When you start a business, your ultimate goal is to build it into a thriving company that makes millions of dollars every year – right? But the key problem most entrepreneurs face is getting their business to generate the first $100,000. It is easy to start a business, but turning that business into a successful venture is another story. The reason most entrepreneurs fail to grow their business is that they do not understand that entrepreneurship is a process. A process is a series of actions that align together to produce an end result. As a business owner, your sole focus should be on perfecting the growth process. If not, your business will never be able to establish a strong foundation.
You will find that most entrepreneurs focus on maintaining, rather than growing. They want to make just enough to cover the operating costs and have a little money left to put into their personal bank account. This type of mind-set stifles growth because it makes you avoid taking risks and forgo taking on challenges that pull you out of your comfort zone. But the only way your business will grow is by you stretching yourself beyond the confines of mediocrity.
We have put together 4 steps that will help you scale your business and grow your venture beyond its current operations.
1) Make growth the goal
You would be surprised to learn how many people are just “okay” with having a business, even if that business is not considered successful. It is as if being called an “entrepreneur” is enough for them. For these individuals, there is no plan in place to build a business that works for them. If you constantly find yourself in a desperate search for new customers to make ends meet every month, your business is not set up for success. In this scenario, your business will fail sooner than later if you do not get your act together.
For some reason, a lot of entrepreneurs are afraid to grow. This is probably because growth requires you to be more aggressive in marketing and sales tactics. This means actively promoting your services to everyone you meet and raising your prices. These are two things most entrepreneurs shy away from because they don’t want to come off as pushy or greedy. But no one will know your business exists if you are not advertising it every chance you get. And you cannot pay your business expenses or living expenses if you are losing money operating your business.
You must create a plan of action that focuses on a strategy that promotes business growth. If you do not make the idea of growth an obsession, you will remain content with just getting by. This is why you must set weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. By doing this, it will help you remain persistent in taking your business to a new level. Once you make your first $100,000, you will want to make another $500,000, and then $1,000,000. You want to keep striving for the best. As such, you will never allow mediocrity to take root in your business. Because when this occurs, you are only one step away from failure.
2) Build a team around you
Entrepreneurs tend to stall their business’s growth because they try to do everything on their own. When you attempt to do this, the only things you accomplish are stressing yourself out and hurting your business’s potential to succeed. Think about everything that goes into operating a business. These activities include marketing, sales, customer relationships, administration, finances, etc. There is no way you can possibly manage all of these activities and build your business at the same time. It is impossible to do.
In order for your business to scale at a fast pace, you need a team around you. The team should comprise of individuals with specific skill sets that are different from your own. This is crucial because it allows everyone to only focus on what they do best. Think of some of the best sports teams. Each member of the team knows how to play their role well and does not overstep their boundaries. Each member aligns their performance with everyone else’s on the team to ensure the overall goal is accomplished: Winning!
If you know that you perform best in sales, then you should only spend your time on sales-related activities. You would then hire a marketer to generate leads and schedule appointments, allowing you to build your team as your business grows. Instead of being stuck with a business that can barely make six figures a year, the aforementioned alternative is a much better way of building a valuable business in two years or less.
3) Be open to collaborations
Even though the world of entrepreneurship is a competitive one, this does not mean you cannot form strategic partnerships that help you enter new markets and gain more reach. Every business is not in direct competition with you. In fact, there are businesses out there that complement your services. Thus, forming alliances with these businesses will increase your customer pool, widen your network, and better position your products and services. Having another business vouch for you is a solid confirmation that your business is legitimate. Additionally, it is an open secret that referrals are a great way to gain customers quickly.
Let’s give an example. Say you have a marketing agency that focuses primarily on email marketing. In this case, you would want to partner with an SEO agency, a PR firm, and a graphic designer. These types of businesses definitely understand the importance of having a strong online presence; this means building a strong email list and sending out cold emails to prospective clients. As such, they would recommend their clients to you if they want email marketing done the right way, and vice versa. You each help the other grow, and everyone is happy. Start building relationships with other business owners because you never know who they know. After all, they could have a client come to you ready to spend $10,000 or more per month! Do not miss these opportunities by being anti-social.
4) Identify your strengths
Successful businesses are those that identify their strengths and put all their time and effort into making those strengths near perfect. So many businesses offer tons of services and believe that doing so will help them capture more clients. But the complete opposite occurs. When you try to be everything to everybody, your focus is fragmented and customers are not sure of what it is you do. So, instead of being known as the leader of executive coaching, you are now identified as the coach who coaches everybody. This will not play in your favour if your goal is to attract wealthy clients. These individuals will think that you cannot help them because you do not understand their world.
Therefore, carve out your niche and market only to your niche. When providing a high-end service, you do not need to have 100 clients to build a million-dollar business; 10-20 solid clients will take care of that. Therefore, stop trying to offer 10 different services and just focus on three or four of them. You will help your business scale faster and become more profitable.
The ultimate goal for all entrepreneurs should be to build a business that works for them. If you are not operating a business that does this, you need to start creating a plan that allows this type of growth to occur. On that note, ask yourself the following: Do you really want to continue operating a business that seems more like a job, or do you want to create a company to help you achieve freedom?
You have to take risks. Do not shy away from challenges that can take your business to the next level. It will be hard work, but you should already know the world of entrepreneurship is not an easy path to pursue. Business owners who succeed are the ones who put in a continuous effort and not just work the standard hours.
You have to be completely committed to your business if you want it to grow and be successful. Start on your growth strategy now, and put it into motion so that you can start seeing results in the next six months to a year.
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