If you have been in business for any length of time (and even if you are just starting out) you know there is no simple singular ‘silver bullet’ method to grow your business. It is a combination of activities, consistency, momentum, intellect, time, economic factors, tenacity and many other things.
This blog post is specifically about ‘activities‘, particularly activities that will help your business grow… and grow more quickly (permitting you have the time to implement them WELL).
Side note: We do a lot more than just create websites and design graphics here at Green Valley Digital. Most of us have been working in business for over 20 years. We have also helped many, many businesses during that time. We have also started and grown our businesses. We’ve ‘learned by doing’, paid business coaches, done extensive studies, completed courses and have tried many, many things along the way, to figure out what works and what doesn’t. The information in this blog post series is not information written by ‘arm-chair experts’ who have never grown a business in their life, it is based on our own first-hand experiences and things we have proven to work.
1/ Re-visiting your Foundational Planning
If you have not already read our “How do I Start Growing My Business” blog article, I suggest reading it first before reading the rest of this article. Getting your foundations right is critical! Any and all businesses that have had success over the last 20+ years have done this fully and correctly. As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.
Writing down your plans may not be overly fun, but by doing so you are:
- Creating written documents that become your ‘growth roadmap’
- You are communicating your ‘intention’ (including your goals). You’re also getting it all out of your head
- You, your partner (if you have one), your marketing team, and anyone else you wish to show your foundational plans to can easily read them. This ensures you’re sharing this information, accurately, fully and easily. It also saves you time repeating yourself.
- You can review them at any time. This is massively useful for many reasons, including further cementing your attentions, reminding yourself of ALL of them (so you don’t forget any of them), keeping you on track to getting them done, etc.
2/ Find Great Mentors
Find people who have had business success. Reach out to them, and see if they would be interested in chatting with you. Then consider asking some of them if they would like to be your mentor. It is especially beneficial if you can find mentors who have had success in your specific industry. They will have gems of extremely useful recommendations for growth, if they’re willing to share them.
It’s documented that ‘we become most like those we spend our greater amount of time with’. If you’re not familiar with this, have a read of this article titled, “You’re The Average Of The Five People You Spend The Most Time With“. If you want success, surround yourself with successful people (who also share your values) and/or people who are 100% supportive, encouraging, etc. Note the part about: ‘values’. For me, success isn’t just about money. Far from it. Success for me is largely about being useful, helping others, doing my best, treating people well and helping (contributing to) my family. If you have never written your values down, it’s a worthwhile activity.
3/ Rome was not built in a Day
Remember the saying that “Rome was not built in a day”. It typically takes more time to grow a business and achieve your goals than you may have originally envisioned. The idea that you can achieve great business growth in 2 years may be achievable if you have a team, (who are the RIGHT team), and the financial capital backing to make it happen. If however, you are going it alone, or only have a small team (and/or don’t have a good team) and don’t have much financial backing, the growth is going to be much slower.
DON’T beat yourself up or give up too soon! I have seen some businesses give up within 2 years before they have given the business the chance to grow. Two years or even four years may not be long enough. Hang in there if you can! As long as you focus on the following areas, success will occur:
- Excellent foundations
- Excellent products and/or services
- Good people-skills
- Good sales skills
- Good branding
- A good website
- Excellent marketing (and advertising)
- Embrace internet/ digital marketing (and use it effectively)
- Are working on the growth of your business regularly (pushing it forward)
- Have a large enough market size (who wants what you sell and are willing to pay a fair price for it)
- Remain positive, have an excellent mindset and remain focused on your goals.
- Implement things described in this blog post series
- Budget
- Generate profiles and capital to pay for further growth
- Go above and beyond to learn all you can about how to achieve business success (and then implement everything you learn that is worth implementing)
- Monitor and measure your results.
- Critically analyze all aspects of your business regularly. Always look for ways to improve every aspect of your business. If you don’t like doing this yourself, find someone who can do this well… and make sure they are willing to ALWAYS give you the honest truth, not ‘tell you what they think you want to hear’.
- Pivot and tweak the business offerings as needed
- Stay open-minded. Embrace new opportunities
Unfortunately, growth doesn’t happen overnight. It takes regular consistent effort, hard work, patience and a LOT of dedication! There is no way around it.
I’ve heard many people say this over the years: “If owning a business was easy, everyone would be doing it!”
This is part 1 of a 3-part blog article series. Now that we have addressed/ discussed some of the fundamental basics, let’s delve into additional tips to grow your business more quickly. Read part 2 here.
Jay Daniells has been doing advanced Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) work for clients since 2010. He is an SEO specialist. He first started doing SEO work in 2005. He has also been creating websites full-time since 2003. Amongst things Jay is also a graphic designer, digital marketing consultant and creative person. His focus is helping businesses, community groups, clubs, charities, organisations and other entities achieve their goals. He is the owner of Green Valley Digital.