and passion to maximise your opportunities. Then you make weaknesses and threats irrelevant. And because threats come from the lack of awareness and to some degree higher ignorance, when you limit exposure to what you yet don’t know, your chances to get better results improve vastly.

4 – Define business growth objectives with precision.

I am firm believer that you must have goals. There must be some validation points where we measure how well plans and goals get executed. Define priorities based on your vision. Define next steps and work relentlessly on achieving them. Limit your exposure to objectives and goals that matter and that will get you closer to your ideal vision. This may sound strange but most SMEs don’t have clearly defined goals to work on. And what is even more dangerous they don’t know what they want or why they want it.

Uncertainty and poor definition is their number one obstacle but they do so little to address it. You must break this pattern and create clearly defined objectives, measurements and goals. Goals can keep you focused on where you want to go and how you need to get there. Define what would be desired progress towards your vision and specify measurable goals that can give you indication how well you are executing strategies and how fast you travel towards the ideal future. What gets measured can and will be improved. What gets neglected will end up in tears.

5 – Fail fast, fail cheap.

Most big business gurus teach us not to quit. I will suggest the opposite and to some point prove them wrong. You don’t quit on your vision, but you must quit if something doesn’t work to your plans. If you give best and above ordinary efforts and things still turn to be a failure, you need not to continue. Instead pick yourself up, learn from what has happened, cure your ego and go on. You must test and abuse testing on a smaller scale.  You must implement and try. There are no guarantees ever that what works for me will work for you. Decision is ultimately yours.  Everybody that says opposite is probably wrong. Your vision will guide you, that is why you must have it, but you will more often than not quit unsatisfactory strategies, poor and ineffective tactics and bad practices.

6 – Define your business growth model.

Your business is a complex system, but it is simplicity and functionality that we are talking about.

Start on your core priorities. Design the model that you think will produce results. Let me tell you one thing that you already know but is crucially important to be left out.

Sales and everything about sales is your number one priority for business growth.

Your business future and probably your personal future depend on it. So, now act accordingly.

New customers and clients are lifeblood of your business. How well you define your sales and marketing systems will, in most cases, define your destiny. It really doesn’t matter if you have nice office, great procedures, efficient and modern equipment, great knowledge and 100 years of experience. Who cares?

The only thing that matter is the constant flow of new and repetitive businesses. When people buy, and they do that often you have something to work with. Something that can be improved and build upon, but if that flow is missing you have a problem.

There are 3 ways to grow revenues no matter what the industry you are in. First, increase the number of clients. Second, increase the value of transactions and third, increase frequency of purchase. Only 3, everything else are subsets and tactics.

These are general approaches and you need to find out what works best in your situation and for your particular business. There is no magic in it. In my opinion you need to start with what you have or with your current clients and customers and then explore other options available.

Build relationship with your customers. People buy from and do business with people they like and respect. Relationship controls everything. Establish yourself as an expert and someone they call or contact when problems and issues pop up.

6 – Develop systems and empower people to take ownership in business growth.

Make your people better, everyday. Better people run better businesses. They develop better systems that produce better results. Better thinking produces smarter decisions and reduces costly mistakes. Raise the bars, set standards and engage in open communications.

Process maps, mind-maps, flowcharts, instructional videos, action plans, check-lists, are some of the signs that there is a system in place for everything you do. And guess what, you do it once and then revisit periodically. Improve, seek for inputs, and ask for feedback.

Monitor and align. No one else will do it for you. You need to roll up your sleeves to get you closer to the ultimate freedom. If your goal is to have business that runs independently from you, you must replace yourself with the systems. Only then you can employ others to run it for you and only then you will feel safe in assigning responsibilities and controls that goes with it over to somebody else.

7 – Create encouraging & positive thinking environment in your business.

People need to be stimulated to bring their best thinking required for business growth. There must be a supportive environment that will enhance their best efforts.

Today, more than any-time before, creativity matters. Businesses that don’t innovate and create will disappear. Harsh reality for some, but new requirements for those that wish to thrive. Under no circumstances you must not stop to improve. Your future depends on it. Now act accordingly.

If you always do what you do in the same way, you will always get the same results. Competitors don’t sleep they are already doing what needs to be done. They are already bridging the gaps and making your stuff obsolete or second best. You can’t afford not to innovate and engage in creative thinking.

 

8 – Embrace the change.

As the famous Harvard professor John Kotter says

Lack of urgency or too much of complacency is one of the main reason for change not to be implemented.

Decide on what matters, set deadlines and explain why matter is urgent. Keep it challenging and provide support. Channelled higher sense of urgency creates miracles. To prove my point please revisit how much you accomplished in a week that lead to your last holiday or a longer break. You number one priority is to create a change culture in your business and have creative juices flowing consistently. Avoid hidden agendas and “undisscussables”.

9 – Focus on growth.

Successful people and companies that reinvent themselves, that keep focused on learning, progression and acquiring new skills, practices and improving them, always win. You probably heard one:

If all things equal knowledge wins, and if all things not equal knowledge again wins…

Have your plan to acquire knowledge always up to date. Be someone that improves core competencies daily.

10 – Know Your Priorities.

When you know your critical success factors and focus your resources meaningfully, it will be just a matter of time when your business takes off. Define what must happen for you so that vision gets closer to you. There is nothing new under the sun these days. Everything you are working on was probably already attempted by somebody else. Principles don’t change only the applications vary. What this boils down to is that your problems and issues are not as unique as you may think. There is solution to your priorities and it is your responsibility to find the right recipe for your situation. Borrow strengths from those that already done it.  Mirror successful people in your industry and improve on what was already proven. Don’t reinvent the wheels. Shorten the journey to business growth by playing to your strengths, thinking creatively and being strategic.