A thriving business needs to grow or it stagnates and may even fail. But what does it mean to grow a healthy business?
First, understand that growing revenues is a necessary but not sufficient aspect of growth. Thinking of growth exclusively in terms of revenue is like dumping fertilizer on a garden without watering or weeding it. Inevitably, the crop dies.
Second, growth is iterative. The process is repeated over and over again. In this sense there is no first or last step. Still, you can posit a starting point, a platform from which you begin and to which you return to measure your progress, assess your direction, and refine your vision.
One way to posit a meaningful starting point in small
business building is to assess current reality and how it differs from what you intend to create. What are you experiencing now? What is working? Where are you dissatisfied? Look at both external, measurable factors such as sales, prospects, productivity, and experiential and qualitative factors such as engagement, enthusiasm, creativity.
Examine your motives for wanting new growth. Are you dissatisfied with current reality? Do you sense that something new wants to come into being? Are you feeling impelled by a creative drive? By boredom? Fear? Competition? Envy? List your motives without censoring them so that you can understand what is really true for you. Every motive is an expression of a sort of worldview. If you repress or misstate your motives, you are the prisoner of their worldview and unable to examine the underlying beliefs.
With your motives clearly in mind, take a look at how you are doing now. Measure how many clients you have, how much income you are earning, how much time you are spending delivering services, marketing, and administering your business. Review feedback from clients and look at what others in your field are doing that you admire. Talk to your employees, or rather, listen to them. What is the turnover rate? How happy are they? How engaged?
Look at how much you enjoying your work. What aspects of it bring the most joy? What sorts of clients or customers seem to benefit most from what you do and who you are? Where is your niche market - the sweet spot where you add the most value with the least struggle? What are the key intangible sources of energy and inspiration? Again, ask your employees the same questions.
As you gather the qualitative and quantitative data about your business, reflect on the circumstances and choices that shaped these results. What were your goals six months or a year ago? What personal and professional factors have been at play since your last business assessment? What forces in the marketplace affected your decisions and your results? What were your aspirations and assumptions? Notice how current reality correlates with thinking, beliefs, practices, and intentions that were in place three, six, or nine months ago.
Does this sound like a lot of work? It is, and it will repay your attention by revealing new possibilities for intention and action and by showing you where you can let go of outmoded policies, procedures, and attitudes. By regularly reviewing what you have and what you want, you generate a healthy structural tension -- a tension that can impel you to grow your business in a holistic, grounded, and integrated way.
* * *
Use Molly Gordon's Small Business Marketing Resource to cast a fresh eye on your business practices -- niche marketing, self promotion, marketing plan components and pricing strategies, and read her articles on work life balance to find ways to become more vibrant, more authentic, more engaged in your life as well as your work, effortlessly attracting business.
What does it mean to grow a healthy business? - To learn more about this author, visit Molly Gordon's Website.
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Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors |
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Leanne Hoagland Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales success or one of the many who have failed to change? So what are you doing to change those results? Let’s be honest, with companies moving globally and at lightening speeds, the traditional business solutions are outdated and dead. My approach moves your business out of its comfort zone and secures your competitive advantage now. If you are seeking to increase sales, build customer loyalty, create a culture of great attitudes or just achieve some sleep filled nights, then we should talk because my clients have experienced exactly those types of results. Learn more about customer loyalty at http://www.processspecialist.com/customer-loyalty.htm Give me a call at 219.759.5601 for a free strategy session. P.S. If you are seeking a motivational speaker, sales trainer or small business expert that will leave your audience smiling and remembering, please feel free to contact me at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland Smith's Website |
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Molly Gordon
(Visit Molly's Website)
Molly Gordon, MCC, is a leading figure in
busin
ess coaching and person
al growth coaching, writer, workshop
leader, frequent presenter at live and
virtual events worldwide, and an
acknowledged expert on niche
marketing. Visit her website to find
valuable tips on self
promotion and developing a
small business marketing plan, and
join 12,000 readers of her Authentic
Promotion® ezine, an invaluable small business marketing resource,
helping you grow your strong business
while you feed your soul.
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