How Can I Grow My Business?

This is the real question for business owners.  And of course, the answer is ... it depends.  It depends on where you start from, it depends on what you want your business to become, and it depends on what you want your role in the business to be.

This is a very important point!  Some people want a business that is really just themselves.  They may hire a couple people to help do some of the labor – but they own all the decisions.  That is a completely different situation from a person who sees himself as an “investor”.  The investor is not interested in “being” the business.  That person is interested in “having” a business – to serve as many clients as possible in a specific niche – and make enough money from the business to live a comfortable lifestyle.  And then there are people anywhere in between those two.  The owner’s specific purpose for having a business establishes what mindset is important for them to get what they want.

I guide owners through a 6 Step process to help them build a business that can run without them having to be there.  Of course, that process can take a business to whichever goal you want up to that stage.  At the end of this article, I will share a link to a recording of a seminar that was done to outline the full path. 

Regardless of how far you want to take your business, there are 4 basic fundamentals that must be in place before sustainable growth can happen – whether your goal is to “be” the business or to build a significant business that is able to run without you there every day. 

• The 1st fundamental is a Vision for what the business will become.  Every decision and every action must be made with that Vision in mind.  Every employee must embrace that Vision – or they are the wrong employee. 
• Another key fundamental is that the owner needs to review and understand the financial statements – every month at least.   Business is about money – so the owner needs to know and understand the key numbers in the business.  The standard financial statements (P&L, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows) are a beginning.  Then, each different business will have its own unique numbers the owner will want to pay attention to in order to ensure they are making progress in the right areas.  Good examples include numbers of Leads (by category), Sales (by category), Production manhours (by category), Gross Profit (by category), and so on.
• Another fundamental is having good Processes, along with Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and Standards of Performance, documented for each function.  In the case of a 1-person business – they provide a great checklist reminder of how to get things done quickly.  As a business adds people, well-documented Processes provide a tool for training people how things need to be done, so that customers have a consistent set of experiences.  That helps establish a basis for referrals and repeat business, along with control of the Brand.  Keep in mind, your goal is to replace yourself in each task – how do you want those tasks performed if you are not the one doing them?
• And that leads to Time Mastery.  If Processes are well documented, schedules can be planned – and managed.  That can lead to maximizing productivity and optimizing utilization of all resources.  If you have checklists – you can manage the tasks much more effectively than without.

Once these aspects of your business are all managed, it is much easier to scale up – and sustain the growth.  This process involves a balance of Marketing, Sales, and Production.  It also requires managing a process of adding new personnel so that total capacity can increase in balance.  In ActionCOACH, we use a system called “The 5-Ways” to describe, and manage that process. 

Most of the businesses I have seen that got stuck in their growth did so because they did not do enough of the initial fundamentals.  For them, owning a business became very frustrating.  Often, they needed to go back and spend more time detailing out Processes and KPI’s so that they could retrain and manage their Teams.  They needed to learn to manage the Processes instead of making all the decisions.  (How easy does that sound?)

If you want to get more on this topic, here is a link to a video performed by the founder of ActionCOACH (Bradley Sugars) who describes an overview of this full 6 Step process:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X7GzQx9Xtq7dXdJ4m3zfofi0n3D0C-gJ/view?usp=share_link

Do you want to know your key focus area to help grow your business? Try our 3 min Assessment Quiz at https://stevechiama.nextlevelassessment.com/?source=LI_Event - 6Steps

If you think about professional athletes, most top performers have coaches.  They know what to do to be at the top of their game.  They have a coach to make sure they get it done.  Business ownership is the same as professional athletics.  Business coaches help business owners make sure they do what they need to do – so they get what they want to get.  At a profit to the business owner. 

If you would like to talk about your situation, hit the “SCHEDULE A CALL” button, and let’s talk about your specific case.